WHEN spring finally arrives at the Spade Oak Lake in Little Marlow, the old quarry suddenly comes into its own.
The same can be said for the nearby stretch of the Thames path, the perfect place for an evening stroll in the spring and summer months, watching the world go by on the river.
WATERING HOLE: the Spade Oak
Leisurely circular strolls around here start from the free car park in Coldmoorholme Lane, but there’s nothing like a ramble to whet your appetite, so where better to start and end your walk than at the Spade Oak country pub?
It’s an upmarket watering hole in a perfect location close to the River Thames between Bourne End and Marlow, with a relaxed ambience and extensive menu.
From here you can strike out across a field towards the former gravel pit which has become a welcoming haven for wildfowl since becoming a nature reserve more than 20 years ago.
SPRING IN THE AIR: the old quarry at Spade Oak
It was here during the 1960s that aggregate was extracted that would be used for the M40 and M4 motorways.
Much of the restoration work focused on encouraging birds to use the site as a breeding sanctuary, making it a popular destination for birdwatchers.
DEEP WATERS: the lake is a sanctuary for water fowl
Ducks, gulls and geese who provide a cacophony of background sound on a still evening as the bats come out to flit and flicker around in the gloaming on the permissive path which runs around much of the lakeside perimeter.
This is one of nine fishing venues operated by Marlow Angling Club and is said to host carp, tench, bream, pike, perch, roach, rudd and eels.
GONE FISHING: anglers fish around the lake
It was back in 1966 that the Folley Brothers began to dig the former farmland in Coldmoorholme Lane to extract the valuable flood plain gravel that was in great demand for the motorway building program.
But flash forward to the millennium and the local parish council began discussing plans for a permissive path around the lake, officially opened back in 2002.
MOTORWAY BUILDING: gravel was in great demand
Gravel is no longer dug from Spade Oak and today the area offers a very pleasant waterside ramble it is on a spring or summer’s evening, with the gulls and geese shrieking in dismay at some temporary disturbance and the gentle clank of a two-coach train lazily meandering its way from Bourne End to Marlow alongside the lake.
From one corner of the lake walkers can cross the line to take in a short stretch of the Thames which forms part of the 185-mile long-distance walking trail tracing the route of England’s best-known river as it meanders from its source in the Cotswolds into the heart of London.
LONG-DISTANCE WALK: the Thames Path
With feathered families out on the water in the spring, there’s plenty to hold the attention, ducks and geese out in force alongside the walkers, sailors and rowers.
Train buffs could opt for a trip on the single-track branch line to Bourne End or Marlow, but for those happy to just watch the train clattering by, a pint or a bite is close at hand at the Spade Oak after a lazy day by the river.
It’s not the cheapest pub meal around, but tempting menus and a relaxed dining area make it somewhere people tend to return to, with al fresco dining an option on warmer days.
WHAT makes a village the perfect destination for weekend ramblers?
A welcoming pub? A pretty main street? A range of undemanding, easy-to-follow circular walks?
WARM WELCOME: the White Horse
Hedgerley has got it all, it seems. And watching some visiting morris men thwacking their sticks and jingling their bells outside the White Horse on a summer’s evening, it’s not hard to see why the place is such a hit with weekend wanderers.
From the picturesque village pond and pretty cottage gardens with their hollyhocks and foxgloves to the glorious open meadows which fan out towards the M40, it’s not hard to see the appeal of a pint and a stroll around here on a sunny day.
SPLASH OF COLOUR: gardens in Hedgerley
Perhaps it also helps that ramblers can incorporate that pint into a circular route of varying lengths from Fulmer, Farnham Common or Stoke Poges, or detour here off the Beeches Way or from Burnham Beeches.
PLEASANT DETOUR: en route to Burnham Beeches
Among the most popular short circuits are routes through Kiln Wood or round the edge of Church Wood towards Hedgerley Green and back.
POPULAR CIRCUIT: Church Wood
Bird lovers might want to stay close to the village and take a lazy meander through Church Wood itself, an RSPB nature reserve backing onto the churchyard of the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, a Grade II listed building from the 1850s.
