2 May 2011 OS Explorer 172/181 Chiltern Hills
Length: All day
Length: All day
The whole of this walk can be followed on the Walkers’ & Riders’ Map: Prestwood & Kingshill Area of the Chilterns, New Edition 2011, published by the Prestwood Society and available from various local outlets such as The Polecat, Peterley Manor Farm Shop, PEM Newsagents, Prestwood Post Office and Great Missenden Station (£2).
The walk concentrates on mid-Chilterns plateau bluebell woods and chalk grasslands.
We started at the south end of Green Lane, Prestwood SP879003. In the hedge along the lane is goldilocks buttercup Ranunculus auricomus. The hedge also contains much hornbeam Carpinus betulus, a traditional old hedging plant in this area, and there are a few old pedunculate oaks Quercus robur of over 200 years and a cherry Prunus avium of about 100 years, perhaps a survival from the orchards here before the housing (a side road is called Cherry Close).
Old cherry tree on Green Lane
Bluebells under the hedge include native Hyacinthoides non-scripta and, with the close proximity of gardens, the Spanish bluebell H. hispanica. Opposite New Road is a bridleway via Andlows Farm, which is the route we took. At this junction, on the left, is a garden hedge with part on top shaped as a snail, complete with antennae, a neat piece of work which pleased members of the Conchological Society when they passed here on one of their field-trips.
Along Andlows Track there were common dog-violets Viola riviniana on the bank. Opposite the farm there are some good examples of local Puddingstone and Denner Hill stone in the hedge, which were formed naturally as concretions in the Pleistocene clays and often turned up in this area in the process of cultivating land.
Large Denner Hill Stone, Denner Hill, late 19th C
This hedge again has plenty of hornbeam, although just past the farm the hedge on the left had been largely destroyed and has now been replanted as a mixed hedge, including plenty of spindle Euonymus europaeus. Further on there is a plantation on the left, but the right-hand hedge has many old hazels Corylus avellana and hornbeams on the hedgebank that had been laid or coppiced long ago. The vegetation beneath them is largely native bluebell, greater stitchwort Stellaria holostea and cow parsley Anthriscus sylvestris. We passed a vigorous plant of Aquilegia vulgaris, presumably a recent garden escape, as it has not been recorded as a native in the old woods around here.
A post on which there is a National Cycle Network sign marks the entry into Angling Spring Wood on the left, ancient woodland on both sides of a valley once noted for its springs. There is still a permanent spring at the lower end. (But no fish – ‘Angling’ is a corruption of Andlows!) The wood belongs to Chiltern District Council, but the local conservation group Prestwood Nature is very active with regular work-parties and continual monitoring. Under a plan recently agreed with the Forestry Commission larch plantations that had replaced half of the original woodland over the last 20 years are being removed to allow native trees to take over once more. The wood is noted for its autumn fungi, molluscs (including the ancient woodland indicators ash-black and slender slugs) and insects, including butterflies such as silver-washed fritillary, hairstreaks and purple emperor. The Forestry Commission has set up an Audio Trail (which can be downloaded to I-pods), the various stations marked by a dozen posts carved by local woodworker Malcolm Hildreth.
Bridleway along south edge of Angling Spring Wood
"Green Man" carving by Malcolm Hildreth
We turned left to descend into the wood along a small path. Some good-sized beech Fagus sylvatica and oak are immediately apparent, but the wood is generally beech or beech-hornbeam, partly on clay and partly on chalk, with a good number of wild cherry Prunus avium. It is also evident that there is a great amount of holly Ilex aquifolium, natural to these woods, with their very limited ground flora. In recent decades the holly has begun to spread to the extent of becoming a conservation problem and it is gradually being removed in places. This year there seemed to be much more flower on woodland hollies than usual – they do not usually fruit in the shade. We noted the reddish blotches caused by the holly leaf miner, the little fly Phytomyza ilicis. These seem to affect every bush, almost every leaf. When we looked at dead brown holly leaves underneath the bushes we found holly speckle, a sprinkling of small black spots that are the spore-bearing bodies of the micro-fungus Trochila ilicina.
