Haddenham, Notley Abbey, Chearsley, Nether Winchendon and Cuddington

The church dates mainly from the 13th century, and has a particularly fine west tower. Inside, there is a plough carved on a bench end near the tower arch and a carved monkey's face on the 15th-century wooden screen set in the tower arch.

Church Farmhouse is in the Kentish Wealden style, with projecting side wings and a recessed centre under a single roof. The church was once owned by Rochester Priory, so the 15th-century house may have been built by carpenters from Kent. Haddenham was the centre of the Aylesbury duck rearing industry. Duck-keepers' cottages were built along Flint Street, which was originally called Duck Lane.

The route leaves Haddenham across the railway line, which opened in 1906. In honour of the occasion, Baggs Lane was renamed Station Road. The station closed in the 1960s, but a new one was opened further north in 1987.

The walk now drops into the attractive valley of the River Thame, lined with poplars, willows, and alders, and crosses the river by Notley Mill, a watermill that closed down in the 1920s. Its stream and leat remain together with some walls and a stretch of cobbles from its yard.

A path follows the tree-fringed mill leat towards Notley Abbey, a community of Augustinian canons founded in the early 12th century by Walter Giffard. A few remnants of the church and cloister buildings have been incorporated into later barns. The sumptuous Prior's Lodgings, finished in 1530 shortly before the abbey was dissolved, survived as a house that later became famous as the home of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. Today, the remnants of the abbey are privately owned and are used to host weddings.

As you approach Notley Farm, a modern stone farmhouse, you can see earthworks associated with the medieval abbey farmstead. Among the farm buildings is the 15th-century cruck-built barn, which must have been the monastic tithe barn. To the east of the farm, the majestic abbey dovecote stands isolated in an arable field.

On the other side of the railway is Chearsley, a village remarkable for its deep-cut lanes. St Nicholas's parish church is very attractive and unpretentious, with whitewashed walls, a Georgian west gallery, and unusually, two sets of Royal Arms. Immediately south of the church are the earthworks of a moated medieval manor house that has long since been demolished.

Beyond, in Cuddington, there is a cutoff which allows you to miss out the loop to Lower Winchendon if you are pressed for time. The main route, however, turns north at the edge of Cuddington's village green, which still has its old parish pump and is surrounded by a delightful group of wychert cottages. On the other side of the River Thame, you reach Nether Winchendon. This small village has many timber-framed cottages and an excellent 16th-century manor farmhouse, complete with barns. The atmospheric church interior boasts box pews, a three-decker pulpit, a squire's pew, and a fine west gallery.

Nether Winchendon House has a medieval core, the best part of which is a room with Tudor linenfold panelling. The house was formerly owned by Notley Abbey, but owes much of its present appearance to Scrope Bernard, an amateur architect who "gothicised" the building in around 1800.

You return through Cuddington, another village dominated by wychert walls and cottages, though Tyringham Hall opposite the church is in stone. The hall is all that remains of a much larger Tudor mansion; its gabled left wing was altered in 1609. Some of the mullioned and transomed windows are in stone, and some in rendered brick.

The route re-enters Haddenham near Cobwebs, a wychert cottage that is dwarfed by its ornate brick chimneys, which were added in the 1920s. As you meander through the village on the way back to the church, you pass many more cottages, walls, and outbuildings in wychert. Even the Methodist chapel of 1822 in the High Street is built of this distinctive material.

Acknowledgment: Text derived from the Out and Out Series; Discovering the Countryside on Foot. Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.