Phonebox Walk
Graham Edwards
This is another easy and varied walk, anti-clockwise from the Newport Road lay-by at Prospect Place on the A509, one mile out of Olney on the left, heading towards Newport Pagnell /lviilton Keynes .
Duration: circa 3 miles , mostl y flat , occasionally undulating with a few stiles.
With great views across the Ouse valley. There are refreshments en-route at the public house in Emberton and then afterwards in cafes etc in Olne y.
1· Head to the top (southern end) of the lay by, to the right of the houses on your left is a new galvanized gate. Turn into here and keeping the hedge on your left proceed up the field, in just over half a kilometre there is a gap in the hedge to your left, just before a "no entry" sign into the field in front, go left and then immediately right, now with the hedge on your right. Carry on up the field to the top left corner of Hollington Wood , turn right here with the woods on your left to the concrete road .
2 Turn left on to the concrete road and follow this for about half a kilometre , just opposite a metal gate look for the narrow entry through the hedge into the woods on your left. (Hollington Wood is a private woods and these are permissive paths, so please don,t wander off the path etc) . Follow the path through the woods , there are excellent displays of Primroses and Bluebells in spring time. Once through the woods you can decide to return to your car by turning left (this makes a two mile walk taking you back down the first fields that you walked up) or carry straight on and slightly to the right keeping the hedge on your right.
3 Follow the field down to the bottom left hand corner to a stile and then through the next rough field to another stile through a hedge and on to the road through Petsoe End. Turn left here to walk though the village to the T junction, cross the road and through a kissing gate and head diagonally left across the small field/paddock to a stile and then to another stile. There is now an iron gate and head left to a gate to cross a private drive and over a stile.
4 Follow straight through the field (there are sometimes guide ways here because of horses) to a stile , great caution here as this leads on to the busy Clifton Reynes road. Carefully cross the road and in to the field and follow the track with the hedge on your right for a hundred yards or so until you come to a cross roads of paths, turn left here and cross the field towards the rear of a large house just past which you will find a stile on your left in a hedge, once over head diagonally right to to a gate that leads onto the A509.
5 Caution and cross the A509 to walk in to Emberton and shortly cross the road and turn left up Gravel Walk to the gate at the top , head slightly diagonally to the left to a double stile through a hedge then head again slightly diagonally across the field to a stile through the hedge on to a bridge across a ditch .
Cross the cycle path and then caution again to cross the A509 to the bottom end of the Prospect Place lay by and then proceed up to your car.
We hope that you have enjoyed this walk, it has some fine views particularly on a clear day.
Hollington Wood is a private woodlands , the woods are glorious in springtime with bluebells , however there are permissive paths to walk along, please respect this if you visit.
Bluebells in mind, Hollington Woods, Petsoe and Emberton.
64 Phonebox Magazine
The idea behind these occasional walks is to encourage us to visit our neighbouring villages and to enjoy their surrounding countryside, the different seasons can greatly effect the scenery, with delightful flowers in the meadows and woodlands in spring time , wild fruit in autumn and crisp clear frosty days in winter can often increase the distance you can see as well as blowing away those winter cobwebs. Reversing the walks can also give different
views that you might miss in one direction and adds another walk to your repertoire. All of our walks can be traced using the Ordnance Survey Explorer Maps No's: 192/207 /208/223/224 these contain a wealth of information for planning walks within the Phonebox catchment area . We hope that you enjoy this walk, please remember to close all gates after you and to take any litter home .