#2026-05-27T10:02
T=swc.191
L=swc.191
LENGTH 20.1 km (12.5 miles)
TOUGHNESS 4/10
TRAINS Take the 10.02 Birmingham Moor St train from MARYLEBONE arriving at HADDENHAM at 10.40
Return trains at 15.36, 15.47, 16.33, and 16.49
Today’s route is the shorter version via Ashendon.
The lunch pub is
https://www.theashtree.co.uk/ formerly known as the Hundred of Ashendon. It has reopened as a community pub and seems to be doing quite fancy food. Vegan Haloumi skewers, for example. Phone 01296 925980
TEA. THE CROWN in Cuddington, a lovely thatched pub is currently closed, though soon to be reopened having been bought by the local community.
However, I have sourced another lovely thatched pub in a village also starting with a C around a mile away.
This is
https://thebellchearsley.co.uk/ , Chearsley, afternoon closing at 3pm!!
You could devise a shortcut from lunch to pass through this charming village (as seen in Midsomer Murders) and rejoin the morning route quite near the station. This would save a mile or more while also cutting out the long and somewhat tiresome Main Street of Haddenham.
1 comment:
N=13 brave souls appeared on the platform at Haddenham , thinking perhaps that the heatwave was dying down. Our train was 20 mins late, not a problem as we luxuriated in the air conditioning.
Temperatures however soon returned to those of previous days, seeming indeed to be 3 degrees hotter than London at one stage.
The walk to lunch is long and so some picnicked in the shade of a Cedar by the pond outside Chilton business park (which is really a beautiful 18th century house) and then made a route to The Bell at Chearsley in time to avoid its 3pm closing.
Those 7 of us who persevered to the Ash Tree pub were rewarded with really good food and a welcome from the new tenants, a couple from Moldova and Romania. Then even offered to take one of us, whose lunchtime bus failed to show up, to the station.
Two of us returned to the station via Chearsley and a shady path past Notley Abbey along the river Thame.
Those who stuck to the official route reported an annoying footpath diversion round a large new housing estate being built on the eastern end of Thame.
It was too hot really for an enjoyable walk but the day was saved by the very nice lunch. All the beer pumps were broken down so we were forced to drink chilled wine! Not a problem in weather which can only be described as w=hot_hot_ hot.
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