Oxfordshire Way Circular Route 5
Start / Finish: Stoke Talmage, Grid: SU 667 993
Distance: 14.3km
The small village of Stoke Talmage lies on the small country road that links Tetsworth and Chalgrove. It was chosen as the starting point of this leg of the Oxfordshire Way purely because it looked like it offered somewhere safe to leave the car, outside the church. A search of the web for church services in the area showed that there was only evensong scheduled for the day we were walking so there was unlikley to be a large number of people around the church in the morning. Google Street view showed that there was a verge outside the entrance to the church that had clearly been used by others to park on.
Whenever I am planning a walk I always consider where I am going to park the car. Obviously a dedicated car park is preferable but failing that then I want to make sure that the car is left somewhere that means it is not going to be in the way of locals going about their day to day lives and specifically farmers who need to move farm machinery around their land. On the way to Stoke Talmage we drove under the M40 at Tetsworth. It looks like there is plenty of room to leave a car there but it was very dark under the bridge, particularly on the foggy day we were there, and I wasn’t keen on leaving the car somewhere that might be more attractive to thieves and where it would be less visible to other road users.
With your back to the chrurch turn left and head down the lane. A track to the right is where you will return from at the end of the walk. But for now continue for a few more metres and a footpath will be signposted to the left. Follow the right hand edge of a field to cross a stile in the far corner and turn left to keep the hedge to your left, passing a gate to the field from which you have just come. At the next corner turn right and head straight to the small area of wood directly in front of you.
Pass through the trees, crossing a stile and bridge over a small stream. Bear left and head across the field. The 1:25,000 ordnance survey map that I used for this route shows that there is a fence crossing this field. However, no such fence appears on the ground. Since the wood at the far side of the next field was not visible through the very thick fog we had that day I took a bearing from the map and walked on that. As the wood emerged through the mists it was possible to make out where the footpath crossed the hedge.
Another rickety stile leads into the next, much large field. The map shows that a path on the ground follows the right of way across the field, but on the day no such path was visible, only one heading left and right, parallel to the hedge just crossed. It would have been hard to get lost in that field, even in the very low visibility caused by the thick fog, but it was an ideal opportunity to practice navigation. So I again took a bearing from the map and measuring the distance as 400m I began pacing across the field on the appropriate bearing. I came to the footpath leaving the field four paces short of my measured 400m but bang on the bearing.
Leaving the field one enters the tiny hamlet of Clare, just a few houses and some farm buildings. Turn left up the lane for 100m before turning right, between a fence and a barn. Walking up the field on a cold and foggy January day we marvelled at the way frost had formed on the barbed wire fence, narrow strands of rime edging their metallic counterparts.
As the path climbs a slight hill cross another fence line and bear left, keeping close to the fence as it crosses the top of the hill and descends to a tree line. Here the footpath drops steeply to a sunken road, presumably a green lane that was eventually tarmacked. Turn left to follow the narrow track to a junction and then turn right for about 700m. Just where a track turns right towards Golden Manor Farm a footpath angles left through the hedge and across the field. Follow this footpath as it gradually and then more steeply descends the slope. When we were there the field the left was neatly ploughed, as if awaiting the next crop, while to the right it was left fallow and protected by an electric fence. I resisted the temptation to test to see if the fence was live.
At the bottom of the hill the path passes an extension to the plantation to the right before following the left edge of a field, running next to a stream, and then winds through some bushes, turning to a more South Easterly direction. Continue to follow the path as it become a more distinct track that leads directly to the village of Pyrton, to emerge onto a road a few metres north of where we left the Oxfordshire Way last time.
Cross the road to pick up the Oxfordshire Way again and head along the track with the barn on the right hand side. There is a farm shop on the left hand side and an interesting looking house directly in front. The path runs the left of the house, which appears to be some form of gate house or lodge, possibly part of the estate of Shirburn castle which lies about 1km to the east.
Continue straight ahead until the start of a private drive is reached. Here, angle left across a field to reach another track. For the next couple of kilometres, not only is the Oxfordshire Way well marked but it should be obvious which way not to go, as the farmer is very good at making to clear what land is private. After crossing the track head down the side of the field, with the hedge on the left and views across to Model Farm to the right. Go across a fence and then keep to the left of a hedge as you skirt around a large field by turning left and then left again. We saw deer in this field when we were there in January. Just over a hundred metres after turning left again, turn right, keeping the wood on the right. In this field we saw hares and pheasants.
Cross a small stream and follow the fence line for about 600m. Just after a path joins from the left you need to turn sharp right through the hedge heading gently downhill towards a strip of woodland on the right. Here turn left again and head up towards Wheatfield, where the old stables soon come into sight. There is an old church visible to the right and the lumpy ground beyond the church marks where the original manor house stood before it burnt down on New Years day 1814.
Turn right and follow the driveway until it meets the road. Here turn right and follow the road towards the small village of Adwell. As the road enters the village, turn left on to the footpath that runs through a small field. To the right a large house is hidden behind some trees and an interesting garden that merges into the woods that the path runs through. follow the path into a field and head straight across the field, keeping the stream and ponds to the right. Keep following the stream for a couple of hundred metres before turning sharp right across a field.
The map shows that the map just misses a small pond near the junction of two field boundaries. While the pond is still there the field boundaries are not, so keep to the right as you cross over the field, heading towards a small white fence in the corner of the field. Here the path emerges onto the road that leads to Tetsworth. Cross the road and cross the fence into the corner of a field.
Keep heading diagonally across a couple of fields to emerge onto a narrow track, just short of the M40 motorway. This is where we leave the Oxfordshire Way for this section, and hopefully where we will rejoin it next time.
To head back to the car, turn left along the track and pass Harlesford House on the left. Then turn left along a well signposted footpath that follows the left hand edge of four consecutive fields. The path then crosses a slightly wilder field, full of old cabbages and sunflowers when we were there, and passes through a hedge into a ploughed field. As the path emerges into the field look straight across the field to where a lone tree sticks up through the far edge. This is where the path goes and heads straight across a couple more ploughed fields to Lower Farm.
Head for the south corner of the field, where the path crosses into a narrow field and seems to end in the far hedge. In fact there is a small, low, passage through the hedge to emerge onto a path and then a track. This track leads back into Stoke Talmage. Turn left at the end of the track to arrive back at the church.
Carl Sprake 