# 🥾 Walk 469 - Middle Assendon, Pishill and Stonor Park

On Saturday 31st July, six walkers including the walk leader joined this varied walk, starting from Middle Assendon in the Stonor Valley. Pausing to explore the remains of St James's Church at Six Bottom we continued up through Freedom Wood admiring the wild flowers along the hedgerows. The meadows of Maidensgrove Scrubs were buzzing with insect life and we saw some especially striking Peacock butterflies.

Our route then took us down through Pishillbury Wood along the Oxfordshire Way to the hamlet of Pishill. Its name with origins in the 13th Century is derived from the Latin pisum for pea and Old English for hill and means "hill where peas grew".  Here, by popular demand we took a look inside the small and traditional Pishill Parish Church.

![Inside the church at Pishill.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume37/images/inside_pishill_church.jpg)

Then we headed up through the fields south of Turville Heath enjoying the Chiltern scenery stretching across from the fields of golden barley. As we began to negotiate Summer Heath it started to rain, but undeterred we emerged from the woodland with the intention of crossing the rolling fields to get to Southend.

Greeted by a warning notice "Bull in Field" we soon spotted that a herd of black cows were sheltering under the far hedge in front of the very gate we needed to pass through. As we slowly approached  the cows showed no sign of moving and on spotting the bull was with them we wisely retraced our steps and found an alternative route to Southend along the road.

![Cows and a Bull blocking the path.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume37/images/cows_and_bull_blocking_path.jpg)

With the rain continuing, we picked up Shakespeare's Way through more woodland where some logs provided us with a slightly sheltered lunch spot after which we continued on towards Stonor Park. The Rhododendrons along the way were so overgrown it felt like we were on quite an adventure!

Grateful that the rain had eased we walked through Stonor Park, where we were fortunate enough to see at fairly close range some stags with most impressive antlers. It then remained for us to tackle the incline at Almshill Wood before the return leg down towards Paradise Wood - which was also very overgrown leaving us with wet legs and sloshy boots. After crossing the final field we were soon back at the start. See our route on Google Maps. Sadly the Rainbow Inn was not open despite a sign suggesting otherwise, so, just about escaping a new downpour of rain, we reflected on the eventful walk and said our goodbyes.

![On the way down to Paradise Wood.](https://www.berksww.org.uk/scrapbooks/volume37/images/enroute_paradise_wood.jpg)

*Thank you to Julia from leading this walk, for writing it up and providing the photos.*

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