Oakhill Wood (Milton Keynes) to Salcey Forest

We were in MIlton Keynes for the late May bank holiday and the weather was good, so we wanted to get out for a walk. However we didn't want to drive too far, because -especially given the fact that the country was just opening up from Covid-19 lockdown - we thought the roads and well-known beauty spots would be busy. Also, we didn't want to be too late getting back to the flat, because Richard was planning to drive back to Norfolk whilst I had to write an abstract for a conference, which had to be submitted by the end of the day. I'd bought a second-hand copy of Ron Haydock and Bill Allen's "Walking the Midshires Way" which confirmed that we had already walked the first part of the Midshires Way, which is coincident with the North Bucks Way and told us that the entire leg from Nash from Salcey Forest is 13 miles. The map confirmed that it is about three miles along the route from Nash to Oakhill, and we'd already walked this part in January 2017, so that left about 10 miles for today. Perfect! The length of today's walk didn't turn out quite as planned, but it was nevertheless very enjoyable. For all that we were walking through Milton Keynes for much of the route (and within the Metropolitan Borough for very nearly the entire route), it was surprisingly green and interesting. In addition to sharing the route with the Swan's Way and the North Bucks Way, we also today encountered the Grand Union Canal Walk, the Hanslope Circular Ride, the Ouse Valley Way, the Milton Keynes Boundary Walk. and the end of the Three Shires Way.

We left the flat quite early and as I approached Salcey Forest, driving behind Richard, it was fairly obvious that he was having some difficulty getting into the car park because there was a horse box in the way. It turned out that the "horse box car park" at SP811508 was only just being opened, so our timing was good. We were less pleased to discover that the car park, which had been free on previous visits (most recently after completing the Three Shires Way in 2017), was now going to cost us £6 for the day. However we decided not to attempt to go anywhere else - and it transpires that the various Salcey Forest car parks all charge the same. We drove in one car, initially through rolling countryside and villages and then threading our way through Milton Keynes V (for "vertical") and H ("horizontal") grid of roads to the Shenley Wood car park at SP823357, opposite Oxley Park Academy @Shenley Wood. Fortunately this car park was free and indeed it was completely empty when we arrived, though a dog walker arrived soon after us and headed off into the wood.

Our most direct route would have been through Shenley Wood to Shenley Church End, but we didn't go that way and I'm not sorry we took a longer route, as we would not otherwise have completely joined up with where we've walked previously and we'd have missed out on seeing Oakhill Wood in summer. It was delightful. We got to Oakhill Wood by taking a very obvious path from the car park at the south-west corner of Shenley Wood, across the V2, then down the side of HMP Woodhall to join with the route of the North Bucks Way, Swan's Way and Midshires Way in Oakhill Wood. We turned right then, after a walk through the wood, and past the prison we turned right again. We were on an attractive green corridor (which was the case for most of our walk through Milton Keynes) though the prison and some houses were initially in sight from time to time.

One of the characteristics of Milton Keynes is that the historical villages that were here before the modern city was built remain, and today we were soon in the very attractive Shenley Church End. We took a short diversion to the Church then walked past houses of a variety of ages (back to the medieval) and Shenley Toot, the Motte (mound) of what was a Motte and Bailey castle. We were soon back on the green route through 21st Century Milton Keynes , most obvious from the traffic noise from nearby Child's Way, though at one stage we missed the route behind the houses so found ourselves walking down a road past modern housing. The next village was Loughton, again with medieval remains, although we were very close to central MK.

We left Loughton by way of Loughton Valley Park, complete with stepping stones, and we were soon at Lodge Lake, where we initially turned left and passed several dog walkers. We reached the Kam Tong Garden Chinese Restaurant, which looks interesting, (though currently only doing take away) at around the same time realising that we were going the wrong way, so we retraced our steps. Some of the dog walkers were still where they had been, chatting, and one quite reasonably and helpfully asked if we were lost...so much for our supposedly excellent route-finding skills. We continued around the lake then along another green corridor and under the A5. After a less attractive section past factories we reached Bradwell Abbey, though the route skirts around the Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre and other Abbey buildings.