PEACEFUL OASIS: Church Wood
The 37-acre reserve is a peaceful place where volunteers manage the woodland to encourage insects and wildflowers to flourish, providing a perfect environment for the most common avian residents, including blackcaps, chiffchaffs, robins, thrushes and buzzards.
SOUND OF BIRDSONG: the RSPB reserve
There’s room enough here for visitors to enjoy a 2km circular route around the enclave, but those straying a little further afield can emerge from Church Wood onto a footpath through open fields leading towards the motorway, where the constant thrum of traffic cuts through the afternoon tranquillity.
OPEN FIELDS: heading towards the M40
The brutal gash carved through the countryside by the M40 provides a stark contrast to the serenity of the surrounding fields and the electric crackle from the pylons marching over the hill is another reminder of how life has changed here over the centuries.
Around these parts, agriculture has been the main source of livelihood since antiquity. During the iron age, early settlers at the nearby Bulstrode Camp fort would certainly have been farmers, while in medieval times the traditional method of open field farming was used in the area, with families allocated their own narrow strips of land.
RURAL SETTING: footpaths fan out from Hedgerley
Although the Hedgerley name is of Saxon origin, the area was occupied much earlier and kiln remains tell of a thriving Romano-British pottery industry, with a Roman road thought to have run through the parish to the south of the M40.
Local history records chronicle owners of the medieval manors that dominated life in the area, with significant local farms including those at Slade Farm, Court Farm, Metcalf Farm and Colley Hill Farm, the workers living in cottages in the village and much of the parish land used for pasture.
PASTURE LAND: farming dominated local life for centuries
Before the building of new houses in the 1930s, the population was small and those not working in the fields might have been in domestic service at Hedgerley Park or Bulstrode House, or involved in brick and tile making.
The earliest mention of Hedgerley tiles dates from 1344 and the famous fire-resistant ‘Hedgerley Loam’ was dug extensively in the 18th century and used to line furnaces in the UK and abroad.
POPULAR PATH: leaving St Mary’s churchyard
In Victorian times a third or so of parish land was devoted to arable crops, with potatoes, turnips and beans also grown for local consumption. Horse or oxen-drawn ploughs would have worked the land until the invention of the steam engine in the 19th century.
In 1881, the impressive 800-acre Hedgerley Park Estate was sold by auction in London to Mrs Ellen Emily Stevenson, the daughter of a wealthy tobacco broker and a young widow with three small children whose husband had died of a brain disease at the age of 30 after less than two years of marriage.
Her picturesque new abode comprised a 16-bedroom mansion and pleasure grounds with lodges, plantations and ornamental lakes with waterfalls, not to mention 10 servants and five productive farms.
VILLAGE LIFE: Hedgerley’s main street
She and her daughters played an active part in village life, with the children at Hedgerley School being regularly invited to picnics in the park grounds where the “tea, buns and bananas given by the Misses Stevenson” proved a great treat.
Ellen was to be a churchwarden at St Mary’s for more than 30 years and in 1893 she gave the use of Court Farm and about 30 acres to the Church of England Waifs and Strays Society for use as a farm home, teaching agriculture to up to 26 boys between the ages of 12 and 16.
RESTFUL SCENE: a cow grazing beside Court Farm
This Grade II listed Georgian house dates from 1771 and the farm home was formally opened by the Bishop of Reading in 1893, allowing young boys to spend two years learning milking, sheep sheering and how to plan and grow crops for sale at local markets.
The home closed in 1926 but is still a prominent village landmark, boasting a swimming pool, stables, tennis court and summer house, going on the market in 2020 with a £5m guide price.
Ellen’s daughter Ethel was a suffragist who helped to form the Gerrards Cross branch of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, and became its first president in 1912, going on to become the first president of the Hedgerley Women’s Institute when it was formed in 1921.
VILLAGE POND: in the heart of Hedgerley
That same year saw sister Maud serve as a jury member in a murder trial at Aylesbury Assizes that shocked the nation after “musical milkman” George Arthur Bailey poisoned his young pregnant wife in Little Marlow.
