Piddington and Wheeler End is in the heart of the chalk Chiltern Hills, only 2km west of the famous historic National Trust village of West Wycombe. The parish lies across the A40, extending from Chawley Farm in the north, across the Radnage ridge, down into the A40 dry valley at Piddington, and south up onto the high plateau at Wheeler End. It has a large proportion of woodland, many of these woods have bluebells in the spring.

There are many footpaths leading out to the fields and woods in all directions, and the parish includes the Open Access area of Wheeler End Common. The nature reserve in Bottom Wood   is just beyond the parish boundary to the north-west. 

There are many footpaths leading out to the fields and woods in all directions, and the parish includes the Open Access area of Wheeler End Common. The nature reserve in Bottom Wood is just beyond the parish boundary to the north-west.  See  archived website and  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottom_Wood

There is usually parking available along the Old Oxford Road to the west of Piddington, a popular starting place for walking groups, sometimes finishing with lunch at the Dashwood Roadhouse pub.  This guided walk passes through Bottom Wood.  Suggested walks from Wheeler End include one west to Tipping Shaw Wood and one east to Great Wood

On the south-western edge of the parish is the wooded Cadmore End Common, another large Open Access area which has patches of forget-me-nots as well as the usual masses of bluebells.

The parish only got its new name after 1970, before then it was called West Wycombe (rural). In 1895 there was a proposal to put Wheeler End into Lane End civil parish, but the residents petitioned against it, they wanted to stay in West Wycombe.

Piddington is (unusually) a very recent settlement, the first houses only date from 1903. But it is right on an ancient routeway from London to Oxford and on to Wales.  Roman metal objects and coins were found in the fields east and west of Piddington, and in Fillingdon Woods to the north-west.  A historian Charles Morris mapped a possible roman road through Piddington “A Roman Road through South Buckinghamshire” in 1968.  At the top of the hill along Old Oxford Road there was a Medieval settlement  60 metres across, inside a circular ditch which can still be seen.  It had several buildings inside, a dovecot nearby, and a well or mineshaft where several bodies were found, probably victims of the Black Death.  The road through Piddington is shown on a 1675 road atlas, going from London to Aberystwyth. See  History-of-routes-through-Piddington.pdf

Piddington is at the foot of a steep hill, various routes have been made to get up the hill over the years :-    

• A 1770 map shows the main road curving around the hill to reduce the gradient; this can still be followed as an impressive deep “hollow-way” footpath up the hill, probably deepened by the large herds of cattle guided by drovers, breaking up the soft chalk under their hooves.
• Around 1800 a turnpike road was made, now called the Old Dashwood Hill, but this went straight up the hill making the slope much steeper.  Stage-coaches hired extra horses to pull up the hill, but let the horses find their own way back home!  Lorries could only carry half their load up at a time, and motor coaches asked passengers to walk down the hill. The A40 was improved again in 1925 by making a deep cutting, this was done using a steam powered excavator, and narrow-gauge railways to carry the chalk away. The A40 was also straightened and moved away from Piddington, creating a green and room for allotments.

Piddington is at the foot of a steep hill, various routes have been made to get up the hill :-    
Jeffrey’s 1770 map shows the main road curving around the hill to reduce the gradient; this can still be followed as an impressive deep “hollow-way” footpath up the hill, probably worn down by the large herds of cattle guided by drovers, breaking up the soft chalk under their hooves. Heavy rains washed the debris down the hollow-way like a chute. This way was adopted and probably improved by the Beaconsfield to Stokenchurch Turnpike Trust from 1719.
Around 1800 a new turnpike road was made, now called the Old Dashwood Hill, but this went straight up the hill making the slope much steeper.  Stage-coaches hired extra horses from the pub or Ham Farm to pull up the hill, but let the horses find their own way back home !  Lorries could only carry half their load up at a time, and motor coaches sometimes asked passengers to walk down the hill.  
The A40 was improved again in 1927 by making a deep cutting, this was done using a steam powered excavator, and narrow-gauge railways to carry the chalk away.  The A40 was also straightened and moved away from Piddington at the same time, creating a village green and room for allotments.
Finally the M40 was built in 1967, including a huge cutting through the Chilterns, taking most of the traffic off the A40.
Wheeler End is shown on the 1770 map, already looking quite similar to today with the two widely spaced roads and a huge common between them.  On the 1851 census almost all the men of the village were labourers, probably mostly on the farms, and almost all the women and girls who worked were lacemaking.  Nine men in the village made chairs, the early days of a new industry.  There is a large guide to the history and buildings of Wheeler End here .

There was a large brick-making industry in Cadmore End Common, just outside the parish, until the clay ran out in 1939.  Some of the Wheeler End labourers may have worked at this, and the village pub was called the Brickmaker’s Arms. See  Cadmore-End-Common-Conservation-Area