On Thursday the 18th June a number of the Chiltern District Welsh Society were treated to an historical and archaeological walk around Hodgemoor Woods led by Nigel Rothwell and his wife Janet.
To quote two members of the group after the event: “I really enjoyed it and it was very informative. I will look at woods with new eyes from now on.” “I thought the talk today was amazing. I loved every minute of it! “ Indeed it was. Nigel had done a great deal of preparation and we were all supplied at the beginning with a booklet containing maps, photos and diagrams for reference during the walk.
We started with the Iron Age and Roman times – did you know that a road from Verulamium (St Albans) runs right through the wood? The Lidar map showed it up beautifully and Nigel was able to show us parts of the Roman road. The same map revealed an Iron Age farmstead and field system through which the road later passed. Lidar is a remote sensing technology that uses laser pulses to measure precise distances and generate highly accurate, 3D models and topographic maps of environments. Then on to an Anglo Saxon homestead and medieval field patterns with their characteristic ridge and furrow system.
Walking through the woods we were at the edge of the Parish of Seer Green. In the Domesday Book Seer Green was recorded as a detached woodland portion of the Manor of Farnham (later Farnham Royal). The land was governed by a companion of William the Conqueror, Bertram de Verdun. This is where a Welsh connection comes in. De Verdun was also a Marcher Lord!
The woods were at one time fields which gradually became wooded through the Middle Ages. Names of fields such as Further Brickmill Field gave evidence of the brick making industry that took place, together with the huge pits in the wood where the clay was dug out. Nigel was by profession a geologist so he gave us insight into why the pits, and other features such as springs were in the place they were. The underlying ground being chalk in the south-eastern corner of the wood, overlaid in the centre with clay and further north with a top layer of sand and gravel.
It was fascinating to hear of the local Chalfont St Giles “Pest House”. Apparently most parishes had one for locals with contagious diseases. It was situated on the very limit of the Parish and was only demolished round about the end of the second World War when found not fit for habitation.
During the Second World War the woods served as temporary billeting for various units, including Northamptonshire Territorials and the 51st Highland Division.
Following WW2 Hodgemoor Woods served as a Polish Resettlement Camp for allied soldiers and their families and we were shown the remains of the necessary Effluent Treatment Plant that was built for the camp. The Camp only closed down in 1962. We spotted the remains of their telegraph system way up in a large Scots Pine!
A fascinating morning. We have walked through Hodgemoor Woods on many occasions without realizing the wealth of history literally beneath our feet.
Our thanks to Nigel and his wife Janet. CDWS has made a contribution to the Seer Green and Jordans Society, of which Nigel is an active member.
The morning was rounded off with a very pleasant lunch at The White Hart in Chalfont St Giles.
A morning to remember.
Janet John 18/6/2026
The tour was very informative and full of surprising insights into life in Amersham during Tudor times. We also discovered the origins of many everyday expressions that originated in that period.
We met again with the three other women. One was the Wise Woman, who sold herbs and potions for medicinal purposes. She trod a fine line between providing a health service and being accused of witchcraft. Life was hard for most people and meat was a luxury. A family meal might be a pot of vegetables with a very small portion of meat. It was “pot luck” for whoever pulled out a ladleful with the piece of meat in it.
The Martyr’s Memorial was a poignant reminder of harsher times. Their crime was to read the Bible in English, an act seen as a challenge to the authority of the Church and its bishops. They were burned at the stake, with the daughter of the first victim made to light the fire. Ironically, within less than a century English language bibles were to be found in all Anglican churches. A play about those events is held every four or so years in Amersham, and for those that haven’t seen it, preparations have already begun for the next performance in 2027. Well worth seeing.
We all met at The Queen’s Head in Little Marlow at 10:00 for a 10:30 start. There were about 18 of us in all. We ordered our lunches before setting off.
We started off by heading off to the parish church of St John the Baptist.
Norman times, was constructed from materials from the convent, one of the oldest parts is the font.
We were able to spot swans, great crested grebes, tufted ducks, and various geese (greylag, bean or was it pink footed?).
As we went, Gwyndaf pointed out features of the flood plain, including the alder trees that grew along the river. Alders love moist or boggy ground, and Gwyndaf showed us the unusual female catkins, which look just like very small pine cones. It is the only deciduous tree which produces a cone.
On Thursday 19th September, a group of 15 members met at10:00am on Windsor Bridge for a walk around Windsor and Eton.
David & Gwyndaf had done their homework and planned a walk that was to take in sights of Windsor that many of us had not seen before. The walk was loosely based on The Queen’s Walkway and a series of 63 of the town’s attractions, but we were to cover only the sights in the centre of the town.
There were many unusual attractions: the death warrant for Charles I, a game of hopscotch based on monarchs connected with Windsor and the parish church of St John the Baptist which held an 18th century picture of the last supper, a wonderful carved altar rail by Grinling Gibbons and the royal pew with two grand wooden thrones.
First we visited the new church which was built in Victorian times (1867), to house the growing population of the village. Unusually for a Victorian church, it was built in the ‘Arts and Crafts’ style rather than gothic. The church bell was taken from the old church and is said to date from about 1290.
Trish then took us on a path leading behind the new church to a much smaller building. This dated back to about 1220, built by the Cistercian monks at Missenden Abbey on a site of an older wooden church. One of the first things that we noticed were the old sun dials on the exterior wall. These were Mass Clocks, for telling the time for mass.
Inside there were traces of the medieval wall Doom painting showing the weighing of souls and another depicting St
Christopher.
figures of St Mary and St John. Below that, the main window depicts three puritans including John Hampden in the centre and Oliver Cromwell to his left. This window was originally meant to be for the church in Little Hampden, but was rejected as it contained the figure of Cromwell.
We then walked through the woods, which were carpeted with wild garlic and their aroma filled the air. Some of our walkers took the opportunity to gather leaves as they can make a very good pesto. Luckily, it had not been raining recently so the path was not very muddy.
As The Lee is quite high up, there are no streams and the village used to rely on a pond for its water. In 1897, in the year of Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, a well was dug to provide clean water. This was quite a task, as the well is 365 feet deep, 4 foot six inches wide, and the workers had to rely on candles for their light and a blacksmith’s bellows to provide ventilation. It was commissioned by Sir Arthur Liberty and built by Liberty’s craftsmen.
On the way Gwyndaf found several plants of interest, including the Coralroot, a tall pink flower which is quite rare (in most places)96, but one of the few places you can find it is in the Chilterns.
5 Horsemoor Lane, past a farm and some woodworking buildings, across a field with views across to Penn Street and its church, then turned right into a path edging Priestlands Wood, back towards the common and The Potter’s Arms. On the way we were told of the hundreds of different types of dandelions, and were informed about sedges – all being asked to recite ‘Sedges have Edges’.
