Route: Cookham to Bisham Wood and Winter Hill then down and along the Thames
Distance: 8 miles-ish
This one is walk 24 in the Time Out Book of Country Walks, although we usually walk the short version, cutting out the trip to Bisham for lunch - this is not just because the Bisham diversion just seems to take you out of the way over a really busy road, it's also that The Bounty pub is a really good place to stop and eat - big menu, friendly attitude to walkers and dog owners, flags on the ceiling and loud rock music.
The woods were muddy but the lack of winter foliage meant that there were good views across to Marlow and the Thames. The path comes out on Winter Hill, near the home of Kenneth Grahame, writer of The Wind in the Willows, then it's a matter of walking down to the river and along it to the pub at Bourne End. True to form, we were treated to some full volume Lynyrd Skynyrd along with lunch - we'll definitely do this one again in the summer and sit outside by the river - I hadn't realised that it's not actually possible to drive to the pub but it's probably just as well, otherwise I'm sure the pub would be overrun.
The final bit of the walk is through the courtyard of Cookham Church, which is where the artist Stanley Spencer is buried (you also pass his house and the Stanley Spencer gallery at various points on the walk). I've just read that he referred to Cookham as "a village in Heaven" - not quite sure that it qualifies on a grey Sunday in January but it's definitely a lovely place (and I can understand why the Chartered Institute of Marketing base their headquarters there). This is also a very straightforward, not too taxing walk that I know we'll do again.
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