Wendover

This delightful old market town is situated in a gap on the northern escarpment of the Chiltern Hills, in the Metropolitan Green Belt and the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has an attractive main street of half-timbered, thatched houses and cottages of which the best examples are Anne Boleyn’s Cottages. A picturesque place, often seen as the gateway to the Chilterns, Wendover has a fine selection of antique and craft shops, tearooms and bookshops. In 1300 the town was granted the right to send two representatives to Parliament; these have included John Hampden, George Canning and Edmund Burke. The right was extinguished by the Reform Act of 1832. The town is twinned with Liffre in Brittany, and the Twinning Stones outside the library are permanent reminders of the close ties. 

The town also offers visitors an opportunity of seeing the glorious countryside through the medium of Wendover Woods. Created for recreational pursuits – there’s a mountain bike course at Aston Hill – as well as for conservation and timber production, these Forestry Commission woods offer visitors numerous trails through the coniferous and broadleaved woodland. It is one of the best sites in the country to spot the tiny firecrest, a bird that is becoming increasingly rare. Go Ape is an award-winning high wire forest adventure course of rope bridges, Tarzan swings and zip slides, all set high up in the treetops.

Off the B4010 a short drive west of Wendover, Coombe Hill is the highest point in the Chilterns and affords superb views across the Vale of Aylesbury, the Berkshire Downs and the Cotswolds. On the summit is a monument dedicated to the men who died in the Boer War. The National Trust has introduced a flock of sheep on to the hill to control the invasion of scrub and to encourage the grass.