Angling Spring Wood
The path turns to the left beside a large old chalk-pit and descends to the central ride along the valley. We turned right to continue downwards past patches of yellow archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon and bluebells on the bank to the left. With the end of the ride in sight there is a small path leading up the other side of the wood to the top through a few patches of dog’s mercury Mercurialis perennis and a thick undergrowth of self-sown ash saplings Fraxinus excelsior. At the top of the slope we entered an unspoiled section of beech-hornbeam woodland with little ground cover where the undisturbed soil produces good crops of fungi in the autumn (the food of the slender slug). The hornbeam trunks are distinctive with their vertical streaking. A larger track crosses and by taking this to the left we eventually came to a path on the right to the main road A4128.
Angling Spring Wood
Opposite walked up Upper Hollis . Immediately on the left is a wide roadside verge which has been planted to wildflowers by a local resident, including a good display of fritillary Fritillaria meleagris, although the flowers were over at this date. The road passes through upmarket modern houses to a footpath where the road bends sharply to the left, although the signpost can be obscured by the hedge. The path follows the eastern edge of two meadows with lady’s-smock Cardamine pratensis, meadow buttercup Ranunculus acris and bulbous buttercup R. bulbosus.
Coneybank Wood from across Rignall Road
At the bottom it reaches Rignall Road, where the stile stands beside a tight clump of “marker” trees, an old hawthorn Crataegus monogyna and two ash trunks, as often found at old field boundary junctions. We continued along the path opposite through cow pasture which has several disjointed fragments of old hedgerow partially grubbed out. Two old oaks, once hedgerow trees, now stand alone. The first had a girth of 437cm, indicating a considerable age, while the second was 345cm.
The old oak
The path leads to a railway bridge, where we took another path to the left to a stile and then followed the path uphill across ploughed land, currently planted with wheat.
Path to Coneybank Wood
A gate at the end brought us into “access land”, intended to be recovering chalk grassland, although there is no botanical evidence of much change yet from the previous “improved” state. The path followed the edge of a wood on our left, past two gates, until it entered Coneybank Wood at a third gate. This wood had an impressive display of bluebells with dog’s mercury under beech.
Bluebells in Coneybank Wood
Other plants here by the path are yellow archangel and black-currant Ribes nigrum, while speckled wood butterflies fly through the chequered shade and light of the new beech-leaves.
Bluebells & yellow archangel in Coneybank Wood
Towards the end of the wood, which is closer to houses, there are patches of invasive garden yellow archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon ssp argentatum, with their silver-splashed leaves. Here we entered Mapridge Green Lane, an ancient green lane with banked hedgerows, currently threatened by a proposal from quad-bike riders to open it up to all traffic. We walked downhill to the left along the flint-strewn track, with old laid hornbeams a major part of the hedge on the right. After a house, the garden on the left is that of sculptor Mary Orrom, some of whose work is scattered among the scrub and just visible from the track.
Sculptures through the hedge
The lower part of the track is marked by a series of old horse chestnuts Aesculus hippocastanum in full flower. At one point there is a clump of leopardsbane Doronicum pardalianches, well established here, but originally a garden escape.
Horse chestnut flowers, Mapridge Green Lane
Leopardsbane, Mapridge Green Lane
The track led back into Rignall Road which, for lack of alternative footpaths, had to be walked westwards for nearly a kilometre. Care is needed from vehicles going unreasonably fast for a country road. There are some more large old oaks in the hedgerows, which again contain much hornbeam, and we saw red kite and buzzard overhead here, and sometimes kestrel. After Kings Lane on the right and a couple of tight bends we turned left up Hotley Bottom Lane, a narrower pot-holed road and fortunately much less frequently used by traffic. Just before this lane on the right hand side there is a large amount of hop Humulus lupulus scrambling over the hedge, a plant uncommon in this area. Hotley Bottom Lane is another ancient sunken lane with high banks, on the top of which is some moschatel Adoxa moschatellina.
