80-acre common, golf and festivals

This Chiltern hilltop is crowned by lovely Ley Hill Common and by the Queen’s Jubilee Beacon, perched on the little green outside two village pub buildings – The Crown and The Swan*. The 80-acre Common is popular with walkers and birdwatchers, who share it with Chesham & Ley Hill Golf Club and with Ley Hill’s Cricket Club.

The Common also provides the setting for Classics on the Common, an impressive gathering of classic cars which takes place on a Sunday in August.

Pubs and refreshments

Ther are two pubs opposite the common. The Crown is a popular pub for food and drink and hosts the annual beer and music festival in August.
Villagers are campaigning to buy The Swan and relaunch it as a Community Pub. In the meantime, its opening hours are limited.

Built around 1520, The Swan is thought to be Buckinghamshire’s oldest ale house. Prisoners bound for the village gallows at Jason’s Hill took their last drink here, and Clark Gable, Glen Miller and James Stewart enjoyed a more convivial drink at The Swan when visiting the American Air Force Base at nearby Bovingdon.

Visitors will find a warm welcome and refreshments at Chesham & Ley Hill Golf Club, which is perfectly placed for walkers and cyclists.

Golf and cricket

Golf began here in the 1890s, when Lord Chesham gave a group of Chesham professional men permission to play on the Common. Local artisans then formed the Ley Hill part of the club. Set amongst mature trees, Chesham and Ley Hill Golf Club’s 9-hole course is renowned for its tricky tee shots and challenging small greens. Non-members are welcome to play here. All visitors are welcome at the friendly club house, which serves drinks and food.

Ley Hill Cricket Club’s matches are played on the common. Visitors can sit back and watch a match from outside the pub, look in at the pavilion bar or relax with a drink on the patio.

Woodlands, nature reserves and walks

Tylers Hill and Cowcroft Wood

Kiln Lane, just a stone’s throw from The Crown, leads walkers to Tylers Hill and Cowcroft Wood, a designated Country Wildlife Site and Nature Reserve. These lovely woodlands of beech and oak are noted for displays of bluebells and wild orchids in the summer. The area is pitted with channels and gulleys, the remains of claypits which fed the brick and tile industries which thrived around the village as early as Tudor times.

The Ley Hill Circular Walk

Starting and finishing at The Crown, this 6km (3.8-mile) stile free walk explores the network of paths around the village and provides lovely views of the Chess Valley. Passing through Tylers Hill it takes in little St George’s Church, with its Gravedigger’s Hut built in 1907 by local builder Jesse Mead and recently restored. The network of lanes which serve Tylers Hill provide fine examples of the banked lanes peculiar to Buckinghamshire.

Ley Hill circular walk route stages and map