Chiltern Way: yours to enjoy!By Barnaby Usborne
It’s now 10 years since the Chiltern Society established the Chiltern Way as a Millennium Project back in 2000. It’s a 278 kilometre-long circular footpath which allows walkers to enjoy the full range of Chiltern landscapes, from chalk streams and meadows to beech woods, villages and towns. It also boosts the local economy by bringing visitors into the area who frequently require food and accommodation. I walked the full circuit in 2000 as we were coming out of the Foot and Mouth epidemic and must have been one of the first to complete it. It is a great walk full of surprises and unexpected views and countryside.
To celebrate its 10th anniversary the Chiltern Society is staging the Chiltern Way Walking Festival from 29th May to 11th June and is currently putting together a special programme of walks. It has a number of volunteers who will be leading some of these walks, but it also wants to invite other members of the community to join in and lead a walk to involve local people – some of whom may not until now have been aware of the splendid prospect on their doorsteps!
If you would like to organise a walk on ‘your’ section of the Chiltern Way please contact Tracey Read on 771250 for further information. You might like to know that to make the going easier the County Council are replacing some of the stiles on the footpath through our parish with more manageable gates.
Further information about the route is available from the website www.chilternsociety.org.uk, as well as Ordnance Survey maps and Chiltern Society maps and books.
Incidentally if you are more a cyclist than a walker, you might be interested to know that in June the Chiltern Society plans to launch the Chiltern Cycleway, in conjunction with the Chilterns Conservation Board and Cycle Touring Club. This will be a 170-mile circular route around the Chilterns, both on- and off-road, designed to encourage more leisure cycling. Keep an eye on the CCB and Chiltern Society websites for further details.