The trial culminated in the hanging of Bailey, who earned his nickname because he could be heard whistling while on his daily rounds. But it was also said to be the first time women had been allowed to sit on an English murder jury.
Although the 1918 Representation of the People Act famously ended the ban on women voting in general elections, women in their twenties were still excluded, and were also prohibited from taking part in public life by joining the professions or by serving as jurors.
Around this time the Stevensons moved out of Hedgerley Park and into a new house they had built, with the estate being put up for sale. It had croquet and tennis lawns and stabling for six horses, but no electric lighting.
The estate was finally sold in 1931 to Richmond Watson and a short while later the house was demolished, although some outbuildings remained until after the Second World War.
Ethel died in 1937, a month before her 92nd birthday, and is buried in St Mary’s Churchyard alongside Maud and Ethel. The grave of Richmond Watson is nearby: he died in 1944 at the age of 70.
LOCAL LEGENDS: graves at St Mary’s
Today, much of the surrounding countryside is part of the Portman Burtley estate, with visitors even getting the chance to get a taste of stylish country living by renting out Slade Farm, for example, which accommodates 15 people in seven luxury bedrooms.
Here, “art deco meets glamour country chic” with exposed beams and Venetian mirrored furnishings, just half an hour from central London with easy access from the M40.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to ignore the M40 around these parts, and Hedgerley also suffers from its proximity to Beaconsfield Services, with boy racers rocketing along Hedgerley Lane and less community-spirited motorists leaving an unpleasant flurry of litter in their wake.
Ramblers heading beyond the confines of Church Wood may find it difficult to ignore the roar of traffic as they approach the otherwise pretty hamlet of Hedgerley Green, with its picturesque ponds and inquisitive horses, before looping round to return to the village.
FOUR-LEGGED FRIENDS: horses at Hedgerley Green
Those prepared to venture a little further afield can strike off through an unprepossessing motorway underpass towards Bulstrode Park, the site of a house built by perhaps the area’s most notorious resident, Judge Jeffreys, in 1686.
The “hanging judge” gained his reputation during the “Bloody Assizes” of the previous year, when King James II was anxious to make an example of those who had taken part in the West Country rebellion led by the Duke of Monmouth which had been halted by the Battle of Sedgemoor in Somerset.
NOTORIOUS RESIDENT: the Bulstrode estate once owned by Judge Jeffreys
With Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys presiding, assisted by four other judges, hundreds of rebels were condemned to harsh and terrible deaths, or transportation to the colonies for long years of slavery.
Those doomed to public hangings were then disembowelled and quartered, their heads and quarters dipped in pitch and salt and sent to villages to be displayed on poles as a dire warning of the consquences of treason.
ROAMING WILD: a pony at Bulstrode
Jeffreys returned to London where he and his fellow judges were formally thanked by the King, but he did not get to enjoy his new property at Bulstrode long: after the king was deposed in the English Revolution of 1688, Jeffreys was incarcerated in the Tower of London, where he died of ill health the following year.
For those heading under the motorway and emerging onto Hedgerley Lane, two footpaths cross through Bulstrode Park, where Judge Jeffreys’ house was replaced in the 19th century by one erected by the Duke of Somerset.
The Bulstrode estate itself is bigger than it looks, with a series of lonely footpaths criss-crossing the woods behind the main house.
Bulstrode also provides easy access to Gerrards Cross, where ramblers arriving by rail can head off towards Hedgerley, using the White Horse pub as a handy halfway rest stop.
From the station, a quick amble across the Common towards the Bull Inn leads you down Main Drive to the bottom of Bulstrode Park, where a straight path leads across to Hedgerley Lane.
Thought to be the oldest recorded inn in Gerrards Cross, the Bull – or Oxford Arms as it was formerly known – was in an ideal position at a crossroads to capture the trade of passing travellers, with the turnpiking of the Oxford Road in 1719 giving business a major boost.
Back across the motorway, the roar of heavy traffic slowly subsides as you skirt Church Wood and head back towards the White Horse, where a welcoming pint beckons at a convivial village local known for its real ales, hanging baskets and old oak beams.
