2 September 2011 OS Explorer 181 Chiltern Hills North
Length: All day
Most of the botanical interest in this walk is in the afternoon, crowned by the sight of one of Britain
We parked at the end of the Little Hampden Road, opposite what used to be the Rising Sun SP857040. A little way back down the road is a path on the right past some houses and into a large arable field. Here we turned left and followed the field hedge. House martins were gathering on telegraph wires as a sure sign of autumn. Further down the hill the path goes through to the other side of the hedge by another arable field which has more native annual cornfield plants such as common poppy Papaver rhoeas, dwarf spurge Euphorbia exigua, sharp-leaved and round-leaved fluellen Kickxia elatine and spuria, and small toadflax Chaenorhinum minus.
Poppies
Green-veined whites were flying early, just after 9am, as it was already promising to be a sunny day. At the bottom of the hill the path goes through a strip of woodland to Hampden Bottom Road, which we crossed to walk up Glade Road.
By a bend and road junction one can see The Glade itself, a long open avenue framed by trees leading to Hampden House. Here we were in the middle, able to look both ways. To the east we looked towards the old lodge where the avenue begins, and where the main flanking trees are large common limes Tilia x europaea and sweet chestnuts Castanea sativa, the oldest planted some 400 years ago. A footpath allows these to be visited if wished: there are certainly some impressive specimens, along with a large oak Quercus robur that is probably even older.
The Glade, looking east
To the west the view extends to the house itself. There is no track along here, only grassland, and the avenue may have been as much for the view from the house as for vehicular access.
The Glade, looking west
There are similar avenues extending star-like from the house, one of which we were shortly to walk along. The story goes that Queen Elizabeth I stayed at the house and complained that there was no view because of the woods, so that overnight, while she slept, an army of workmen felled trees along The Glade so that when she awoke she had an open view from her bedroom. This has perhaps too much of the Brothers Grimm about it, but the avenue certainly dates back to about that reign, when there was a general craze for creating such vistas around country mansions and for planting exotic trees.
Continuing up the road we passed Oaken Grove on our left. There are no old oaks left, having been replaced by beech Fagus sylvatica and fir plantations in the 19th and 20th centuries (and possibly earlier). A couple of men were collecting seeds from the abundant foxgloves Digitalis purpurea here, presumably for commercial sale. (The wood belongs to the Hampden Estate.) Some young oaks grow near the edge further up the hill, planted in the last 20 years or so, and many more can be seen from the path going back into the wood from the road-bend at the top, so it looks as though the Estate is attempting to return the wood to one of largely oak and so live up to its name after felling many of the beech and pine.
Young oak plantation, Oaken Grove
Beech logs, Oaken Grove
Some false deathcaps Amanita citrina were just emerging as a further sign of autumn, and a green-grey lichen Cladonia coniocraea on rotting logs was conspicuous with its tall fruiting stalks or “podetia”.
Lichen Cladonia coniocraea
A forestry track off on the right took us closer to the south edge and provided access to two ancient tumuli, about 4 metres high and 30 metres or so across, designated Ancient Monuments. They were built on top of, partially destroying the Iron Age Grim‘s Ditch. This still extends on either side of the tumuli along the edge of the wood, so they are presumably later in date. Various speculations are that they might be Norman fortifications or late medieval post-mills. The latter theory is supported by the fact that the first mound is hollowed out at the top and the second has a cross-cut, suggesting that there used to be machinery installed upon them. The first has a broad “causeway” providing access to the top from the west. A similar mound marked on the OS map immediately south of Hampden House is known to have been a post-mill. If they were windmills then this implies that Oaken Grove would not have existed at that stage, or would have ended further north, to provide open space around them.
Mound in Oaken Grove
We returned along the path to the road and followed it from the bend along what was the line of Grim’s Ditch, now of course obliterated by the road. The purpose of the Ditch, which extends for miles and must have been a mammoth undertaking (literally?), is thought to have been a tribal boundary marker, but the chieftains at this time must have been very powerful to have garnered such a workforce. The road continues along this line through a crossroads and then, as a private road with public footpath access, through a gate into the grounds of Hampden House itself. Along each side of the approach to the gate are series of stones made of local sarsen (Denner Hill stone) and puddingstone (see the walk for 2/5/11 for more on this local geology)
Puddingstone
After the gate and lodge the road is lined by an avenue of old sweet chestnuts, oak, common lime, ash Fraxinus excelsior, red-flowered horse-chestnut Aesculus carnea, and London planes Platanus x hispanica, the latter unusual as a rural planting.
Avenue
Old London plane
The road passes by the church of St Mary Magdalene
Bistort
Meadow Cranesbill
Hoary plantain (ribwort plantain behind)
Meadow browns were enjoying this late summer nectar-source. In the cut areas parrot waxcaps Hygrocybe psittacina were just emerging; later in the autumn this turf has a good variety of fungi.
