Buckinghamshire: Hughenden to Bradenham (Chiltern Woodlands)

19 April 2011                                       OS Explorer 181 Chiltern Hills North
Length: All day

This walk was timed for “Primrose Day”, when traditionally primroses Primula vulgaris were brought to Disraeli’s grave at Hughenden Church.  (It had been assumed that Disraeli liked primroses in view of Queen Victoria’s remark that Prince Albert had sent him primroses because they were his favourite, although it is now thought that she may have meant Prince Albert’s favourite!)  However, the walk particularly features coralroot Cardamine bulbifera, a plant that occurs only in a limited area of the Chilterns, but is abundant in certain places.

We parked by Hughenden Church SU865955 and went straight to Disraeli’s grave, surrounded by gaudy blue metal railings against the east wall of the flint-built church. 

Hughenden Church from the car park

Disraeli's grave

There were hardly any primroses in evidence, however, with just three small plants growing on the grave among many other garden flowers.  It was evident that the traditional celebration is no longer continued.  Beyond the grave in the cemetery, fenced in because it is sheep-grazed, there were also very few primroses apart from a few plants in the shade of the church wall. 

Sheep grazing Hughenden churchyard

Outside the fenced part, ground ivy Glechoma hederacea, lady’s smock (cuckooflower) Cardamine pratensis and Good Friday grass Luzula campestris (Good Friday was indeed approaching) dominated the flowering species in the grassland.

          We spent little time there and walked east down the road by which we had entered the Hughenden Estate (once Disraeli’s home but now National Trust), past a large old sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus and a scene of extensive parkland beyond an old horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum. 

Hughenden Park

Hughenden stream

A small bridge over the Hughenden stream led to the busy A4128, which we crossed using the central refuge, to get to the footpath which rises up the other side of the valley along a south-facing hedgerow with flowering blackthorn.  7-spot and 14-spot ladybirds were conspicuous in the vegetation of greater stitchwort Stellaria holostea, white dead-nettle Lamium album, wood melick Melica uniflora and ground ivy.  This path leads up to Millfield Wood, a BBOWT reserve, with an information board at the entrance path off to the right.  The board features coralroot as an important plant in the reserve. 

Coralroot, Millfield Wood

The path follows the western edge of the wood beside a banked boundary with old laid beech trees Fagus sylvatica.  There were a few primroses among the dog’s mercury Mercurialis perennis and wood spurge Euphorbia amygdaloides, but the wood anemones Anemone nemorosa were over and the woodruff Galium odoratum, yellow archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon and sanicle Sanicula europaea were only just coming into flower.  We soon reached a stile down a slope to the right that allows access into a chalk grassland bank. 

Primroses, Millfield Wood

Over this stile, but still in the shade of the wood and scrub, there were several plants of coralroot among primroses and dog’s mercury.  Only two were flowering with a little cluster of pink crucifer flowers at the top of a dark reddish stem and conspicuous purple bulbils at the base of the each stem-leaf – a more important means of propagation than seed.  In fact the majority of plants here seemed to have bulbils only and were more difficult to spot.

Cowslips, Millfield Wood

Glaucous sedge, Millfield Wood

Out on the sunnier slope were plenty of cowslips Primula veris, glaucous sedge Carex flacca, common dog-violets Viola riviniana and dogwood Cornus sanguinea scrub, while a buzzard soared overhead, but we soon returned to the wood and continued the same path until it divided, where there was a much larger colony of coralroot, many more flowering, in a more typical wooded habitat.  We then returned along the path and back down the hedgerow to a point half-way down where a footpath goes through it northwards along the edge of a ploughed field, showing distinct white patches of chalk and abundant flints. 

Chalky field & Hughenden Church beyond

The hedgerow included many flowering apple trees (Malus domesticus), with prominent large flowers, and wych elm Ulmus glabra in seed. 

Apple flowers in hedge

Elm in fruit

There were views of Hughenden Valley housing to the left.  March-flies were very active.  A right-angle right turn was followed by a left along another hedgerow which showed signs of old coppicing, including more apples.  The path now becomes part of an ancient way between two hedgerows and then enters an area of secondary woodland by the tops of long gardens attached to houses along Cryers Hill Road below.  Bluebells Hyacinthoides non-scripta were just coming into flower here with three-nerved sandwort Moehringia trinervia, early dog-violet Viola reichenbachiana, lords and ladies Arum maculatum, and wood goldilocks Ranunculus auricomus beside the path, while flowering wild cherry Prunus avium boughs above scattered confetti petals on the path.

