It`s funny but these woods dotted
around the locality have provided me and us, or we, anyhow, a few of us with great
opportunities to take in the fresh country air, admire mother nature first hand over the glorious (and inglorious) seasons that make our little island so very special. As I have set out in other posts, the woods are part of the greater Whittlewood forest that straddled several counties of which there are pockets left over that have seen various
uses over the hundreds of years that they have existed. Hazelborough wood on the Dadford road and of course the
other side of the A43 with Hazelborough wood chopped in half back in 2000 by the A43 development have been used commercially with plantations laid out post 2nd World War. Things come to the end and the wood connected to the two Hazelborough woods, namely Bucknell wood and parts of the Dadford road side have been brutally assaulted by the Forestry Commission which is happening right now. Of course, this is for the greater good over the long term as the conifers have reached an end of life scenario where it is necessary to remove them along with the drive to revert woodland back to ancient woodland status. This encourages wild flower growth,increases butterfly populations, encourages more diverse flora/fauna and bird populations and types.
Coming back to the point, the Dadford road side is very interesting as it has an abundance of abandoned wartime buildings that are dotted about but are more prevalent towards the circuit which of course was a wartime airfield. Now what I didn't know but have now had it shown to me by Jamie Craig, is that the track loops around to the edge of the industrial estate right next to Aston Martin (Racing Point in old money) . From here you can walk into Silverstone village. This route makes the normal 90min walk up to 2hrs which gives us options especially if we have pups on our walk.I would always cater for pup needs as they obviously do not want to be thrashing about for 2hrs.
From the carpark , head up the track to the fork and head to the right..Keep following the track around and eventually it turns into an old concrete wartime peri track that comes to an gated end . There are plenty of wartime remains here and there is an old abandoned cinema in the woods. At the gate you can do an about turn and go back the way you came or go through the gate into the field. Check for sheep here and if clear , you can walk along the top field next to the tree line keeping going to the bottom corner through the gate.Bear right and you can follow this back to the hardcored track and back to the carpark. If you are feeling ambitious, you can cross the stream but don't do it like me as it was certainly not graceful,it was like a giraffe trying to get up.Head straight up the ride by the conifers and join the same prepared track.
This is a very good walk which would be really enjoyable in the summer, if we ever get shot of lockdown.
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