Buckingham to Stony Stratford
Walked by Sally and Richard, Saturday 29th November 2014.
9.5 miles (5 hours), almost all on the route of the Ouse Valley Way.
Click here for all our photos of this walk.
We slept well at the Buckingham Travelodge and enjoyed our breakfast of granola with yoghurt and almond croissants, bought at the nearby Tesco. We left shortly after 8am and drove to a convenient parking place at SP784408, between Old Stratford and Stony Stratford. We parked one car here and drove the other one back to the layby on the outskirts of Buckingham (at SP706343) where we had parked yesterday. We were walking by around 9am. It had rained in the night and there were a few spots as we drove back to Buckingham, but it was dry all the time we were walking and it became increasingly sunny as the day progressed. The path was distinctly muddy in places and, as yesterday, we had to negotiate some broken stiles, but it was a very enjoyable walk.
From our parking place we started by heading a short distance back towards the town centre, turning off the main road and back onto the route of the Ouse Valley Way at Lower Wharf, which once marked the endpoint of the Buckingham Arm of the Grand Union Canal. The path took us between houses to a park, where large numbers of joggers were running, and so to the River Great Ouse, considerably wider than near its source yesterday. We turned away from the river, leaving the joggers behind us, and turned up past a school to the A413 (Eastern by-pass).
We crossed the A413 and took a path the other side, down to the Buckingham Arm of the Grand Union Canal. The Buckingham Canal Society has been restoring the canal, but at the point we first encountered it, it was somewhat lacking in water! We walked alongside the ditch then rounded a corner past some friendly horses, and found ourselves close to the Great Ouse River again, with lovely views. The sun came out and the only slight irritation was noise from the A422, which we remained close to for the first half of the walk.
We passed the Old Mill House, and a weir, then the river headed slightly to the south and we passed an ancient Earthwork (not visible on the ground, but clearly there on Google map's satellite view) and reached Hyde Lane Lakes (marked on the map as "Reservoir"). The expanse of water was attractive, but surrounded by barbed-wire so difficult to photograph; then we realised that they were in the process of replacing the barbed-wire and only the lowest piece was in place, so I hopped over. Apologies to whoever was trying to keep me out; I promise that I didn't steal any of your carp!
We went through a gate and into a nature reserve, actually another section of canal. We walked alongside another stretch with no water then came to a restored lock, and on the other side of this there was (briefly!) water in the canal. We continued alongside the canal to a minor road, then crossed a field to the A422, which we walked alongside very briefly so as to cross a drainage ditch at Cattleford Bridge.
We parted company with the main road, still close to the ditch of the canal, initially through woodland then through fields of sheep, some of whom were grazing in the canal! There were delightful misty views to Thornton Church and it was lovely walking. We emerged onto another (surprisingly busy) minor road, by a ruined bridge over the canal and turned right to Thornton.
Opposite Thornton College (a convent school) we took a footpath across the fields to Beachampton. Well, that's the theory. Actually we found ourselves confronted by a couple of newly planted fields with no obvious footpath. We walked around the boundary of the first field, past a little wood (Thornton Quabs) but at that point, having verified from the footpath sign that we were in the right place, we had no option but to line up our direction as best we could and head across the field. Amazingly we emerged in exactly the right place, though we had extremely muddy boots. The remaining fields to Beachampton contained grass and sheep, which led to much easier walking.
[Note added later: it transpires that the architect John Tarring who redesigned the house that is now Thornton College in the 1850s was a very distant relative of mine - see history of Thornton here and more about my link with John Tarring at the end of my description of our walk from Godmanchester to St Ives.]
We emerged by Beachampton's pretty Church and walked through the village looking for somewhere to have an early lunch; there was a conveniently placed bench outside the village hall, just slightly off our route. We then continued across and occasionally around fields towards Calverton, joining up with the route of the Milton Keynes Boundary Walk. I had no idea that Milton Keynes included all this beautiful countryside!
The route of the Ouse Valley Way doesn't actually go to the "centre" of Calverton, but the correct route was not immediately obvious, so we took the footpath that emerged by manor farm. It is an extremely attractive place and it seems a pity that the Ouse Valley Way misses it; anyway we didn't! [Comment from 2016, when we found the right route: although the route of the Ouse Valley Way and Milton Keynes Boundary Walk don't go right to Calverton, there are excellent views of the village]. We took the minor road past the Shoulder of Mutton pub and rejoined the official route, on a path running parallel to the road, but on the other side of a hedge.
We passed a building site and stopped for a snack at a picnic site, back by the River Great Ouse on the outskirts of Stony Stratford. It was all very pretty, if difficult to photograph because of the Sun. Suddenly there were lots of people about, dog-walkers and families on bikes, out enjoying the early afternoon sunshine. We took a route close to the river, its water meadows and the edge of the town, and soon we were back at the point where we had left our car. Stony Stratford was extremely busy (possibly because the Christmas lights were being switched on later in the afternoon) and someone had driven into our parking place almost before we were out of it! We drove back to Buckingham for the other car and had a good journey home to Norfolk.
