THIS route must come close to the perfect walk.

It wends its way on well-maintained paths through superb woodland between two Chiltern villages. There is very little road walking except in the villages and there are many fine views of outstanding Chiltern scenery. This is a walk to take slowly and savour. It is a pleasure at any time of year but is especially recommended in the autumn when the colours are at their most glorious.

Fact File

Distance: 3 miles.

Map: OS Explorer 171 Chiltern Hills West.

Start:

Lane End village car park. Grid reference 807 918

How to get there: Lane End is on the B482 between Marlow and Stokenchurch. The free village car park is opposite the Village Hall in the centre of Lane End.

Refreshments:

Not so long ago there were 15 pubs in the parish of Lane End now there are only seven, of which three are in the centre of the village and conveniently positioned for this walk. The most aristocratic is the Clayton Arms (01494 881269), passed on the left soon after the start of the walk. It was built for Sir Robert Clayton in 1666 and finished in 1669, when Sir Robert was Lord Mayor of London. It was a coaching inn for many generations. The Yew Tree in Frieth(01494 882330) is well known for its excellent food and is conveniently positioned about half way round the route.

The Walk

1. Turn left out of the car park and walk through the village, passing a pond on the left. Turn right immediately after the Osborne Arms on a signed public footpath. When the path reaches a track, go straight across and follow the path down by a wall on the left, in front of a house and then on again, still with the wall on the left. Cross the entrance to the Conference Centre to reach a road.

A thriving Conference Centre now occupies Wycombe Court. It was once the home of Charles Forgett, a tea merchant who retired to Lane End after the Indian Mutiny, and in 1948 it housed some of the Wembley Olympic competitors for a short time. It has had a chequered history, including time as a girls' school, and a combination of deliberate demolition and fire in 1969 left little of the original building intact. It has since been largely rebuilt.

2. Turn left for about a quarter of a mile.

3. Turn left on the second of two tracks. which heads off at an angle of 45o to the road. Follow this across the common and continue past Diamond Cottages and a house called King's Corner.

4. Continue ahead with a wall on the left. At the end of the wall turn right. Stay on the main path through the woods, which is intermittently marked by white arrows on trees, crossing a track and ignore all side paths to both right and left.

This wood is Moorend Common and it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Old photographs show that it was far less wooded in the past; trees have grown in relatively recent times because changes in farming mean that it is no longer used for grazing. It has been made a SSSI because it is an area of acid clay on top of the Chiltern chalk. This difference in the soil means that the plants that grow here are unusual for this part of the country and there are some rarities.

5. After about half a mile the path crosses a small stream. Shortly after that bear right at a fork to follow the path along the left hand side of an open area to a track which soon emerges on a road.

6. Almost directly opposite, a few yards to the left, take a signed public footpath. Cross a stile by a gate. After 15 yards bear left off the track on a minor path to shortly join a track coming in from the right. Follow the track ahead. Watch for a stile on the right. Do not cross this stile but leave the main track and walk next to a fence on the right for 150 yards to a second stile. Go over this, leaving the wood, and continue in the same direction across a field with a hedge soon starting on the right. Walk beside the hedge for 130 yards.

7. Turn right over a stile on the right and then immediately cross a second stile to follow a fenced path to Frieth. Cross a road and continue ahead . At the end of the hedged path cross a stile ahead and continue along the left-hand side of a field to another stile. This gives onto a path between a fence and a hedge that leads to a lane.

Frieth is a relatively modern village compared to others in this area but is nonetheless very attractive. The church was built in 1848 as a chapel of ease to the parish church at Hambleden, which was too far away for the growing village. The village was the home of the firm of Collins and West who were famous for their church furniture, which they exported around the world.

8. Turn right. When the lane bends sharply right, turn left along a track signed public footpath. When the track turns left, continue in the same direction along a path leading into a wood. Follow the path for about 200 yards.

9. Just before the path turns sharp left turn right through a metal gate into a field and follow the indistinct path across the field to a gate. Go through the gate and down the steps onto a lane. The path continues on the other side of the lane, through a narrow belt of trees, to a stile.

10. Cross the stile and continue in the same direction across the field. Bear right to follow the path up the left-hand side of the field with a wood on the left. Cross the stile on the left at the end of the wood and continue in the same direction now up the right hand side of a field. At a cross fence turn left for about 100 yards to a stile in the fence on the right. Go over this and follow the path along the left-hand side of a field to yet a further stile into a wood.

11. Over the stile continue ahead for 10 yards then turn right on a path initially just inside the wood. After about 100 yards bear left to a track. Turn right. The track forks after about 20 yards. Take the footpath left, not the bridleway right, and follow it as it climbs through the wood to meet a crossing track.

12. Turn left and follow this just inside the wood, over a metal bridge and on to a stile and ahead a few yards to a crossing track.

The Meakes family has had a business at the Forge Works for over 200 years. Not too many years ago, horse-shoeing was the main activity (2s 6d a shoe in 1944) but now it is a busy foundry with massive mobile cranes or "iron fairies". One of these is used each Christmas to hoist the arresting "Meakes Star" which is visible for many miles around.

13. Turn left to walk in front of Meakes then turn left on a track through a belt of trees to the churchyard. Cross the churchyard passing the church on your right. Continue in the same direction and up a track to a road. Cross the road to the car park where this walk started.

Written by Jean Patefield

February 14, 2002 13:38