THERE must be few footpaths quite as uninviting as the one on Stoke Common Lane circling round past the remains of Pickeridge Farm.
Flanked by derelict buildings on one side and a closed landfill site on the other, this is not quite your typical concept of what a country ramble in Buckinghamshire should look like.
Ironically, on the other side of the road lies the gate leading to Stoke Common itself, a glorious slice of ancient heathland that’s one of the rarest habitats in Britain these days.
Home to an array of rare plants, animals and insects, it’s an important Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), dotted with gorse and heather, echoing to the sound of stonechats and occasionally offering a brief glimpse of an elusive adder or slow worm.
Sadly, the litter-strewn ditches of Stoke Common Lane bear testimony to the fact that this 200-acre fragment of heathland is a small island of natural beauty protected from the ravages of the outside world by City of London rangers and local volunteers.
The fly-tipped frontage of the building across the road is a bleak reminder of the real world, one of those places trashed by time, neglect and teenager trespassers.
Yet we know that there can be a strange beauty about abandoned places which have been reclaimed by nature, and perhaps Pickeridge Farm has that potential.
A 19th-century gravel pit, Pickeridge Quarry was a landfill site operated by Suez (formerly SITA), when the farm buildings were used as the main office complex.
Flash forward 20-odd years and the crumbling farm buildings have suffered their fair share of vandalism, graffiti and fire damage, but nature is slowly winning the war to hide the ravaged remains of those old buildings.
The footpath skirting the high fence of the landfill site heads round towards Hedgerley and Fulmer, both routes that border the M40, so the thunder of fast-moving traffic is never far away.
But if there’s not too much in the way of eye-catching scenery to hold the attention, there is perhaps a forlorn beauty about the glimpses of the former farm peeking through the undergrowth, even if some ramblers have found the route a little too creepy for comfort.
Urban explorers seem to have found the surroundings a little more fascinating, with some links explaining more of the site’s history.
Whatever the future holds for the landfill site and surrounding countryside, for the moment it’s a rather bleak and forbidding route on a grey day or at dusk, the perfect setting for a Midsomer murder (and yes, the show has filmed here in the past).
But with the sun out and the hedgerows in full bloom, there’s a more optmistic feel to this forgotten corner of Fulmer.
One day, the whole area may be redeveloped or take on a whole new existence, like so many former quarries and gravel pits around the country.
For the moment, nature is waiting in the wings to reclaim a farmhouse lost to the elements, a broken window or collapsed roof providing that first small opening for plant life to take root.
When humans move out, nature moves in, engulfing the bricks and broken glass, breathing new life into buildings ravaged by the years and the elements – and perhaps the promise of a new existence in the years to come.
