Chilterns and Thames Valley

Back to the beginning

Distance: 9.77 miles
Ascent: 237 metres
Duration: 3 hours 5 minutes

Walk 26: Chess Valley

Something began here in Sarratt back in 1981 or so. I've deliberately saved this visit to the village as the last Chiltern and Thames Valley walk.

It was the last summer at the first house in which I grew up. The churches' Holiday Week was always a highlight of the school holiday: a week in a marquee on the common with songs, plays and games. On the last day of the week the oldest children were taken on an afternoon walk to Sarratt. There on the village green I remember praying "the prayer" for the first time. It's the closest I have to a "conversion story".

A song I first heard twenty years ago always comes to mind when I think of Sarratt now. "I sometimes get embarrassed," sings Brian McGlynn, "I've been saved so many times". I'm still embarrassed, but also humbled by grace. "It's just that I've been lifted by the hands of love."