5 September 2011 Mainly on OS Explorer 172 Chiltern Hills East
Length: All day
This walk follows part of the Chess Valley Walk and is focused around the formerly vibrant watercress industry along this stretch of the River Chess and other water plants.
We parked on the north side of Chesham Bois Common SU964992. This is close to the well-vegetated pond which had water mint Mentha aquatica, common and lesser bulrush Typha latifolia & angustifolia, tall stems of common club-rush Schoenoplectus lacustris (sometimes confusingly referred to as bulrush), hemp agrimony Eupatorium cannabinum, purple loosestrife Lythrum salicaria, greater spearwort Ranunculus lingua, water-forgetmenot Myosotis scorpioides, fringed and white water-lilies Nymphoides peltata and Nymphaea alba, ivy-leaved and least duckweeds Lemna trisulca and minuta, water plantain Alisma plantago-aquatica, and what looked like water-primrose Ludwigia grandiflora. (After considerable rain the water-level was high and we would have needed waders to have approached this plant closely; water-primrose is an invasive alien aquatic.) The Chilterns generally, being on chalk, have relatively few wetlands, so that even common water-plants are infrequent in the region.
Chesham Bois Common Pond
Common Club-rush
From the pond we walked west along the road to where a footpath crossed. Here we turned right through another small section of the Common (which is mostly wooded) with plenty of invasive cherry-laurel Prunus laurocerasus, mostly young trees, but a few older sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus, ash Fraxinus excelsior, and oak Quercus robur. At a small lane two tracks continue through the housing, a footpath and a bridleway. We took the first which leads west of the other track. Large gardens running down to the path on the left still contain some large beech trees Fagus sylvatica surviving from former woodland. On the right eventually is woodland, part of the Chesham Bois Woodland complex of several separately-owned compartments, this part being secondary woodland. All the woodland is on clay-with-flints. There were parasol mushrooms Macrolepiota procera and common puffball Lycoperdon perlatum along here, and two jays called raucously before flying over.
Eventually the housing on the left ends and we entered Hodds Wood (Woodland Trust, open access), the only compartment classified as ancient. It was once owned by the DuBois family who received the woods and the manor in the 13th century from the Bishop of Bayeux. The ground-layer is sparse but includes woodruff Galium odoratum and yellow archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon, wood melick Melica uniflora and wood millet Milium effusum.
Hodds Wood
The trees are again mainly beech, but there is also an under-storey of holly Ilex aquifolium, gooseberry Ribes uva-crispa and English elm Ulmus procera and a few trees of ash and wild cherry Prunus avium. Common early autumn fungi were beginning to appear, including red-crack bolete Boletus chrysenteron, stump puffball Lycoperdon pyriforme, and lilac bonnet Mycena pura.
While the main footpath goes straight downhill diagonally through Hodds Wood, we took the small path off to the left, parallel to the fence separating off gardens along the south side of the wood. After about 90 metres there is a forked whitebeam Sorbus aria tree a few yards back on the right. Not only does this appear to be the only whitebeam in this wood, but it is also celebrated as Britain
The whitebeam tree in Hodds Wood (centre)
Close-up of trunk from first fork
Canopy of whitebeam (the leaves appear darker than the translucent beech leaves)
It is flourishing, however, and underneath there were plenty of fallen orange berries among the grey-backed leaves to help confirm that this is indeed a whitebeam (as the first leaves are so high as to be difficult to see) and that it is fruiting freely.
Fallen fruit and leaves under the whitebeam
Another indicator is the distinctive pale bark with small lenticels, unlike the long horizontal lines across cherry or the longitudinal pale streaks on hornbeam Carpinus betulus, both of which are frequent among the surrounding trees.
From here we carried on along this path until we came to a bank and ditch crossing, this marking the western edge of the wood. This can be followed downhill either along the bank or beside it, without much difficulty apart from having to push occasionally through a little holly. It is marked by a distinctive line of trees – cherry, hornbeam, a single oak and elm. Deciding the species of elm is always difficult. In this case it is described on the Woodland Trust website as the possibly native English elm Ulmus procera, although some of the leaves (and the paucity of lower branches) might correspond to Dutch elm U. x hollandica. A leaf to the right of the photo below is more of the rounded procera type, the others more like hollandica, but there is no access to higher boughs to obtain a more reliable sample of leaves.
Elm leaves
At about 50 metres down along this bank we came to a pair of standing elms, the largest 3m in girth, one of the rare survivors among mature elms these days that has not succumbed to Dutch elm disease.
