Banburyshire Rambles Photo-Journal

This isn't tranquil location, beneath the pylons and next to the London Road. What it is is a very useful way into the woods and hills of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

If you want the tourist hotspots of the Bacombe Hill National Nature Reserve and Coombe Hill you'd probably use the green lane at the top of the ridge – from the road that runs past Wendover railway station. For the more varied beauty of the wider woods and hills, this is the most direct route towards Dunsmore and Hampden from the station.

The lane runs uphill: forking left towards Dunsmore and Hampden; straight-on and right to the top of Coombe Hill. The lane is being diverted around the entrance to the 'green tunnel' which runs through the ridge past Wendover. HS2 runs to the left of the line of pylons in the above image – slowly rising on an embankment away into the distance, across the Small Dean Viaduct and into a cutting in the distance.

Objectively the HS2 development beside the Wendover bypass makes little difference. However, as you rise up the lane, and Wendover Woods and Haddington Hill come into view (image right), the noise environment improves – and it is at this point that the visual and noise intrusion form HS2 will come into effect.

As you escape the bypass although the noise level improves, the entrance to the 'green tunnel' and the embankment beyond will have a greater impact upon the landscape.