Turville Valley Walk

I had kept the cutting from the Sunday Times of the 3rd of February as it described a walk in the western Chiltern Hills. Friday was sunny and cool, just right to explore this part of Buckinghamshire.

I had never been to Turville which was my starting point. Famous as the village where The Vicar of Dibley was filmed, it certainly is very pretty. The hillsides surrounding the valley were beautiful in their autumn colours.

The first half of the walk had the best views as it followed the ridge in and out of woods above the valley. There seemed to be red kites in the sky whenever I came out into the open, some came extremely close.

Once I reached Northend, the last forty five minutes was not so interesting as the route went through woodland parallel to the road back to Turville. The road was Holloway Lane, but was this the Holland Lane described by Ian McEwan in his book On Chesil Beach as "a sunken chalk track overhung with crumbling mossy banks that ran downhill to Turville". It must have been.