12 *** Saturday 7 August 2021 The Daily Telegraph The Daily Telegraph Saturday 7 August 2021 *** 13

pics, but Hadleigh Park has been enter- taining riders ever since. Advanced Audley End trails are currently under maintenance, but about three miles of the Green Trail is an is open and riders of any age can use the skills zone, with practice features from exercise in rock steps to drop-offs, and the pump track for building speed. This summer, Jacobean a new two-and-a-half-hour “Ride Hadle- symmetry igh, Ride History” guided bike tour fea- tures tales from the Vikings to the and Second World War. Bike hire from £14pp, tour £20 adults, ambition £14 children; hadleighparkcycles.co.uk/ cycling-in-the-park

ART AT THE END OF THE PIER 14 Southend-on-Sea, famed for its mighty pier, has been coming into focus as an art hub since the first Estuary Festival in 2016, co-curated by art incubators Metal (who have a base in Southend) and Cement Fields in Kent. The 2021 festival is over, but many works are on show all year and Arbonauts stages Silt, featuring swim- mers on the mudflats, on Sept 24 and 25. Meanwhile, a public art installation, Hares About Town, features 30 giant hares and 53 leverets designed over the south door. Go midweek if by artists and schoolchildren and linked possible, as pretty little Dedham is by a walking trail. A farewell event will often swamped at weekends. be held from Sept 24-26, with proceeds General admission £12, guided tours 20 great summer to the local Havens Hospices. £17; munningsmuseum.org.uk Please donate £1pp; haresabouttown. co.uk. Also see estuaryfestival.com/ YOUR OWN ISLAND events.html HOME (BRIEFLY) 19 Osea Island, in the middle of THE JOY OF JACOBEAN the Blackwater Estuary, has Audley End, just west of Saf- been owned for more than 20 years by outings to tempt 15 fron Walden, is an exercise in Nigel Frieda, the record producer and Jacobean symmetry and ambi- brother of hairdresser John. It tion, with grounds landscaped by Capa- combines its status as a site of special bility Brown in the 18th century. At its scientific interest with a generous peak, the house had more than 100 choice of very cool places to stay, with servants and its stables housed 20 23 charming properties from a cottage you eastwards horses (with room for 20 more when sleeping two to the glamorous Manor visitors came). You can spend time in House overlooking the sea. It’s natural, the Victorian Stable Yard, meeting the rather than flash – all the cottages are Wetlands, vineyards, churches... and Southend-on-Sea. five resident horses as they come back self-catering – but it’s also home to two from their morning exercise, watching private recording studios and several There’s something for everyone, says Sophie Campbell a display of skills (including the elegant private-hire bars and eateries, so it art of riding side saddle) and talking to  Ride your luck for the , Stour Valley, Sud-  Enjoy fine fare is often booked in its entirety by the at Audley End, near (and wine) at Crouch their “Victorian” grooms. bury and Railway Company Ridge Estate rich and famous. Not your average House and garden admission £20.90 over the River Colne and Mount Bures island, then. adults, £10.60 children; english-herit-  Isle be there: get ridge. Watch trains pass as you sip a pint Rooms for two start at £250-£300 per THE BEAUTY OF BARGING  House for Essex, Walk the Broomway, £35pp; tombennett age.org.uk away from it all in the garden of the 14th-century Swan night, oseaisland.co.uk Flat-bottomed and snub-nosed, overlooking the outdoors.co.uk on Osea Island Inn in Chappel and . Travel 1 Thames sailing barges worked , was PADDLING IN THE WILD by train from (six minutes), JAM WITH the creeks and tributaries of the designed by Fat SPRING-LOADED Clacton Kayaks offers rentals then on to the Thatchers Arms at Bures, EVERYTHING Thames Estuary, with its sandbars, Architecture and INDOOR FUN 16 and tuition in kayaking and which probably began as a beer house 20 When the Wilkin family islets and bridges. They could be han- Grayson Perry 5 It’s summer. It’s Britain. It’s rain- paddleboarding on the 1920s for the navvies. first grew fruit on their dled by a crew of two, with coastal ing. Luckily you can pile into a Boating Lake, yards from Greater Anglia single tickets £3.50 per farm near Tiptree, it all went to Lon- barges carrying up to 300 tons of cargo.  Sail down the Jump Street – one in Colchester, one in the sea in (not, confusingly, in leg; greateranglia.co.uk don by train. By the late 1880s, they A few dozen survive and to see them Thames on an old – with massive Open Jump Clacton), so beginners can learn in calm were specialising in fruit preserves, racing, rusty sails a-billow, is quite a wooden barge arenas of 50 interconnected trampo- water while more experienced renters AT HOME WITH and a descendant, “Mr John”, started a sight: join a summer “barge match” lines and tumble tracks. In Chelmsford can head for the sea. They also do pri- SIR ALFRED modest museum. Today it’s the Jam (one of the world’s oldest sailing races, there’s a Clip ’n’ Climb facility open to vate wildlife tours by kayak for up to six 18 Alfred Munnings, who so riled Museum, where sweet-toothed visi- dating back to 1863), do a leisurely day everyone from four years old and up. people on the River Stour, starting at the Modernists as president of tors can potter about amongst jam par- sail, haul sheets with the crew or take a There are 32 different climbing chal- Stratford St Mary (which is, in fact, in the Royal Academy from 1944 to 1949, aphernalia and mementos of old