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Topsy Turville Mountain bike ride

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Had a free day in late October so went out with one of my mates for a longer mountain bike ride. He had a ride route from a magazine which we decided to follow. The starting point was a little village not far from my home town, a place called Turville. You may not of heard of the village but if you’ve seen the BBC show The Vicar of Dibley you’d know it as the show is filmed there. After the usual faf of getting gear together and into the car we got there at eleven and the weather was grey but dry and 9degC. Being good weather for October there were a lot of horses riding through the village. The area is a popular for hacking and we would be riding a lot of the same bridleways on our route. We’d got lucky and were parked on the high street by the Bull and Butcher pub, so we road off out the village.

Turville - Village high street and hills to climb later.

Village high street and hills to climb later.

After a quarter a mile of road we swung of onto the first bridleway and up the hill.

Stopping to gather bearings

Once clear of the farmers fields we climbed into the woods

Beech woods

They are old Beech wood mostly and looking good with the change to Autumn colour.

We climbed up to Turville Heath slow going on the slippery leaves. Then dropped back into some more woods for a rocky descent hidden beneath fallen leaves. Which was fast bumpy and fun. We then had a slightly longer road section back into Turville after missing our turning to Ibstone. Rather than back track we carried up the steep hill to the windmill and rejoined the bridleway we’d meant to be on.

Looking back to Turville

Looking back to Turville

Cobstone Windmill

From the top of the ridge we dropped down through more woods on an other bridleway, caught an other road briefly before more woods.

I was having a great time in the woods

I was having a great time in the woods

We took a wrong turning in the woods at somepoint so lost and a bit hungry just stopped for lunch at Bolters end.

Pint

Pint

Feed and watered we had a good road descent to regain our route. Which was a long slow road climb to the next bridleway pleasent in the sunshine though. We saw half a dozen deer in the woods across the valley including a Stag which was bellowing away.

There's deer in them there woods

Back on the bridleway through the woods two deer went flying across the trail 10ft ahead of me and scooted through the hedge. It was a bit of wild life day as saw a number of Red kites in the air, squirrels on the ground and pheasant’s just all over. Despite seeing loads of horses in the village at the beginning we didn’t see any out on the trails and only cam across one group of walkers all day.

More woods

More woods

We spent an other hour of more of the same, country lanes and wooded bridleways. it was not the route we set out to do but was fun. After the last batch of woods there was one last bridleway across some fields to Turville. You can just see the windmill on the ridge we passed earlier.

Turville

Turville


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