Walking today in another of my favourite places. Waddesdon Manor is a great place to visit, particularly around the Christmas season when the house is all lit up spectacularly.
We would be walking through and around the grounds on this occasion , only getting distant views of the magnificent house. There is a full write up with more about the house history on a previous blog entry.
We are walking in an anti-clockwise direction so are very quickly on to the Waddesdon estate. The fields are absolutely saturated from all the recent rain. The ditches are full of water and with all the mud it is not the easiest of walking.
There are some beautiful trees amongst the rolling hills and footpaths.
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| Soaked fields |
Our path leads us downhill away from Waddesdon Manor. It is pretty much one open field after another.
There are still plenty of leaves on the trees despite being well into Autumn. It is dry as well which is a relief after the down pour yesterday. The forecast does say to expect rain about 1 pm though.
At the village of Upper Winchendon we take a detour to view the church.
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| St Mary Magdalene Parish church |
Its a lovely Old church and someone has kindly left apples and pears in the porch. The village found fame in 2017 after a mid air collision between a plane and a helicopter . Sadly four people were killed. The name 'Winchendon' means "hill at a bend" in old English.
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Some really lovely scenery now as we 'turn the corner' of the planned route. Lots of fields and some particularly inquisitive sheep too! There are lots of what look like active Badger setts too. My walking companion gets a bit too close to nature putting his foot down a rabbit hole and taking a tumble.. A real potential leg breaker. Thankfully no harm is done and we continue on our way.
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| Eythrope House |
The next point of interest is the hamlet and country house of Eythrope.
It was purchased in the 1870's and belongs to the Rothschild family. Originally it was Alice De Rothschild who bought the house. Alice suffered with rheumatic fever and was advised to avoid damp conditions at night. As Eythrope was next to the river Thames, the plans were altered. The house was built without bedrooms as a place to house her collections and entertain guests during the day.
Today the house is the last of the Buckinghamshire Rothschild houses to remain in Rothschild hands. It operates as a private home. It strikes me as being a very secretive sort of place , which is fair enough of course.
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As predicted the rain arrives and for a while it is a bit grim to say the least. Lots of lying water around and the boots are just about holding up. Thankfully it seems to be a case of heavy showers rather than persistent rain. It is also starting to get dark but we should be alright.
A well hidden trig point confirms that we are at least heading in the right direction.
It is really just a case of following the hedge line until we cross the main road and back to the starting point.
A really enjoyable walk and a total distance of a fraction over eleven miles.
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