CONVIVIAL PINT: back at the White Horse
One of five historic buildings surveyed by the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society, the original building probably dates from around 1679, with the first reference to a pub on the site coming in 1740.
Here, there’s a chance to reflect on the day’s ramblings: of woods alive with birdsong, of medieval manors and murderous milkmen, and a cemetery full of memories of a bygone age.
There aren’t too many British pubs boasting a 2,000-word explanation on the menu of their historic origins – but then there aren’t too many hostelries as old or as atmospheric as this Forty Green favourite.
“Bring the dog, come for a walk, bring the children” says the owner in a welcome video on the pub’s website and “welcome pilgrim” is the message to those lured into the Beaconsfield countryside by the promise of good food in quintessentially English surroundings.
The pub claims to be the oldest freehouse in England, but although that’s a pretty contested title, few pubs have done as much work on researching their history as the RSOE.
Curved walls, low beams, twinkling candles and an eclectic collection of helmets, weapons and other period paraphernalia hint at the pub’s long and intriguing past and an extensive menu of crispy whitebait, huge battered fish and much-vaunted Sunday roasts draws a large regular following and a good cross-section of excellent reviews.
Like all busy and large establishments, it’s not possible to keep everyone happy and the long process of extending the historic alehouse generated some testy comments about the surroundings looking like a building site.
But the extension is open for business now and they’ve done a pretty impressive job of recreating something of the same sense of history to be found in the other rooms.
Certainly on our visit the young staff were cheerful, chatty and helpful. On repeated subsequent visits the food has been outstanding – by 8pm at night on a busy Sunday evening it wasn’t perhaps as remarkable as usual.
But of more than 1100 reviews on TripAdvisor, 83% thought the food very good or excellent, so it looks as if standards are maintained pretty well, even if prices aren’t exactly cheap, with the popular pies, fish and chips and Sunday roast main dishes now setting you back more than £20 a head.
Forty Green is a small hamlet surrounded by ancient beech woodlands and quiet country lanes and the pub provides the starting point for a couple of invigorating rambles of between half a mile and two miles for those wanting to work up an appetite before they eat – or work off the calories afterwards.
It was a sleepy backwater until the coming of the railway to Beaconsfield in 1906 and home to only about 20 households in the mid-19th century, mostly employed in agriculture or lace-making.
The location of the inn is no longer on a major thoroughfare, yet in the early days it was an important trade route for transporting bricks and tiles from Penn and Tylers Green down to the River Thames at Hedsor Wharf and from there by barge to London.
Cattle were moved along the drovers’ roads to markets in Beaconsfield and High Wycombe and hospitality was also given to the medieval courts on their way to deer hunts in Knotty Green and Penn.
The pub’s menus regale visitors with a history lesson about Roman Britain, Iron Age hill forts and the 1400-year-old brick and tile kiln industry in the area. Drinkers with sufficient time on their hands are invited to recall the last Viking raids, when longboats travelling up the River Thames to Hedsor Wharf.
Then it’s on to the Norman conquest, Domesday Book (1086) and droving days, when the Ship Inn, as it was then called, was a lodging house for royalty travelling to Windsor and Woodstock Palace.
From Tudor travellers to highwaymen and kings, the pub claims to have been hosting visitors and sitting at the heart of local life across the centuries…gaining its current name after Charles II’s restoration to the throne in 1663, the only inn in the country bestowed the honour of the full title, allegedly in recognition of the loyalty and support given to the Royalists by the landlord (or possibly as a reward for the king being able to meet his mistresses in rooms above the inn).
How large a pinch of salt to take with these tales is a moot point, but the 900-year-old hostelry is sufficiently atmospheric not to really grudge any exaggerations to the stories of cavaliers and roundheads, highwaymen and ghostly hauntings.
Could that drum beating the car park really be that of a 12-year-old drummer boy brutally slaughtered by the Roundhead soldiers? At the end of the day it maybe really matter too much whether Charles II actually hid in the roof or a shadowy figure disappearing through the wall is actually that of an unknown traveller crushed outside the inn by a speeding coach and four in 1788.