Hotley Bottom Farm
When we reached the cottages at Hotley Bottom Farm, we took the right fork, Greenlands Lane. This is yet another old sunken lane, again with little traffic, and has a better preserved flora on the banks. This includes soft shield-fern Polystichum setiferum, ramsons Allium ursinum, sanicle Sanicula europaea, red currant Ribes rubrum, southern wood-rush Luzula forsteri, common and early dog-violets Viola riviniana and V. reichenbachiana, along with occasional specimens of their hybrid V. x bavarica, an assemblage which has better-preserved ancient woodland species than most of the nearby woods, not having suffered from continual bouts of tree-felling followed by neglect that characterise most Chiltern woods today.
Greenlands Lane
Soft shield fern, Greenlands Lane
Towards the top of the lane, on the left, are allotments, part of which has been turned over to Prestwood Nature to establish a community orchard (Kiln Common Orchard) and a demonstration wildlife garden, where we took a quick look, especially for the cherries. There are a number of endangered old varieties traditional to the area, which up until the 1960s had large expanses of orchards, including the particular local variety Prestwood Black, which is a “mazzard”, a type close to wild cherry, which shows a lot of local variation. The fruit are small and somewhat tart and were mainly used in cherry-pies. There are also old varieties of apple, pear and plum here, including Aylesbury Prune and the Bazeley apple from The Lee (“best of the Lee”). The grass is being left to develop into a flower meadow, which already includes lady’s-smock, cowslip Primula veris, bluebell, ramsons, wild daffodil Narcissus pseudonarcissus (planted) and betony Stachys officianalis.
Lady's smock, Kiln Common Orchard
Our path led beyond the orchard to the far corner of the allotments, where we entered Prestwood via John Hampden Way, Mandeville Roadand eventually Kiln Road. We turned right along Kiln Road and soon left along a cobbled path in front of a line of old flint-built cottages (Elizabeth Cottages), their gardens on the other side of the path, and then down The Glebe (noting spotted medick Medicago arabica on the verge) to the corner of Chequers Lane, where we turned right. The lane is named after the old Chequers pub, which is now a private house and is set back from the road on the right.
Former Chequers Pub
The pub is named after the fruit of the wild service tree Sorbus torminalis, which was used to make a liqueur and became associated with the traditional pub-sign of a chequers-board. At the bottom of the lane is the new Chequers Inn.
Pub sign at new Chequers PH
We turned right here up Honor End Lane on the way to find a surviving native wild service tree. On the way we passed the Sheepwash on the left, an ancient common pond beside the old drover’s road (now Honor End Lane) across the former Prestwood Common. This pond had silted up entirely until three years ago Prestwood Nature obtained a grant to restore it by digging it out to its full considerable depth and removing large shading sycamores, leaving a few mature oaks. The pond has been planted up with many aquatics, the marsh marigold Caltha palustris and naturally regenerating gorse Ulex europaea currently making a dazzling show of bright yellow.
Sheepwash
Just past the pond we turned left along Hangings Lane (named after former “hangers”, beechwoods on steep chalk slopes that once continued all along a dry valley to the west of here). A footpath goes off to the left and crosses a field (Haypole) that was once a good cowslip meadow, with betony and devilsbit scabious Succisa pratensis later in the year, but is now neglected and neither grazed nor cut for hay, although the flowers still survive in patches. This was the site of a brickworks that became defunct in the middle of the 19th century, when the brick maker moved to Kiln Common, between Kiln Road and Greenlands Lane, which we had just visited.
At the stile at the end of this field we noted a number of old hornbeam trees in the hedge. From here the path crosses two improved pastures beside a large old hedge. This hedge follows a former parish boundary and is double in places. About 20 metres before the next stile we spotted the distinctive leaves of a wild service tree emerging from saplings in the hedge, with a larger tree behind them. “Chequers” trees were always somewhat sparse, but nowadays they are particularly hard to track down. This one had rashes of pimples on some of its fresh hairy leaves, galls formed by the mite Eriophyes torminalis, a mite confined to this tree and therefore equally uncommon (although there is still some uncertainty about the classification of some of these mites). At the bottom of the hedge in the following field we also found the leaves of orpine Sedum telephium.
