Car-free adventures aroundAylesburyBuckinghamshire
Two people can visit Waddesdon Manor for the price of one when you arrive by train, where the opulent rooms and rolling gardens make a memorable day trip. Nearby Aylesbury is an interesting destination, with markets, museums and a monument to David Bowie. Frequent train services from London Marylebone through the Chilterns make this area perfect for a day out: an hour’s train ride from London and a half hour walk takes you high into the wooded hills. Here is a choice of car-free day trips in the area: the chateau-style manor house hung with 18th-century art, kids’ galleries celebrating Roald Dahl’s stories, simple strolls in the woods, hefty hikes along the Ridegway, or a pub crawl past the birthplace of the Paralympic movement. Scroll to the bottom for some tips on buses, bikes and places to stay if you’re planning a staycation in Aylesbury.
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1. Train through the Chilterns
If you’re heading out of London, the adventure stars soon after you leave Marylebone station as urban ugliness gives way to rolling countryside with grassy hills and beech woods. Two railways out of Marylebone converge on Aylesbury, meaning a day return to the town is a clever way to access the Ridgeway (see 4 below).
- Heading up the railway via Wendover, look out for lakes and rivers around Rickmansworth: the railway crosses the Colne, the Gade and the Grand Union Canal.
- Great Missenden, three stops before Aylesbury, is home to the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, offering two tickets for the price of one to visitors who can show a train tickets with this voucher. See 3 (below) for more about Roald Dahl. Follow Good Journey’s directions. Wendover, the next stop, is a charming town and a great base for walkers.
- Aylesbury itself has several weekly markets, the county museum and a monument, called Earthly Messenger, celebrating the many faces of pioneering singer-songwriter David Bowie.
- Bowie introduced his alter ego Ziggy Stardust at the Friars music club in Aylesbury in 1972. The life-size bronze sculpture is under an archway near the lions on Market Square and has speakers above it to play a Bowie song every hour.
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2. Waddesdon Manor
In rooms draped with red silk or lined with gilded panelling is a world-ranking collection of Sèvres porcelain, ornate French furniture, and paintings by Gainsborough, Reynolds, Watteau, Boucher, and Cuyp. Outside, the landscaped grounds of Waddesdon Manor are colourful in every season from the gold of the Daffodil Valley in spring to the copper-leaved chestnuts in autumn. And look out for the Winter Light Trail to brighten the gloomier times of year.
- How to get to Waddesdon by bike: One great new way to get to Waddesdon Manor is to get the train to Aylesbury Parkway and then cycle along the Greenway.
- How to get to Waddesdon by train and bus: Follow Good Journey’s directions.
- Stroll towards the mansion’s entrance or take a turn through the rolling park, past the elegant rose garden and the exotically leafy aviary full of red-crested, yellow-green touracos and blue-crowned laughing thrushes.
- Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, art collector, banker and MP, built Waddesdon, in the style of a French Loire chateau. The house was finished in 1889, but lots of the paintings and furniture inside it are much older. Don’t miss the amazing wood panelling from 17th-century Paris or the Renaissance-style Smoking Room with its collection of Tudor portraits.
- There may be a summer shuttle bus, or at other times of year, you can still get there by bus from Aylesbury, Monday to Saturday.
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3. Roald Dahl country
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda … Roald Dahl wrote many of his popular children’s stories in Great Missenden, the little Buckinghamshire village where he lived for 36 years. His writing hut is still on display in the museum there, which is right opposite the station. You can also follow a Dahl trail through the village and nearby countryside.
- Aylesbury also pays tribute to the writer with an educational Roald Dahl Children’s Gallery in the Bucks County Museum open in the school holidays and on Saturdays in Summer.
- Crawl into Mr Fox’s tunnel, live upside-down with the Twits, blast into space in Willy Wonka’s glass elevator, and see magnified minibeasts inside the Giant Peach.
- The main museum is free and includes changing exhibitions. The permanent displays include a Tudor house, complete with beams and painted walls, and a Cubitt car, built here in the 1920s, in its own glass garage in the museum’s walled garden.
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4. Stride along the Ridegway...
The Chilterns is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, crossed by the ancient Ridgeway route and other long distance paths. This acorn-waymarked National Trail, an 85-mile walk from Avebury to Ivinghoe Beacon, passes along Wendover’s main street, making this town near Aylesbury an excellent base for sampling the route.
