Middle Assendon - Stonor House - Warburg Reserve
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This walk starts in the lovely village of Middle Assendon and quickly climbs up through a lovely wood to give a beautiful view over the Bix valley. Our route takes us past a large duck pond (with some very friendly ducks!), through some beautiful woodland into the private deer park of the Stonor Estate. If the weather permits, this is a great location to sit on the grass and look out for the heard of deer in the valley below and get an excellent view of the distinguished house.
A house has existed in Stonor Park since well before the Norman Conquest. The earliest part of the current house, with its Georgian façade, dates from the 13th century. The adjacent chapel of a roughly similar age is one of only three in England to has celebrated Mass continuously since those times.
After leaving Stonor Park we take a quick trip into Stonor Village itself before climbing into Park Wood, with some excellent views of the House and valley behind us before we enter the wood.
After leaving the wood we descend through the attractive Warburg Nature Reserve to join the Oxfordshire Cycleway – a single track road through Bix Bottom back to our starting point. The Rainbow Inn at the start/end provides a great resting point for a bite to eat and well earned drink.
In WM10 (as at March 2010), there is a new permissive path off to the right before the duck pond is reached. Taking this new path avoids the need to walk past Kimble Farm and brings the walker out at the start of the wood in WM12. At the time this walk was reviewed, the walker has the option of taking either the route via the duck pond or the new permissive path. However, the landowner may at some point seek to reroute the 'official' path along the permissive path and close the duck pond route. Both paths are described in case this change comes to pass.
England - Central England - Oxfordshire - Chilterns
Features
Birds, Butterflies, Flowers, Hills or Fells, National Trust, Nature Trail
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