Wild service tree
Wild service leaves
Galls of Eriophyes torminalis
The path leads into Nanfan Wood (a Local Wildlife Site) and we carried on south following the edge of the wood, where there is plenty of light to show up the bluebells and woodruff Galium odoratum and attract a number of butterflies like orange-tip. There are also red currant Ribes rubrum, gooseberry R. uva-crispa (both of which appear to be native in the woods of this area), wood millet Milium effusum, and wood sedge Carex sylvatica. The wood-edge here is essentially a continuation of the above hedgerow, as the section of the wood on the right was ploughed land 200 years ago, although the west side of the wood has always been under trees, at one time part of the hangers mentioned above.
Woodruff, Nanfan Wood
Bluebells & Denner Hill stone, Nanfan Wood
Emerging from the wood on the left, we found ourselves at the bottom of Stonygreen Bank, another Local Wildlife Site, chalk grassland where sainfoin Onobrychis viciifolia, cowslip, bugle Ajuga reptans and tor-grass Brachypodium pinnatum were flowering. Butterflies and the day-flying moth burnet companion are often seen here.
Bugle, Stonygreen Bank
Comma, Stonygreen Bank
Our walk continued southwards down the lane past Stony Green Farm to Hampden Road. The flint-built garden wall on the corner has ivy-leaved toadflax Cymbalaria muralis and a little intermediate polypody Polypodium interjectum, which has been known here for at least 50 years. We walked beside this wall southwards down Hampden Road, again aware that traffic may travel at unreasonable speeds. In 300 metres we gratefully reached a footpath off to the left into a meadow with field woodrush Luzula campestris, whose alternative name of Good Friday Grass is a good reminder of when to find it at its freshest. At the top of the field there is a stile into Meadsgarden Wood. Immediately we passed an ancient hornbeam tree that is still flourishing despite its decrepit appearance. (Looking closely at the leaves we saw some showing little swellings along the midrib at the junctions of the veins, the galls of the mite Aceria tenellus.)
Old hornbeam, Meadsgarden Wood
This is a typical beech hanger with a bare understorey, and the path from here upwards must be one of the steepest in the Chilterns, a challenge even to the fit! It makes no concessions and goes straight up the forty-five degree slope. It follows a fence line between two separate ownerships, accompanied by a line of hornbeams. Roe Deer could be heard barking. Near the top the path veers to the right before exiting the wood by a pair of old cherry trees leaning out towards the light.
Top edge of Meadsgarden Wood
The cultivated land we now crossed (Warde's Field) had abundant field pansy Viola arvensis, many with blue colouring close to that of wild pansy, and parsley-piert Aphanes arvensis. A skylark was singing above this field.
Field pansy, Warde's Field
The path continues just inside the north boundary of Lawrence Grove Wood, where a few remaining old beech trees can be seen along the edge, although the ground flora has little of interest.
Lawrence Grove Wood
Out of the wood once more the path continues straight on along the edge of pasture land, with a Lucombe Oak Quercus x crenata in the hedgerow towards the bottom. This oak was planted about 1850 when various other trees such as sweet chestnut Castanea sativa and Turkey oak Quercus cerris were planted across the field to create parkland adjoining the then new vicarage and parish church of Prestwood Turkey
Lucombe Oak
The path continues between a hedge and the churchyard of Holy Trinity, which can be accessed on the right as a more attractive route than the dark path. We continued up to the church and around it. On the left side of the church an area of longer grass contains pignut Conopodium majus, lady’s smock, and sometimes common spotted orchid. Shorter grass areas are good for waxcaps and club-fungi in the autumn. The walls of the church have hartstongue fern Asplenium scolopendrium, wall-rue A. ruta-muraria and wall lettuce Mycelis muralis, the latter even high up on the bell tower.
Prestwood Parish Church
Leaving by the eastern lych-gate we reached Wycombe Road and turned left to The Polecat, where lunch and drink is available, and a welcome rest. (The name of this ancient inn does not refer to the animal, although this is shown on the sign, but to the original owners called Pollikett.)
The Polecat
We left via the footpath at the back of the pub which goes past a large blackthorn Prunus spinosa hedge and then through a gate into the Hockey Field, a chalk slope recovering from past improvement, with bulbous buttercup, field woodrush and hoary plantain Plantago media. There are good views ahead from here on the descent to Perks Lane.