The surviving large elm trees (centre)
The old boundary bank and ditch with base of largest elm
There are old stumps that may represent others that met their demise, but the species still survives as abundant suckers along here and throughout the wood. Mines in the elm leaves were those of the micro-moth Stigmella ulmivora. Near the elm tree is a small plaque dedicating this area of the wood to Bob Glenister 1929-1997. Bob was warden of the wood for the Woodland Trust and a member of the Chesham & District Natural History Society.
Where the bank meets a broad path we went right and soon regained the original footpath. This path leads down to the north-west corner, where it meets remnants of the boundary bank again. Here the path leaves the wood down large stone sills, where a plaque celebrates the martyr Thomas Harding, a Lollard who was sent to burn at the stake in 1532 for his religious convictions. (Although a spectator killed him with a blow on the head from a wooden stake before the flames caught him.) The Chesham-Amersham-Chalfont area was at that time a centre for Nonconformity. A primary school in Chesham is named after him.
We did not carry on along the footpath here, however, but took the wide path to the right (unmarked on the OS map) which leads along the north edge to a gate into the cemetery at the north-east corner. We went through here to the road below, turned left under the railway bridge and right along Bois Moor Lane, along which were hedgerow cranesbill Geranium pyrenaicum and, just before the bend, grey-bracted hawkweed Hieracium sublepistoides. At the bend itself a footpath descends to begin the Chess Valley Walk, which we now followed for the rest of the morning. While the river is interesting, the walk is often a considerable distance from it and one only occasionally gets access to the riverbank, so the botanical interest is very limited most of the way, largely through improved grassland and plantation-type woodlands. The reason for the paths being distant from the river is the wide flood-plain where regular inundation would frequently prevent passage.
After one field, from which the line of the river is visible only by the line of willows, the path leads along a lane right beside a section of the Chess. Here there was watercress Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum, lesser water-parsnip Berula erecta, chalkstream water-crowfoot Ranunculus penicillatus, gipsywort Lycopus europaeus, water mint and water-forgetmenot.
Lesser water-parsnip
Chalkstream water-crowfoot
Near the corner of a T-junction a large poplar stood by the river, its young shoot leaves conspicuously long. Looking up we could see the more usual triangular leaves, although still longer than most poplars. This was western balsam poplar Populus trichocarpa.
Leaf of western balsam poplar (underside)
Leaf of western balsam poplar (upperside)
Below the tree were the huge summer leaves of butterbur Petasites hybridus.
We turned left at the junction and went up the road past a waste disposal site and a sewage works to the path off right through the fields, by Blackwell Farm (a cluster of soapwort Saponaria officinalis here), to the corner of Frith Wood. Here we passed a grove of hornbeams Carpinus betulus and then a mixed plantation with a good deal of spurge-laurel Daphne laureola. The Chess Valley Walk was now approaching the little village of Latimer
Puddingstone
The trail eventually follows a lane down to Latimer church, away from the main village but close to the former manorial Latimer House. On the left-hand side of this lane are some fine old beeches, and at one point a large old oak on the right. After the church the trail leaves the road again to descend to the river, where the bank-side vegetation included, most of the way along, the invasive but colourful orange balsam Impatiens capensis.
Chess Valley near Latimer
The trail leaves the river-bank again to cross a road and continue some way above it again. In a hedge-bank above the path along here is a tomb which marks the underground vault containing the remains of Sir William Liberty, 1725-1777, who owned the estate in this area and preferred to be buried on family land. He was a brick-maker, a relative of the London Liberty family which founded the famous store. His mansion on the hill above the grave has now disappeared. The following boundary is marked by two large old ash-trees growing side by side.
As one approaches Chenies Bottom the trail descends to the river flood-plain and the streams on the right are full of watercress. Along the road past here, the third wetland meadow before the wood provides botanical relief from the previous pastures, containing large blue patches of devilsbit scabious Succisa pratensis, pink-purple common knapweed Centaurea nigra, white sprays of meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria, yellow flowers of common fleabane Pulicaria dysenterica, lesser spearwort Ranunuclus flammula and greater birdsfoot trefoil Lotus uliginosus, gipsywort, the grey leaves of marsh cudweed Gnaphalium uliginosum and a few pink stars of common centaury Centaurium erythraea.
