Three walks in the Chilterns

Then, one day, it was gone. It seemed the red kites' cries took on a mournful note, and people felt a sense of shame. A few recalled Marcel Pagnol's tale of a shepherdess who, spurred by an injustice, took revenge on villagers by blocking up their spring.

Older folk invoked the name of Judgment Jack, a hermit of these woods who, in the death of Hambleden Brook, would see nature's verdict for a greater sin. If climate change could quench this primal source, what was brewing on a larger scale?

A puzzle lay behind the dry riverbed's reproach. The brook had always been untamed, quick to burst its banks and flood the lush meadows beside the Chiltern Way. It grew more unruly by the year, switching course to inundate the single track that tractors took between Turville and Skirmett. In full spate it left the village streets awash, and sandbags ringed the shop at Hambleden.

Many times we set off from Frieth and, stepping off Colstrope Lane, descended the long hillside to climb the stile and rest beside the brook. Like children, leaning on the rail, we gazed down at the foaming race that fed a water world of small islands and matted reeds.

Hours later, breathless from roaming far, we'd return to the valley floor at Skirmett bridge to watch the water grasses sway like eels in the stream.

The Chilterns were our weekend delight, the stream our constant in a changing world. In Neolithic times, its dancing waters carried down the flints that tribesmen flaked for spears to hunt the forest deer. Wild herds remain, betraying their shy retreats with a twitching ear or incautious step before they melt away.

For 15 years or more, we tramped the hills until we knew each path and stile. We loved the bluebell woods, the foxglove glades and grassy slopes where burnet moths flashed their wings beside clumps of purple columbine. We thought the dream would never end.

The stream's demise left us troubled on our walks. At hourly halts, seated on low bough or log, we took comfort in the capriciousness of chalk streams. Chalk rock, they say, is porous and soaks up the rain, releasing a steady flow when the water table reaches its brim. Hambleden Brook was sometimes dry for months. Surely it would flow again.

Four or five years passed - the Chilterns often lashed by rain - and hope gave way to something like despair. From time to time, as if to confirm our fears, we'd check the bridges at old haunts, to find a dry groove in the ground.

One day, some instinct took us off our normal course. We circled round to cross the narrow bridge where we had first watched the brook in glorious flow. A sound - only a murmur - stopped us dead. At our approach it grew, until there was no mistake. The brook's music had begun again.

From flooded meadows to the west, the water pulsed beneath our feet, pouring forth to fill the canals and brimming banks of its secret world - Hambleden Brook flows on.

The walking tour

THE CHILTERNS offer the most ravishing countryside within 40 minutes' drive of London or Oxford. Beneath the soft canopy of English sky unfolds a perfect landscape of hills and valleys, with a sprinkling of quaint villages.

The axis of the three circular walks selected here is the head of the beautiful Hambleden Valley, the focal point of a 40-square-mile area bounded roughly by the M40 in the north, Henley in the south, Marlow in the east and the steep escarpment in the west.

Although easily accessible from Henley or Marlow, this hinterland can prove elusive to drivers approaching from the M40. Fortunately, a wormhole takes you there directly. Leave the M40 at junction 5, take the road signposted Ibstone, drive through the village, then down a steep hill to a T-junction. This brings you close to our two starting points - to the left is Fingest (¼ mile, bear left) and to the right is Turville (1 mile, bear right). To visit Skirmett (¾ mile) and Hambleden (3 miles), turn left, then, at the next T-junction, turn right and follow the valley road.

For the walks, you'll need reasonable fitness (there's a lot of up and down) and Ordnance Survey map 171 (Chiltern Hills West). Each begins and ends at a pub.

WALK 1: for the reborn Hambleden Brook

3½ miles; 1½hr Park beside Fingest church, opposite the Chequers Inn. Walk east along the main road for 120yd, passing a farmyard. Turn right at the footpath sign. A long ascent of the steep hill is rewarded by a rest bench overlooking an idyllic scene. Climb the stile, cross Fingest Wood into an open meadow, bear left and squeeze through a narrow gap beside a gate.

The muddy path broadens into a stone track, then a metalled road, until it reaches a T-junction on the edge of Frieth. Turn left, and lunch is at the Yew Tree pub, 300yd further on. Alternatively, after only 70yd, the walk swings right into a street, Hayles Field, which narrows to a fenced track between fields.

Emerging at a road, turn left and walk for two-thirds of a mile, past St Katharine's retreat at Parmoor, until you reach a red telephone box. Turn right into Colstrope Lane and, after 200yd, enter a gate on the right; cross a stable yard and climb a stile. Descend a horse field on a roped-off path leading to another stile.

Beyond, thick woodland gives way to a huge ploughed slope. At the bottom, the path curls to the right and crosses yet another stile to drop through woods, eventually hitting a paved road. Turn left, passing a grand house on the right. Ahead, Hambleden Brook crosses the track.

Backtrack 60yd and turn left (north) along the Chiltern Way. It's three-quarters of a mile to Skirmett bridge; then follow the road north to Fingest.

WALK 2: for Fingest windmill

1¾ miles; 45 mins Park as in Walk 1 and walk up Chequers Lane for nearly half a mile. Turn left on the signposted bridlepath and keep straight. Cross the stile and climb the field onto a hillside path that ascends to a ridge road opposite the windmill. Turn right, then, after 40yd, swing left through a kissing gate. Turville lies beneath you.

Descend the steep path; on the last stile, note the Chiltern Way roundel, pointing left: this marks your return route. It skirts the hillside before crossing a road and curving right through a narrow defile to the road at Fingest.

WALK 3: for stunning views

5¾ miles; 2hr 10mins Park at Turville village green, opposite the Bull and Butcher pub. Walk up the road, passing a church on your left. After 30yd, a footpath sign on the right directs you up the steep hillside, via stiles and woodland, to the crest walk. Keep left on the forest path, ending at a road. Turn right, then, at the first bend, left into the drive. After 30yd, climb the steps of St Nicholas, cross the churchyard and turn right (avoiding the descent) to follow a woodland path skirting Ibstone.

On reaching the valley floor, look out for a steep signposted path to the left and climb to Grays Barn. Turn left on the road, then, after 30yd, jink right into a drive and along a narrow path between gardens. After two gates, you descend to the valley floor, then it's across a meadow and through a wood. Go over the stile, across the field and down to a road.

Across the road, a wooded gully becomes a paved road, then a path leading to the duck pond at Northend. To return, turn sharp left down Holloway Lane and follow the road on a parallel footpath through woods to Turville.