Bulbous buttercups, Hockey Field
View west from Hockey Field
We turned right down the lane and at the bottom turned right again along Hampden Road. At the corner here an aspen Populus tremula was dropping its large fluffy white catkins littering the grass, while green alkanet Pentaglottis sempervirens added a touch of blue to the hedge bottom. We soon reached on the right, the entrance to Prestwood Picnic Site and Nature Reserve, run by Wycombe District Council. The steep chalk slope here has abundant cowslips (tens of thousands of plants), common milkwort Polygala vulgaris in various colours, and glaucous sedge Carex flacca, with a variety of chalk grassland flowers in the summer, finally including Chiltern gentians.
Cowslip, Prestwood Picnic Site
Common milkwort, Prestwood Picnic Site
Butterflies are also prolific here, including brown argus, green hairstreak and dingy skipper. It takes careful searching to find the emerging rosettes of common spotted Dactylorhiza fuchsii, bee orchids Ophrys apifera and twayblade Neottia ovata. There was also a group (120) of adderstongue fern Ophioglossum vulgatum at the top of the slope just beginning to “flower”. Some of the knapweed leaves were conspicuously pale spotted by the galls of the mite Aceria centaureae. This site is currently being restored by removal of an excess of Dogwood Cornus sanguinea.
Adderstongue, Prestwood Picnic Site
Prestwood Picnic Site
After exploring this site, we returned to the road and took the footpath almost opposite beside a ploughed field to the top of Denner Hill, which gave its name to the stone we saw at the beginning of the walk. The path leads into Dennerhill Lane at Newhouse Farm and can be followed west and north along the crest of the ridge. We noted hedgerow cranesbill Geranium pyrenaicum on the bank just after the farm. There are good views to the west to the next ridge covered by Piggott’s Wood. The paved private road becomes a dirt track again as we passed through Acrehill Wood, bordered by wood melick Melica uniflora. Outside the wood on the right a neglected field has become a thicket of self-sown ash seedlings. Further along the path is bordered on the left by a series of wych elms Ulmus glabra covered by large pale green seed clusters. The lane becomes surfaced again after Springfield Cottage and took us to Dennerhill Farm. Just past here, a short way down another track off to the right we saw an original old Prestwood Black cherry towering above the hedge in the garden of Rickyard Cottage
Backtracking a few steps we took the footpath on the west side between two fences down to the bottom of Denner Hill, emerging at the little community of Bryants Bottom. We turned left a few yards to the path up the next ridge and the ancient Piggott’s Wood. A track going left inside the wood took us the whole length. We noticed the bank and ditch on our right marking an earlier wood-edge or an ownership boundary within the wood. There are many of these criss-crossing the wood. Typical beechwood plants such as wood melick, wood millet, woodruff, dog’s mercury, wood-sorrel Oxalis acetosella, yellow archangel , wood sedge, wood spurge Euphorbia amygdaloides, enchanter’s nightshade Circaea lutetiana, gooseberry, three-nerved sandwort Moehringia trinervia, wood speedwell Veronica montana, and bluebell now and again interrupt the otherwise sparse ground cover. There are patches of pendulous sedge Carex pendula that may be native and the attractive lady fern Athyrium filix-femina, rare in this region. Yellow pimpernel Lysimachia nemorum is quite frequent by the path. We needed to search away from the path, however, to find the green hellebore that also grows here, and there are denser stands of bluebell at the top near the house called Piggotts. At the far end of the wood we turned sharp right. This path eventually led to an area where coralroot Cardamine bulbifera grows in several patches, particularly just after a round-shaped yew tree, although tending to be swamped these days by the nettles Urtica dioica. Wood meadow-grass Poa nemoralis also grows well here.
We returned down this path to the end of the wood and exited by the path across an area of grassland with good views forward towards Hatches Lane and Hughenden.
View towards Hughenden
View towards Hatches Lane (just visible in centre)
Entering the next ploughed field we took the path obliquely to the right which then crosses a meadow of more bulbous buttercup and follows a fenced track to the road. We crossed the road and climbed up Hatches Lane after noting on the wall of Lower Warren Farmhouse wall-rue, shining cranesbill Geranium lucidum, and navelwort Umbilicus rupestris. This is the only site in the region for the last, which grows almost entirely in the west of Britain
No comments:
Post a Comment