Bishopstone and Stone Walk (Swans Way 9)

Bright blue skies and a light breeze with a forecast of plenty of sun to come. The shorts are on and my companion has plastered himself in sort of coconut flavoured sun repellent. 

Parked up at the bottom of a leafy lane, hopefully where we will emerge in about 4 hours time form the other direction. We set off on 'The North Bucks Way'. 

It has certainly been a while since we were last on the Swans Way, back on the 6th Nov 2020 to be precise.

We are starting off from 'Bishopstone' in an anti clockwise direction. We will be walking towards the 'Eythrope Estate' where we ended last time.

 There looks to be a fair bit of road walking today, although I'm surer it will be mixed with some lovely countryside and points of interest along the way. We will actually be walking close by some of 'The Ridgeway' that was completed last year. We arrive at the highly impressive 'Hartwell Hall Hotel'. Set in over 90 acres of gardens and parkland designed by a contemporary of Capability Brown. A beautiful  National Trust-owned Grade 1 listed Jacobean and Georgian house located within the Vale of Aylesbury.

 

 

 

The Historic House has been a hotel since 1989 and in 2008 was leased to The National Trust.

It is most famous as the home of exiled French king Louis XVIII in the early 19th century! Unfortunately there are no  views of the house, at least not fro the direction we are approaching. We can however see over the wall to The Church of The Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary. The present church was erected between 1754 and 1756 for Sir William Lee of Hartwell.  It was an early example of Gothic Revival consisting of an octagon with symmetrical towers at the east and west ends.

 Shortly after the 1939-1945 war the lead was stolen from the roof. This quickly led to the collapse of the vaulting, and after years of disuse the remains if the building were declared redundant in 1973. 

I would very much have liked to have seen the gardens. The 90 acres (36 ha) of gardens at Hartwell were laid out by Capability Brown. Apparently the gardens are very reminiscent of nearby Stowe,one of my favourite places to visit. There are statues, and Obelisk and an ornamental bridge. The Hartwell Estate currently covers 1,800 acres (7.3 km²) of farmland surrounding Hartwell House

Just down the lane we come across Hartwell's Egyptian Spring is a folly built in 1850 by Joseph Bonomi the Younger an Egyptologist. It is an alcove seat on the western side of Lower Hartwell opposite a small spring The stone pylon bears the Greek inscription "ΑΡΙΣΤοΝ ΜΕΝ ΥΔΩΡ", translated as "Water is Best"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Its lovely to be out amongst the wild flower meadows of buttercups, field vetch, daisies, Red Clover and all sorts of various others and grasses. It has really started to warm up now , good thing as Mother Nature has some catching up to do following the cold wet Spring.   

There are still a few obstacles to overcome before we arrive at The Eythrope Estate. These obstacles weigh in at around 750 kg each!

 

 

There is also the not so small matter of the Bull. The second one we have been up close and personal with today. Thankfully It's a peaceful scene as our bovine friends only show a passing interest, mainly in Archie the Dog. They are far happier cooling themselves down in the nearby River Thame.

The general course of the River Thame is south-westward and it runs from each of the longest of its many sources to the River Thames about 40 mi (64 km).

Judging by the post marker there are numerous didn't footpaths that we can pick up from this point. However the important one is for 'The Swans Way'. 

We are now on the road stretch, although as road stretches go this is very nice actually. All is quiet and there are lots of surrounding trees and fields. That is until a Ferrari with a personalised registration plate comes roaring past. 

We are heading towards the village of Stone. The Architect Clough Williams- Ellis designed the village hall in 1910.

Passing through Stone we then turn off onto what is also the Midshires Way. Heading in the direction of the abandoned village of Moreton. This is where things get a bit interesting. 

We meet an 'old Boy' on an electric bike who tells us that he is looking for his wife's Marks and Spencer Credit Card that she lost earlier in the day. Not quite a needle in a haystack but not too far off possibly?  Apparently lost while out walking earlier in the day. We had a bit of a chat and promised to keep our eyes open as we continued with our walk.

We continued through a couple of fields and as expected no sign of the missing credit card. Just as I arrived at a gate my companion noticed that I was standing on something ...... It was a mobile phone in a black wallet. I thought it was my new one at first. Thankfully it wasn't, closer inspection revealed a credit card tucked inside the wallet. Not an M&S one though sadly, Nat-west if we are going to go into detail. The phone wasn't locked either so we rang the last dialled number which was 'Bob the Neighbour'. After a bit of explaining what hat happened and who we were we asked the question' Does the owner happen to ride and electric bike'?

'Yes he does' was the reply. It was indeed the 'Old Boy' on the Electric bike. He had gone looking for his wife's card and in the process lost his own and his mobile phone! The neighbour popped round and informed him, and he made contact with us. We dropped the phone back to him after the walk much to his relief and amusement. 

He insisted on rewarding us for our trouble by buying us both a beer. Well, would have been rude to refuse wouldn't it?

The walk takes us back towards our starting point at Bishopstone via the The North Buckinghamshire Way. In the distance are the spectacular Chiltern Hills and the Coombe monument is clearly visible. All of that area has been walked and written about previously of course on the 'Ridgeway' blogs.  

It has been a great walk, superb weather and some very funny interludes along the way. In total we have covered a distance of 11.34 miles.