Parrot waxcap
There is a large family grave occupied by descendants of the intermarried families of Douglas, Oliver and Ercolani, the latter associated with Ercol furniture formerly manufactured in High Wycombe (with beech supplied from around Hampden). By the west wall of the church is the Hampden family grave plot, which includes the famous John Hampden of Civil War and “ship money” fame, and his son Robert. Other interesting graves include one where the headstone is a simple granite boulder and another where it seems to show a man carrying a lamb, perhaps the grave of a shepherd.
Granite boulder headstone
Shepherd’s? headstone
Leaving the churchyard we continued west past later buildings used as offices (with a bed of round-leaved mint Mentha suaveolens and Jerusalem
Tachinid fly Echinomya fera on Round-leaved mint
The grounds of Hampden House include on the right a large cedar Cedrus libani . The garden also has a ha-ha along one edge.
Cedar, Hampden House
The architecture of the house itself is described as ‘Strawberry Hill Gothic’ after Walpole
Part of Hampden House
Past here there is an avenue of oaks, some with sticky knopper galls (made by the gall-wasp Andricus quercus-calicis).
Knopper galls forming on acorns
The road then becomes an un-surfaced track and for the first time we could see Grim’s Ditch on the right-hand side running through a belt of old beech with some oaks and the odd sweet chestnut. The main path here is a bridleway. It is better for walkers to follow an informal side-path which runs along the ditch itself. The ditch is still very marked but it must have been particularly impressive when first built, before the embankments had eroded and the ditch began to fill with soil.
Grim’s Ditch
Standing and fallen dead wood here makes a good habitat for invertebrates and fungi. Among the latter at this early date were common cavalier Melanoleuca polioleuca, tan ear Otidea alutacea, and southern bracket Ganoderma australe on the base of trunks, whose light cocoa-like brown spores float up and cover the fungi and their surrounds.
Where the ditch suddenly turns left in a right-angle we left it and followed the bridleway onwards through Kingsfield Wood, largely conifer plantations and then deciduous woodland with the typical grasses of Chiltern woods – wood melick Melica uniflora, wood millet Milium effusum and wood barley Hordelymus europaeus. More acidic clays, however, are dominated by tufted hair-grass Deschampsia cespitosa with its narrow dark saw-toothed leaves. There are a few patches of wood-sorrel Oxalis acetosella and yellow pimpernel Lysimachia nemorum, the latter’s bright yellow star flowers particularly welcome in drab autumn. Leaving the wood the bridleway follows between Sergeant’s Wood and an arable field, with frequent musk mallow Malva moschata and a Sherard’s downy rose Rosa sherardii, its red oval hips on glandular stalks still crowned by the brown remains of the sepals.
Sherard’s downy-rose
At Green Hailey Farm the path turns left to the road, where we turned right and just after a road junction entered Brush Hill Nature Reserve (Wycombe Council management) on the left where there was an information board and lots of invading small balsam Impatiens parviflora, which from the evidence of these walks we have taken this summer has become a seriously invasive species.
We took the path on our right, initially parallel with the road. It took us through the wood and into an area of grassland with meadow puffballs Vascellum pratense, and lots of late summer colour with abundant eyebrights Euphrasia nemorosa, dwarf thistle Cirsium acaule, harebell Campanula rotundifolia, small scabious Scabiosa columbaria, plus occasional musk thistle Carduus nutans and wild mignonette Reseda lutea, and the three knapweeds, common, greater Centaurea scabiosa and chalk C. debauxii.
Harebell
The flowers were attracting late butterflies like brimstone.
Brimstone on small scabious
At the north end of this grass slope a path (Ridgeway/Icknield Way) leaves the reserve and re-crosses the road to woodland with a chance of a good view of a nuthatch at the top of a tree making a persistent loud call, and past bitter poison-pie Hebeloma sinapizans toadstools emerging in the grassy edge. The wide path continues to Whiteleaf Hill and the chalk cross (described in our 1/7/11 walk), from which we turned right (still following the Ridgeway path) through Giles Wood and descended to The Plough at Cadsden.
View from Giles Wood
After lunch we left the pub north along the road for a very short distance before a path led off to the right through woods into the Grangelands reserve (BBOWT). Here we immediately saw a profusion of light blue harebells, as at Brush Hill, but it took us a little longer to focus on the even greater profusion of diminutive purple autumn gentians Gentianella amarella which dotted the turf throughout and were difficult to avoid trampling away from the main path. They were popular with the bees, who often led us to the open flowers.
Autumn gentians, Grangelands
With these, and sometimes confusable, were tiny clustered bellflowers Campanula glomerata, dwarfed in the grazed turf, and most quickly told from the gentians by the conspicuous white style.
Clustered bellflowers
There were also carline thistle Carlina vulgaris, small scabious, dwarf thistle, yellowwort Blackstonia perfoliata, common centaury Centaurium erythraea, rock-rose Helianthemum nummularium large thyme Thymus pulegioides, basil thyme Clinopodium acinos and squinancywort Asperula cynanchica. The eyebrights here included both the common and the larger-flowered chalk (Euphrasia pseudokerneri) species with hair-tips to the leaf-lobes.
Chalk eyebright
Many shells of Roman snails lay around.