Immortalised in Midsomer Murders, The Theory of Everything and, perhaps most memorably in Hot Fuzz, this is a placed haunted by history, and it’s certainly not hard to imagine those figures from past centuries enjoying a cooling pint inside its hallowed walls.
For menus, prices, opening times and other information, see the pub’s website.
NAME GAME: The Red Lion in Chenies, Buckinghamshire PICTURE: Cathy Price
PUB names intrigue, bemuse and fascinate us – and across the centuries, there must have been a million rambling conversations over a pint or two about the particular origins or meaning of a hostelry’s moniker.
Of course, some names are clear enough references to animals, plants and sports or local landowners, occupations or geographical landmarks. Some are more generic mentions of smugglers or highwaymen, ships, steam engines or other modes of transport.
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Others contain references that are perhaps a little more cryptic, especially if the myths, legends, historic events and literary works are no longer as familiar as they once were.
Our knowledge of heraldry may not be sufficient to immediately recognise royal connections, for example, even though royal names feature high on the list of the most popular choices, often demonstrating the landlord’s loyalty to the crown – whether genuine or otherwise – and particularly following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.
Coats of arms came into general use by feudal lords and knights in armour to distinguish themselves in battle in the 12th century, although the Romans used similar insignia to identify military units.
Originally granted to individuals, they were made hereditary in England by Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) who, after his crusades in the Holy Land, is credited with introducing the “three lions” design of the Royal Arms of England which also forms the basis of several emblems of English national sports teams.
By the 13th century arms had spread from their initial battlefield use to become an emblem for families in the higher social classes across Europe, inherited from one generation to the next.
The use of arms spread to the clergy, to towns, cities and universities, trades, guilds and subsequently commercial companies. Every noble family had its own coat of arms and inns on their lands were often named after them, particularly encouraged in the 14th century when Edward III attempted to rebrand the monarchy after his father’s disastrous reign.
That explains the ubiquitous Queen’s Arms and King’s Arms, perhaps – along with the Crown, and the Queen’s and King’s Heads. But what about the Royal Oak, the White Hart and that dazzling array of lions – red, black, white and golden?
The Royal Oak refers to the oak tree in Shropshire where King Charles II hid to escape Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The king told Samuel Pepys in 1680 how, when he was hiding in the tree, a parliamentarian soldier passed directly below it, and the story became popular after the restoration, lending the name to hundreds of pubs.
Even more popular is the Red Lion, often considered symbolic of the archetypal English pub and probably deriving from multiple origins. As Martyn Cornell argues convincingly in his Zythophile blog, the most likely source is the fact that the symbol features in the arms or crests of more than 150 local landowners the length and breadth of England.
Traditionally the red lion is also linked with James VI, having featured in the royal arms of Scotland from the 12th century and being incorporated into the coat of arms adopted by James in 1603 when he became king of Scotland, England, France and Ireland.
Another historical contender is John of Gaunt, one of the most powerful men in 14th century England and effectively founder of the House of Lancaster, but Cornell poses the valid question of why a man so profoundly disliked during his lifetime should have been commemorated so widely.
Cornell’s argument stands up to scrutiny well, particularly in places like Chenies in Buckinghamshire, where the local landowner and lord of the manor was the Duke of Bedford, whose coat of arms incorporates a triumphant red lion. And the names of the village’s two pubs? Yes, the Bedford Arms and the Red Lion (pictured above).
Even the ubiquitous Red Lion is in ongoing decline, however. The problem was highlighted in 2015 when personal trainer Cathy Price from Preston completed the task of visiting all 656 British pubs called The Red Lion – to find that in the years since her challenge began in 2011, some 90 Red Lions had closed.
Another of the top 10 British pub names is the White Hart, the personal badge of the Plantagenet king Richard II (1377-1399), which takes its name from the archaic word for a mature white stag, often depicted with a chain and golden collar or crown round its neck.
Other “royal” names commemorate different times in our history – including William and Mary or The King and Queen in honour of William III and Mary II, who ruled from 1689, and the Rising Sun, often associated as the heraldic symbol of Edward III (1312-1377), though in rural areas the name may simply reflect the new day’s dawning.