Our path took us under the railway line (the West Coast main line) and we initially turned almost immediately left onto a track, but this didn't provide us with an obvious way of getting to the other side of the A422; a path by the stream, slightly further from the railway, provided us with an underpass and brought us to the famous Milton Keynes concrete cows. Actually, these are a replica set, since the originals, designed by Canadian artist Liz Leyh and installed in 1978, have been deemed too fragile for this location so are now in the Milton Keynes Museum. I've been coming to Milton Keynes occasionally for thirty years, quite regularly for 20 years, and since 2014 until the Pandemic altered everything, had lived for most of each working week in the Milton Keynes area; however I have to admit that until today I hadn't seen the cows, and I was quite excited. Sadly, I was disappointed. However, the walk through the rest of Bancroft Park was delightful, with an area of meadow then - to our surprise - we discovered the remains of Bancroft Roman Villa and stopped here for lunch.

By now we had realised that today's walk was going to be more than 10 miles as we were still in the built up area of Milton Keynes and we had a mile or so to walk along a disused railway line, a section on the Grand Union Canal, then several miles in countryside. We were soon approaching the Grand Union Canal on its aqueduct over Grafton Street (where we walked on a loop when on the Ouse Valley Way on 13th December 2014) and we turned right (east) here, but today onto the railway line not the tow path. Bradwell Windmill was up on the embankment to our right, but with the trees in full leaf, we could hardly see it. The disused railway was busy with walkers and cyclists, and every so often we could see the canal down to our left. We soon reached Stantonbury Wharf, where we crossed the canal and turned onto the towpath, conceptually turning left (i.e. north-west), i.e. heading in the same direction as we had walked on 17th December 2017, whilst the railway line had in places been parallel with the canal but heading in the opposite direction.

We weren't on the tow path for long before we took what is marked as a road on the map (and prominently as the route of the Hanslope Circular Ride) heading towards Linford Lakes. I hadn't looked forward to this section of "road" walking but it was actually more track than road and we weren't passed by any motorised vehicles, though we did meet a lot of people out walking. There were pleasant views to the lakes. At St Peter's Church, where a group of young people were disregarding the "do not climb on the ruins" sign, we joined the Ouse Valley Way on a leg we walked on 18th March 2015 and we followed this along the stony track then across the River Great Ouse by a weir and up to Hill Farm. Last time we had turned right onto the road here, but today we turned left for a short distance, then right on a track, still on a route shared with the Hanslope Circular Ride.

It's six miles from here to the end of today's leg, but it felt like the home straight. We temporarily parted company with the Hanslope Circular Ride and followed a hedge boundary which eventually led to Little Linford Wood, where we turned left, hoping for somewhere to sit for a "second lunch", but it wasn't a sufficiently mature wood for nice thick fallen tree trunks on which to sit. Despite all the paths we have walked before in this area, we were now in a section that we haven't walked before, and it felt as if we were in the middle of nowhere, with sheep grazing and a stream. Eventually, reunited with the Hanslope Circular Ride, we emerged into what would once have been the Estate of the stately manor of Hanslope Park; we stopped here for our second lunch. The manor house is still visible, but it is now the other side of a security fence; Hanslope Park is now home to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Her Majesty's Government Communications Centre. I know them as a major employer, but I haven't really much idea about what they actually do.

We walked around the edge of the security fence and turned right onto a road, which brought us to Tathall End, where the Three Shires Way ends. From here we retraced our steps from December 2017, under the M1 then various dog legs which eventually brought us over a field (now with the Milton Keynes Boundary walk too, as walked in November 2015, though it's rather different in summer) to Salcey Forest. We continued on the route of the Midshires Way to the horse-box car park where we'd parked. It transpired we'd walked 16.8 miles today - that's the last time I trust the guidebook's distances - but it had been a most enjoyable walk and had we been aware of the true distance we'd probably not have attempted it today. Richard got back to Norfolk OK and I got the abstract written, though it was a late night!

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