On the far wide of this chalk slope we picked up the Ridgeway again across a footpath in a deep hollow way and around the western fringe of the Pulpit Hill woodlands (also BBOWT). There were still plenty of autumn gentians and there was the usual chalk scrub fringe of wayfaring tree Viburnum lantana, hawthorn Crataegus monogyna, dogwood Cornus sanguinea, privet Ligustrum vulgare, whitebeam Sorbus aria, whose fruits were now mostly red, and the odd juniper Juniperus communis.
Juniper
Whitebeam
Privet
We followed the Ridgeway trail right, up Cradle Footpath, but diverted on the left to climb first to the top of Chequers Knap with its wide view over Aylesbury Plain below the hills and down to the grassland of Chequers reserve (BBOWT).
Cradle Footpath
View from Chequers Knap
We continued on the Ridgeway across grassland and into a wood and then up another grassy slope to its crest, where we turned left along a more minor footpath. This follows the fence-line to the far corner of more grassland. On the slope to the left we found many more clustered bellflowers and rock-rose, among which were sprouting some brown birch bolete Leccinum scabrum, usually associated with birch (of which there was some not too far away at the wood-edge), but perhaps here linked to the rock-rose.
Brown birch bolete
The path goes through a kissing-gate and crosses a private track to continue through woodland. At this corner was a small group of box Buxus sempervirens, an outlier of the box-wood we were approaching. A sparrowhawk glided overhead. After the wood the path crosses more grassland before entering Ellesborough Warren, famous for its wood of dense old box-trees.
Edge of box wood
Old trunks in the dark interior
The only other shrub seeming able to compete here was elder Sambucus nigra.
Elder in the box wood
The path gives a good view of the box, which may be native here, although its lack of many associated species and restricted distribution perhaps argue for an early introduction in late medieval times when foreign shrubs and trees were often planted on manorial estates (here on the Chequers Estate). The age of some of the trees and coverage of a wide area show that it has at least been here a long time, and this is possibly the finest example of a box wood in Britain
Epiphytic moss on box twigs
The path continues from the valley of Ellesborough Warren up along the grass slope of Beacon Hill , again with much clustered bellflower, common eyebright and rock-rose. Descending north of the crest of the hill gives a good view to the right of the monument on Coombe Hill, our next destination. First of all we had to go down into the village of Ellesborough in order to walk a few yards to the right along the road to gain the footpath that would take us east on the other side of Beacon Hill.
Approaching Edlesborough
This footpath comes off opposite the church along a track, from which it diverges to the left after a while, through the hedge and across a very wide field of oil-seed rape stalks. At the road we turned right and then took a track to the left by Coombe Hill Farm. This goes straight up the steep slope of Coombe Hill, without interruption, hesitation or repetition, at about 45°, so steep that we often had to zigzag across the wide path in order to relieve the strain on our taut calf-muscles. At last we came to a small path leaves the woodland for an open slope where we could throw ourselves down and recuperate among the grassy anthills. It was still a steep climb up this slope, but at least we could take it easier looking at the flowers, mostly ones we had already seen today (rock-rose, harebell, eyebright, large thyme, dwarf thistle), but also plenty of devilsbit scabious Succisa pratensis.
At the top of this slope is a new enclosure where we found another botanist already searching the turf. We eventually found the one flowering plant of fringed gentian Gentianella ciliata that was on display today.
Fringed gentian
Fringed gentian
More than one fringed gentian is seldom seen and in many years, or on the wrong day, or when overcast conditions prevent the flowers opening so that they become effectively invisible, none are seen at all. We felt ourselves very lucky to have encountered one today and one, moreover, in very fine condition, its gentian-blue petals with their eponymous ragged fringes, a single flower to a single stem, was a sight to make us forget our creaking legs. We have often searched here but only seen it once before. In the last season the National Trust, which owns this land, have at last put a simple fence around to facilitate controlled grazing. Flowers occur in different places at different times, so that there may be dozens of plants, each flowering only occasionally. Perhaps more directed management will help them to flower more often – after all, more than one flower is needed for fertilisation and spread. This is the only site for fringed gentian in Britain
Eventually thirst began to reassert itself after our exertions in what was now a hot sunny afternoon and we walked on across the Ridgeway Path (which follows the crest of Coombe Hill) to the car park where there was a welcome ice-cream van and cold iced-lollies. We then returned to the Ridgeway and went south all the way through woodland to the centre of Goodmerhill Wood. Here the Ridgeway turns right to go down the hill and we went left along a footpath to the east side of the wood, past more yellow pimpernel. Where the path encountered a bridleway we turned right along another footpath going up a gentle slope towards Chisley Wood. This leads eventually into the Icknield Way and the start of Little Hampden Common. There are two routes south from here, one outside the wood and the other through it. We took the latter, past some old beeches, oaks and sycamores, many pollarded or coppiced from the time when this was open common-land with scattered trees.
Old pollards, Little Hampden Common
Old sycamore, Little Hampden Common
It is now much darker with dense young trees and it would be nice to see many of these removed to return to more open conditions. This path led directly to our parked car.
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