Bluebells, Cryers Hill

Cuckoo-pint emerging under hedge

After a couple of horse-paddock fields the path debouched into the A4128 again, to be crossed once more, and we took the track on the other side returning along the other side of valley, past a few houses, the first of which on the right had old orchard apple trees covered with blossom.

Apple orchard remnant, Cryers Hill

The path has a strip of woodland on the left side all the way to the “cattery” at the end, with its car park.  Here we discontinued the footpath to take a small path to the right which wends beside a piece of pasture and then turns left into Gomms Wood (Woodland Trust).  A bend in the path just after the entrance displays a good colony of green hellebore Helleborus viridis, in fruit by now but still conspicuous. 

Green hellebore, Gomms Wood

The path continues north through abundant bluebells, here in full flower, but near the end of the wood the way turns down to the NW-facing side of the wood along a valley, where coralroot is frequent among the bluebells. 

Bluebells, Gomms Wood

Coralroot, Gomms Wood

A minor path to the right takes one up the slope through an extension of the wood known as “Bubbles” and there are many groups of coralroot here.  Eventually this disgorges into the ancient sunken way of Boss Lane, a very stony path between precipitous banks of almost bare chalk soil and the roots of trees.  We continued south-westerly along here towards Boss Lane Farm.  On top of left bank, but facing towards the field beyond the hedge and fence, were many primroses in flower, and we also passed a small group of coralroot.  Other path-side flora included sanicle and the main ground cover plant of all the woodlands and hedgerows in this area, dog’s mercury.

Field between Boss Lane & Gomms Wood

At the farm a council notice described Boss Lane as a “restricted byway”, which could be used by horse traffic, but not motor vehicles.  Here we took the footpath going due north, a very steep climb into Theeds Wood which, although fenced off each side, contained huge colonies of ramsons Allium ursinum, just beginning to show their clusters of white-star flowers among the oniony leaves that can be smelled afar.  (These, we found, are good in salads.)  The ramsons even encroached upon the path. 

Ramsons, Theeds Wood

Near the top of the hill coralroot was growing among the ramsons, apparently not being fussy about what plants it grows with.  Some of the dog’s mercury here had the conspicuous orange-yellow rust Melampsora populnea.  There was a patch of woodruff in full flower, wood spurge flowering, and small shrubs of gooseberry Ribes uva-crispa, probably native.

Woodruff, Theeds Wood

At the end of the woodland a path crosses and we took this to the left back down another steep hill.  The first part was beside a field that has become a thicket of self-seeded ash Fraxinus excelsior saplings, until we reached the older woodland of Long Plantations, where again there was some coralroot to be seen.  At the bottom the path crosses a little close of modern houses and descends to the grounds of the Harrow PH, a possible lunch stop but rather early, with a long walk yet to Bradenham. 

Wild cherry flowers near Harrow PH

We crossed the road at the corner, by a hedge of flowering wild cherry, and proceeded up Speen Road, which has a footpath on the left-hand verge.  A red kite descended for a closer look, while the hedges were noisy with house sparrows and chaffinches.  Near the turning for Stocking Lane the footpath ends and we crossed to the other side to walk along the verge off the road, and then re-crossed to walk up the Lane.  At the corner the sparsely vegetated banks had lots of Thale cress Arabidopsis thaliana.  The lane is narrow and we had to walk on the road, but fortunately it is not very busy with traffic.  It is only quarter of a kilometre to the top, though rather steep.  Here, opposite the TRADA estate buildings a permissive path goes off to the right through Little Stocking Wood, descending into a small combe and then continuing up it near the wood-edge, with large patches of wood-sorrel Oxalis acetosella. 

Wood-sorrel, Little Stocking Wood

This path leaves the wood and continues straight on across fields to Naphill.  At the edge of the wood bee-flies were very active.  We emerged between a wheat-field and a hedge with a series of mature oaks Quercus robur.

Path through wheatfield to Naphill

At the end of the hedge the path continues through the centre of another wheat-field with Naphill hidden until the last moment in the next valley.  After passing the pond at Great Moseley Farm we crossed the road directly into a narrow hedged runnel, but soon emerged into the light at the edge of Naphill Common.  Here a holly blue was flying around a large patch of flowering red currant Ribes rubrum.  We continued through the wooded common with plenty of ancient beech and yews Taxus baccata,, and old boundaries still clear from banks with remains of once-laid trees. 

