Ibstone: Ridges and Pathways - 17 September 2000

Ibstone: Ridges and Pathways
17 September 2000

Location	Ibstone, Buckinghamshire, OS 171 I started in Ibstone near the cricket ground on the common and walked almost to Pishill. Before reaching Pishill I took Holland Ridge Lane northwest and then turned north through Northend before heading back to Ibstone.

Weather	It was cloudy but it didn't rain. There were a few brief spells of sunshine.

Click on the images to see larger versions.

	The bridleway is covered in beech leaves. This is the first image I took and it came to set the tone for the walk. There are many images of paths of different descriptions on this page.

On Turville Heath the soft path is grassy and sometimes overshadowed by big trees. They have little competition from the ferns so they can grow big and strong.

	The scenery in this part of the Chilterns consists of a multitude of low, wooded ridges with arable valleys between them. It makes for good walking country but you need strong legs to carry you up all these hills.

This utilitarian trough for watering cows caught my eye. The matte grey surface and harmonious shape make it fit in well with the surroundings even though it is obviously artifial.

	From the top of one ridge, I am looking toward the next. That's where the dirt road is going to take me.

Farmers here were keen on green manure. I saw several fields of clover and other nitrogen-binding leguminosae.

	Did I really come down that steep path? It's a good thing it wasn't muddy or I would probably have come down head first. The white lumps in the field are chalk.

The barn is jam packed with straw, bale after bale in orderly rows. It's a sign of the season.

	Another sign of the season, the leaves on some trees have just started to turn.

This maple hasn't started to turn yet. The livestock below it is not miniature cows, they are goats patterned like cows.

	Walking in this part of the Chilterns I am constantly beckoned onwards by the view of the next ridge. Funny, how there always seems to be just one more.

Holland Ridge Lane turned out to be a tarmac lane. As tarmac lanes go, it was very scenic.

	In Northend I came across this castiron county boundary marker. I believe they used to be very common back when county borders had greater significance than now.

A grove of trees nestles in a depression between two ridges.

	I end with an urn I found by an unnamed manor north of Northend. It could perhaps be Wormsley. There was a mostly unreadable inscription of a poem by William Cowper in the medallion. More...