Oxfordshire Way Circular Route 6
Start / Finish: Tetsworth, Grid: SP 685 019
Distance: 14.1km
We left the Oxfordshire Way a few meters short of the M40 motorway near the village of Tetsworth, a prime commuter location about 12 miles outside Oxford. It is Tetsworth that is the base for this leg of the walk. There is ample parking near the Sports and Social Club in the middle of the village, opposite the Old Red Lion pub. The first part of the walk is get back to where we left the Oxfordshire Way last time.
If you stand outside the Red Lion, looking towards the church and the motorway, with the football and cricket pitches behind you, turn left and walk along the pavement next to the road. You climb a short slope with some interesting looking houses on the left, before the road drops down, passing some fields on the left. Turn right down the road that leads to Stoke Talmage and follow it under the motorway. Turn right up a bridleway, passing some farm buildings on the right. The Oxfordshire Way emerges from the field on your left to cross the narrow field on the right.
Turn right and cross the field to a ruined stile. The path passes under the M40 via a square, utilitarian underpass.
Just before the underpass we spotted some Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara). This plant is characterised by the thin and flattened florets of the flowers and by the fact that the flowers appear before the leaves.
Emerging from the underpass the Oxfordshire Way crosses the field in front of you by going diagonally left. Head across the field to come out between a couple of houses. Follow the gates onto a narrow road. The church is visible to the left, but you need to head downhill to the right to start with, and then turn left at the bottom on to Back Street. You will come out on the main road, next to the war memorial. The playing field is in front of you, with the Sports and Social Club in the far left corner.
Head across to this corner of the field, passing the club house on your left. A track curves round to the right, heading towards Spencer’s Farm. However, you want to bear left slightly and go through the stile in the corner of the field. Keep to the left hand edge of the field, passing the farm buildings on your right as you approach the Sewage Works. Follow the path to the left of the Sewage Works and join the track on the far side.
As the track curves round to the left you need to bear right slightly, to go through a gap in the hedge and cross the small stream.
Keep to the left of this field as you head up hill, past the bridleway coming in from the left, to head in to the corner of the field. When we were there in March it was still very wet up there, despite it not having rained much recently, so it probably gets very muddy up there. The path keeps to the left hand side of a low earth bank and emerges near the club house of the Oxfordshire Golf Course.
The path crosses some rough ground on the top of the hill and then heads downhill, towards the entrance to the golf club.
Towards the bottom of the hill the main drive turns right. The Oxfordshire Way however, carries straight on and crosses the boundary to the left (West) of the main entrance to the golf club.
The OS map makes it look like the public right of way takes a short right then left as it crosses the road into the wood. In reality the path into the woods is directly opposite the point where you leave the golf club.
Entering into the woods is like entering a different world. You are immediately sheltered from any wind or sun and the whole atmosphere feels different.
The woods are owned by the Rycote estate and look to be fairly heavily managed in some parts, with lots of pheasant feeding stations scattered around. There are also plenty of signs telling you which parts are private, which I think is absolutely fine. The public rights of way are well signposted in the main so there should be no excuse for getting lost on this section of the walk. One of the first signs that you see on entering the woods is this one:
“Beware of snakes”!
That is the first time that I have seen that on a sign in the UK. Fortunately we did not see any snakes the day we were there.
The path through the woods is easy to follow and bears left towards the far side, to cross straight over a field along a narrow path, with a fence on one side and a hedge on the other. Do not be confused by any old posts you may see along the way. The path goes straight across to the woods on the other side. Although there are a pair of stiles about half way across there is no other public right of way. When we were there an old sign post was poking out of the fence which may have been interpreted as pointing the way at right angles to the actual path.
Reaching the woods on the far side, the path bears right slightly and leads between even more pheasant feeding stations, to end, quite suddenly at Rycote Chapel.
The chapel, dedicated to St Michael, dates from the fifteenth century and is now under the management of English Heritage. It is open to visitors between April and September. The yew tree to the south of the church was supposedly planted in 1135 to celebrate the coronation of King Stephen.
Walking past the church Rycote House appears on your right as you are guided around the front garden, across a narrow paddock and through a thin strip of wood. On the other side of the trees turn right and follow the path through the gate and head towards the farm. Turn right in front of the main farm house. The Oxfordshire Way now turns left, but this is where we leave it for this section and head back to Tetsworth.
First, a short section of the Thame Valley Walk. With the Home Farm farm house on your left, head straight down the drive towards the A418.
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When we there in mid March the Ash trees were just starting to bud. |
Shortly before reaching the road you turn right onto the path of the disused railway. This railway used to link High Wycombe and Cowley, near Oxford, via Thame, but passenger services were stopped in 1963. Follow the route of the old railway for about 600m before turning right to follow the edge of a field towards a hole in the hedge.
The path follows the hedge all the way back to the road by the golf course. Cross the A329 and cross the small stile to the left of the main entrance of the golf club. Now turn left and follow the hedge line around the perimeter. The path leads all the way around the course to the track from Moreton and the ground keeper’s garages. Turn left and follow the track towards Moreton. Keep heading in a roughly Easterly direction as the track joins the pave road. At the next junction turn sharp right, so that you are almost walking back on yourself.
Follow this tarmac road past a couple of farms (about 2km) until it becomes a rough track and ascends Horsenden Hill. Continue on the track and descend the other side of the hill, past a small building on the right. The path now turns right, then left, then sharp right again. The track heads back into Tetsworth and you could continue along the track. However, a footpath across the field to the right enables you to cut off a corner. When we there the footpath was not marked but it was fairly obvious where people had got through the hedge, just before the gardens on the right hand side, and followed the gardens back to the playing fields.
Carl Sprake 