Path through Naphill Common

A common dark green moss with erect stems, Bank haircap or Polytrichastrum formosum, was producing fresh spore capsules.  We passed Lady Horse Pond which was covered with duckweed Lemna minor and soon found ourselves going along a glade with a line of telegraph poles that led to an open space with the mysterious “Clumps” – a series of small banked circular collections of beech trees, whose original purpose is not known. 

"Clumps", Naphill Common

After these, close to the path, was the famous “Umbrella Tree”, an isolated old hawthorn Crataegus monogyna that has been regularly cut for a long time in a smooth mushroom shape, probably with no purpose in this case other than the aesthetic whim of some local resident.

Umbrella Tree, Naphill Common

The track continues down through woodland towards the redbrick walls of Bradenham Manor, which we kept on our right.  A single plant of spurge laurel Daphne laureola grows at the corner where the track follows along the wall, following it again round the corner. A slow-worm was sunbathing in the middle of the track.  After admiring its sleek brown body we felt obliged to urge it to move into the side vegetation, as vehicles often come up here. 

Slow-worm, Bradenham

At the final corner we continued to follow the wall past the entrance to the Manor. We noticed a very large old yew just inside the gates and volunteers working on the restoration of the gardens on behalf of the National Trust. 

Yew, Bradenham Manor

Groups of attendees from a conference were strolling around in their lunch-break in front of the rather uninspiring Victorian structure that is the current representation of this ancient manor that goes back to Anglo-Saxon times. 

Bradenham Manor

Immediately beyond here was the old churchyard where a flowering crab covered with red buds was burdened with many large clumps of mistletoe Viscum album.  By chance, we here met the son of the churchwarden who had planted this tree. 

Mistletoe on flowering crab, Bradenham churchyard

More mistletoe can be seen at the top of tall limes Tilia x vulgaris across the road.  The edge of the cricket-pitch, where it is uncut, had lots of pale pink lady’s-smock (the more familiar close relative of coralroot). 

Lady's-smock, Bradenham

At the bottom of the lane beside this grassland is the Red Lion, a welcome lunch and refreshment stop, where they provide excellent hand-made pies among other dishes.  We had a good rest here before proceeding.

Red Lion, Bradenham

Outside the pub again we had to cross the A4010 to reach the footpath going up the steep hill on the other side.  After walking underneath the railway line, at the first field boundary, the path has been diverted to the right before it resumes its original direction and ascends through the wood above a field of cowslips.  The slope here was sufficiently steep and long to test our constitutions after lunch, but when we reached Nobles Farm we turned left and had a very easy path for well over a kilometre through Hearnton Wood, which covers the crest of the long hill that ends at the old village of West Wycombe.  (The path here follows the part of the route of the Bucks Earth Heritage Group Geological Walk no. 4 West Wycombe to Bradenham. See http://www.bucksgeology.org.uk/ for more information and a downloadable leaflet).  The woodland has been heavily worked and includes several larch and fir plantations, with a ground flora often dominated by nettles Urtica dioica, cleavers Galium aparine and docks, so there is little botanical interest along here.

Track to West Wycombe

Swarms of long-horned moths were common around the opening buds of oak, maple Acer campestre and so on.  Closer to West Wycombe an open slope has been cleared on the right and a small path goes off through rough grassland dominated by ground ivy, leading into a sunken way through many dark yews and eventually to the bottom of West Wycombe Hill.  (There is an option of continuing over the top past the church and mausoleum, where there is some geological interest, but the path then traverses a large bare car-park.)

West Wycombe Hill

At the A40 road junction we entered the grounds of West Wycombe Park (like Hughenden Park and Bradenham Manor, run by the National Trust, although the Dashwood family still live in the large unattractive house, open at certain times to the public).  The grounds are open 2-6pm in the afternoon and it cost us £3-60p each to enter, even though we could only spare some 20 minutes to wander around here.  We took the path along a stream to our left, which eventually led to the large lake, with mallard, coot and mute swan, and someone fishing from a boat.  The water is very clear and had little vegetation.  We took a brief rest here on a log, noting a common lime tree towered above with large clumps of mistletoe and an aspen Populus tremula close by with similar decoration.  Other trees in the distance could be seen to have these clumps. 

