Oxhey Hall and the north side
North from the old clubhouse into the 1930s Oxhey Hall estate, past the one farmhouse from the 1872 sale that still stands, and back along the ancient woods of the playing fields.
Start: Green Lane car park, by the Pavilion. Route: a loop with 8 stops. Underfoot: Pavements, then grass and rough paths on the playing fields, muddy in winter.
Google Maps shows every stop in its app or on a computer. In a phone's web browser it can leave stops out, so follow the map on this page or use the GPX file.
The route follows paths and pavements where they exist, and goes straight across open grass where they don't. Paths are drawn from OpenStreetMap, so check the ground as you go.
- 1
The Pavilion
The old golf clubhouse. In 1924 the Blackwells sold Oxhey Lodge Farm and parts of two others, and that land became the Oxhey Hall estate to the north. Read more →
Old postcard: the Club House, Oxhey Golf Club. Bill the Brit, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) - 2
Oxhey Lodge
The farmhouse was left just outside the 1943 housing order and stood until the late 1950s. Its site is now under Highlands. Read more →
- 3
Broadfields Lane
The name probably echoes Broad Field, one of the Oxhey Hall farm fields in 1872, though we found no record of how the road was named. Read more →
- 4
Oxhey Hall
The hall stands back from the lane here: a moated farmhouse of the early 1500s with a carved oak ceiling, listed Grade II*, and its moat is a scheduled monument. It is a private house, so please look only from the lane. Read more →
- 5
Hampermill Lane
The lane runs down past the west end of the playing fields, where a small wood by the entrance matches the north end of Long Spring on the 1896 map. Read more →
- 6
Hampermill Wood
One of the small ancient woods on the fields, on Natural England's revised list. Read more →
Inside Hampermill Wood on the playing fields in 2018, one of the small woods now on Natural England's revised ancient woodland list. © N Chadwick, Geograph (CC BY-SA 2.0) - 7
Big Wood and Nelson's Drop
The deep chalk pit on the north-west side of Big Wood was already on the map of 1872. Look from the edge only. Read more →
Old postcard: the 15th green, the short hole over Nelson's Drop. Bill the Brit, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) - 8
Ox Pasture Spring
A strip of old hornbeam coppice, which may take its name from the Ox Pasture fields of the 1872 farms. Head east across the grass to the Pavilion. Read more →