- Wendover to Princes Risborough is a hilly seven-mile walk past Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country house. If you buy a day return to Aylesbury, you can use both stations. On a clear day there are great views and in spring the mossy woods are carpeted with bluebells. The Plough Inn makes a good stopping point and even offers a Ridgeway Menu.
- The seven-mile stretch of Ridgeway from Wendover to Tring also passes through bluebell woods with great views of the hills around.
- You can even extend the walk all the way to Ivinghoe Beacon and come back to Tring station via the lovely pub at Aldbury, but this will make a stonking 14 miles or so. A leaflet, outlining shorter walks from Wendover, gives directions for exploring Coombe Hill and Wendover Woods.
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5. ... or stroll through Wendover Woods
Wendover Woods, containing a huge iron age hill fort and the highest point in the Chiltern hills, are managed by the Forestry Commission with a series of way-marked trails, activities and a cafe. The woods are home to the rare firecrest, a tiny brightly coloured bird, which nests in evergreens like Wendover’s Norway spruce trees. Look out, too, for red kites wheeling overhead and carpets of spring bluebells under the beech trees. This two-miles-each-way route leads you deep into the heart of Wendover Woods.
- From Wendover Railway station, turn left past the Shoulder of Mutton pub, heading down Wendover’s picturesque High Street. Just before the clock tower at the bottom, turn right by the Number One gift shop and follow the Ridgeway signs towards St Mary’s church (go inside to see the scratches on the pillars made by Cromwell’s soldiers when they camped here).
- Turn left past the church and a school, still following the Ridgeway acorns, but leave the Ridgeway at the junction, turning sharp left up the road and right onto a lane signed The Hale.
- After 1/3 mile, turn left at a track with a green sign, into Wendover Woods. Follow the main track uphill (look back for views), past Boddington iron age hill fort, its overgrown banks topping a steep sided spur of chalk.
- Eventually, the track will lead you to the visitors’ complex, with a Go Ape high ropes course, a carved Gruffalo, and a woodland café for a well-deserved break.
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5. Pub crawl by bus from Wendover
Wendover may not have as many pubs as it once did, but there are still some fine watering holes here. The 17th-century Red Lion was once a coaching inn on the road to London: famous guests have included Oliver Cromwell, Robert Louis Stevenson and Rupert Brook. Don’t miss the cosy King and Queen, tucked away on South Street. The Shoulder of Mutton is closest to the station if you decide to wait for a later train; it can serve up local ales and rich chocolate brownies – something for everyone.
- Bus 50 between Wendover and Aylesbury leaves regularly from the Clock Tower (regularly on Saturday, less on Sunday) until early evening. It passes through the village of Weston Turville with several thatched cottages and some more great pubs.
- The Five Bells offers comfort food of the steak-and-mushroom-pie variety, while the Chequers is all about fine dining, from the in-house oak-smoked haddock to the spiced “hand-dived” king scallops.
- A mile away by bus or foot is Stoke Mandeville, birthplace of the Paralympic movement. Inspired by the 2012 games, Buckinghamshire Disability Service recently opened the Stoke Mandeville Way, a three-mile accessible route from Aylesbury Railway Station to Stoke Mandeville stadium and beyond.
- On the way into Aylesbury, the bus passes the wisteria-covered Broad Leys pub and the oak-beamed Aristocrat.
- The Kings Head pub in the centre of Aylesbury is so old it’s owned by the National Trust. It serves draught ales from the Chiltern Brewery near Wendover, ciders from Somerset, and guest beers from London, Oakham, and Derbyshire. Luckily, Aylesbury Railway station is less than 1/4 mile away.
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Buses, bikes and places to stay
Here’s a bit more practical info if you’re planning a staycation in Aylesbury.
- If you’re taking several bus rides around town on the same day that you arrive by train, get a bargain PlusBus ticket. You could ride out to Broughton and walk back along the canal or connect with the ski and sports centre at Watermead, where there is also a Premier Inn.
- Alternatively, for cycling the Greenway to Waddesdon, you can also hire bikes. They have recently introduced electric bikes for visitors in the area with a small docking station at Aylesbury Parkway.
- There are various places to stay in Aylesbury, including the local Travelodge, with double rooms. It’s ten minutes’ stroll from the railway station and four minutes from the David Bowie statue.
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Discover more offers and days out in Buckinghamshire with Good Journey. For more money-saving tips see our handy guides to trains and buses.