West Wycombe Park: mistletoe in lime trees

We continued along the lake and then back underneath the House along a stream, where lady’s-smock was again prominent in a very narrow line of uncut grass.  On the stream bank was a patch of ramsons among butterbur Petasites hybridus leaves.

On leaving the park we re-crossed the main road to go up Church Lane at the “back” of the village, past the entrance to the Hell-Fire Caves.  These are artificial tunnels representing former decadent aristocratic practices of little importance.  A subsequent open grassy bank on the left, however, had spreading clumps of dusky cranesbill Geranium phaeum, which obviously has a good hold here. 

Dusky cranesbill, West Wycombe

After a bend round to the left a footpath went off on the right down through pastureland back towards the A4010, including passage through a field of ewes with small lambs, mostly in pairs, which showed a mixture of curiosity and, as we got nearer, fear for their lives!

Straight across the road a path through young wheat went up another slope to the railway-line and through a tunnel.  Large wheat-fields, with most of the former hedgerows gone, dominated the landscape as we continued to rise, at one point alongside an “energy crop” of mixed willows, and up a long hill to a group of barns, before reaching a surfaced track to Cookshall Farm. 

Fields towards Cookshall

This we left by the path below the farm through a wood of minor botanical interest, although plenty of bluebell, yellow archangel and woodruff.  At the far end of this wood the path crosses a short arable field to reach woodland again at Downley Common, a narrow belt that runs right up into Naphill Common.  We turned right going south for a short way until we could find a minor path crossing the wood to the east side.  This passed Mannings Pond with a lot of bulrush Typha latifolia and heather Calluna vulgaris (rare in this area) on the high dry bank, and traversed an area of old beech to Hunt’s Hill.  Here there was an open space with an information board about Downley and Naphill Commons.  We took the broad track south through woodland a short way, but mostly the ground was completely devoid of vegetation as this area contains large old pits (possibly for extracting clay at one time for the local brick-making industry) and these are intensively used by children on mountain-bikes.  Here a robin and a song thrush were feeding on the ground.  At the eventual wood-edge, just beyond the last pit, we turned north-east parallel to the edge, crossing one footpath where there is a metal signpost and taking the next footpath to the right which crosses the end of a pasture field to enter Common Wood.  Here we kept to the wood-edge again, to our left, and dropped down into a south-east-trending valley with a wide path which we followed.  There was a little coralroot and primrose with much wood-sorrel, bluebell and yellow archangel beside this track, but when we turned left before leaving the wood there was much more coralroot in an extensive colony, all around the track and the junction with our next turn to the right to take us down through Hanging Wood (part of the Hughenden Estate).  This was the best colony of coralroot seen on this trip. 

Coralroot, Hanging Wood

The colony came to an abrupt end where thick growths of cherry-laurel Prunus laurocerasus had become naturalised.  After this the path emerges from the wood to follow the wood-edge on the left, with a steep grass bank going down on the right.  This bank was covered with the best displays of primrose and cowslip seen all day, along with bugle Ajuga reptans, barren strawberry Potentilla sterilis, common dog-violet, glaucous sedge, and wood-spurge. 

Cowslips, Hughenden Park

After a bend to take us due east the bank became less floriferous, but there were many large clumps of spurge-laurel at the wood-edge and going back into the wood.  Recent clearance of colonising box-scrub had opened up part of this wood-edge, damaging some of the spurge-laurel, but opening this area to light should eventually create a better vegetational structure, although we noticed that the clumps in deep shade were looking much healthier than those exposed to sunlight. 

Spurge-laurel, Hughenden Park

Back in the wood a track off to the left goes up one last steep slope (a little coralroot once again on both sides of path) to bring one to the Hughenden Manor car-park and various buildings such as the estate office and the courtyard and its restaurant (closed by now as it was nearly 6pm).  Here one can visit the walled garden and orchard, with many apple, pear and cherry trees, currently in full bloom to make a beautiful display.  Ivy-leaved toadflax Cymbalaria muralis is prevalent on the old flint walls, with a little greater celandine Chelidonium majus at the bottom.  Some mallow  Malva sylvestris leaves here showed the orange spotting underneath (making pale spots on the top surface) caused by the rust Puccinia malvacearum.  It is now a brief walk down to the churchyard and the return to the start.