Devilsbit scabious with knapweed
Meadowsweet
Greater birdsfoot trefoil
Common fleabane
The coppery-shining small shield-bugs Eysarcoris venustissimus, both adults and earlier instars, were crowded on their food-plant, hedge woundwort Stachys sylvatica.
Eysarcoris venustissimus
At the end of this field and below the wood is the entrance to Frogmore Meadow, a nature reserve of the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. This had similar flowers. Earlier in the year it would repay exploring for other plants like marsh valerian and sedges.
Shortly after the wood the path returns to the river itself, with causeways to help one across the water-meadows towards Valley Farm.
Oak at Valley Farm
The river, as is typical of chalk streams, has remarkably clear water with the river-bed readily visible.
River Chess opposite Mount Wood
At last we came across a surviving watercress farm, with its extensive beds, and we bought a large £1-50 bag of freshly-gathered fronds for our tea*. This is the last surviving watercress farm on the Chess, and indeed in the whole of the Chilterns. In Victorian times many farms here supplied large quantities of watercress to London
Watercress
Commercial watercress beds
The trail then reaches a road and turns right down a small lane to Sarratt Bottom and then follows close to the river once more.
River Chess water meadows, Sarratt Bottom
Here there is alder Alnus glutinosa, one old specimen having several tiers of alder bracket Inonotus radiatus. These are young specimens – they later turn almost black.
Bracket fungi on alder
There are also other mature trees along here, especially oak and ash.
Old oak and ash near Church End
We passed by the first footpath up the hill to Sarratt church and went on past some large ash and oak trees and flooded meadows to the next footpath on the left up a steep grassy slope with field mushroom Agaricus arvensis. At the top this path enters Church End, past Sarratt church, and led us to a good lunch spot at the Cock Inn, where we enjoyed friendly jovial service.
After lunch we crossed into the graveyard where mouse-ear hawkweed Pilosella officinarum was flowering, although there were no uncut areas. A mass of tall heather completely covering one grave turned out on inspection to be Cornish heath Erica vagans, the brown anthers protruding characteristically from the massed pink, and some white, flowers. There were numerous toadstools near a birch tree – brown birch bolete Leccinum scabrum, blusher Amanita rubescens, and the dark grey-brown slimy waxcap Hygrocybe irrigata. The Church of the Holy Cross has some structures dating back to the 12th century and was built on a Roman burial ground. Some puddingstone is incorporated in the base of its walls. It featured in the film “Four Weddings and a Funeral”.
From here we returned down the hill to the Chess Valley Walk. Returning west to where the first footpath to Sarratt church came off, you can leave the Walk again and cross the river by a footbridge, passing across the water-meadows and streams to a wood opposite. Here we took the right-hand, more northerly, path that leads to Chenies.
At Chenies we crossed the road and a small village green with a decorative village sign of the kind we have encountered most frequently in East Anglia
To the left an unsurfaced track leads past the school to both Chenies church and the manor house, sometimes open to the public. Both church and manor date back to at least the 12th century, although oldest current structures are 15th century. The church wall has an attractive chequered pattern, with much wall-rue Asplenium ruta-muraria and a cluster of trailing bellflower Campanula poscharskyana.
Other wall-denizens here are hart’s-tongue fern Phyllitis scolopendrium, pellitory-of-the-wall Parietaria judaica. To get around the manor at the end of this lane we had to turn right after the church, passing between brick walls of the church and the estate until we reached a dark beech-wood with no ground flora. Here we turned left and the path emerges into a bridleway proceeding due west once more. This bridleway continues for over 3km going almost due west and is easy to walk and follow. As it passes playing fields at Little Chalfont the boundary of West Wood displays an old embankment crowned by many large formerly laid trees. Like most Chiltern beech-woods on clay, the woods along this route are botanically poor.
Eventually the bridleway leaves the woods and runs past Raans Farm, and over a railway line. Just after this we turned right up Quill Hall Lane. This can be followed around the edge of Amersham past the eponymous farm to a bend where it turns westwards, becoming Chestnut Lane. This took us all the way back to Chesham Bois Common, where a track took us further west through the woodland and eventually led to a path going north into the open grassland part of the common and our starting-point.
* Recommended recipe ‘Lockett’s Savoury’
Lightly toast two slices of bread per person. Remove crusts. Lay generous portion of watercress on each. Then add a layer of fresh pear slices and finally cover with slivers of Stilton. Cook in moderate oven for about 5 minutes (until the cheese melts). Season generously with ground black pepper and eat immediately. Cider or port both go well with this.
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