two-hour tea/coffee cruise from Top- lenges and three extreme challenges , shhh). was a fine painter of horses and rural village life. Farm tours are currently sail Charter’s base. involving heights of over 26ft, keeping Lessons £25 adults, £15 children, Wild life. He converted stables into a studio suspended (they hope to add tractor Two-hour cruises from £27pp, day sail teens fully occupied. Chelmsford also Guided Tours £45pp; clactonkayaks. at his home, Castle House in Dedham, tours in 2022) but the shop and tea from £65pp; top-sail.co.uk features Kendrick’s Kingdom, a huge co.uk left to the nation by Lady Munnings. room, with outdoor seating, are open. soft play area for toddlers. Eight rooms and 200 paintings are on Tiptree has traditional tea rooms From £10 per hour for access to jumping by the way, comes from the local name shelters: spot teals, redshanks, wigeons, MOUNTAIN BIKE A VIEW OF A VIADUCT show via timed tickets or guided tours across the county: try the one at the areas, and from £2.50 per hour for soft for a tributary of the Colne. brent geese, avocets and many others, FOR BRITAIN In July 1849, the first train to (closed Sundays and Mondays). The café Lock, Heybridge Basin, handily placed play; jumpstreet.co.uk romanrivermusic.org.uk plus small mammals and the odd seal in 13 There were hoots of joy in 2012 17 travel from Colchester to Sud- is closed, so bring a picnic. Just down on a four-mile hiking route, so you can the . when one of our flattest coun- bury puffed over a staggering the road in St Mary’s in Ded - walk it off afterwards. ANCIENT CHURCH TO PUZZLED? YOU WILL BE Open 8am to 8pm, free; rspb.org.uk/ ties was chosen to host the mountain piece of engineering, the Chappel Via- ham, The Ascension, a rare example of a Free tours. Cream teas £6.95pp, no ANCIENT CHURCH are intriguing: even more reserves-and-events biking segments of the Olym- duct, more than 1,000ft long and built religious Constable painting, hangs reservations; tiptree.com/museum 6 The St Peter’s Way is a 40-mile 9 so when there are four in one pilgrimage route connecting two town, one very rare. Saffron magical churches. Near the beginning Walden’s grade II listed turf is one of the trail is the Church of St Andrew, of only eight in the world and was prob- Greensted-juxta-Ongar, stave-built ably cut into common ground in the with 11th-century plank walls, which medieval period, then recut in 1699 and can claim to be the oldest wooden repeatedly after that. It’s a low-key church in the world. At the end, and the pleasure, best seen in low light, and fol- focal point of the walk, is the Chapel of lowed by the Victorian maze in St Peter-on-the-Wall at Bradwell-on- Bridge End Garden, a contemporary Sea, the simplest of brick and stone brick in the Jubilee Gardens structures perched on the site of a long- bandstand, and a 2016 maze in Swan gone Roman fort, in a typically East Meadow with planters featuring child- Anglian landscape of fields, sky and sea. friendly mini-mazes and . Oh, Please donate if you can; british and there’s a finger-maze artwork by pilgrimage.org/portfolio/st-peters-way Michael Ayrton in the Fry Art Gallery. Free; visitsaffronwalden.gov.uk GARDEN IN A CAR PARK Talk about prescient: the first REFUEL BY RAIL ON THE GOURMET VINEYARD TOUR book by Essex native Beth Chatto watered since, a tribute to her “right with the Mercury Theatre, DanceEast  A-maze-ing: SALTMARSH COAST 7 Saffron Walden’s Essex farmers Sam and Ross was published in 1978, long before plant, right place” mantra. Luckily When Coun- and the Colchester Arts Centre, staging turf maze is 10 2 Lonergan planted their first most of us had discovered global warm- there’s a and tea room. performances in quirky spaces in and thought to be of cil rechristened the 75 miles vines on a ridge overlooking ing. The Dry Garden was based on what From £8.95 per adult, £1.50 per child; around town. Expect commissioned medieval origin of shoreline between the Blackwater the in 2012 and now have was to become a legendary seven-acre bethchatto.co.uk pieces, collaborations, lots of emerging and Crouch estuaries the Saltmarsh more than 10 acres of chardonnay and garden on the site of her husband’s fam- talent and a high standard of music. Coast, they installed information hubs pinot noir, a barn and terrace for tast- ily fruit farm, six miles east of Colchester. FESTIVAL There are early concerts for under- at the five coastal towns and created ings, meals and events, and an in- Gradually, her fame – and clutch of (SEPTEMBER 16 TO 26) fives, cheap tickets for under-30s and a 20 walking routes along the sea wall house chef. They are one of a cluster of Chelsea Golds – grew, and in 1992 she 8 Colchester doesn’t have a con- generous spirit that involves people of and looping inland. If you don’t want vineyards around Chelmsford (with built her famous Gravel Garden cert hall, so over three long all backgrounds and ages, particularly to walk, tackle the demanding Crouch more in the north of the county) (on the site of a car park). It hasn’t been weekends each autumn, it partners the young. The name “Roman River”, Valley Rail Ale Trail along the southern benefiting greatly from the area’s Dengie peninsula, visiting pubs, brew- south-facing slopes and low rainfall. eries and taprooms all the way. Also The Gold Grand Tour includes a look out for the annual Art Trail in guided stroll through the vines and a Burnham-on-Crouch every June, link- tasting (£35), but I’d go for the Seasonal ing artists’ studios and galleries. Vineyard Tour and Lunch. Yum. Greater Anglia anytime return Wick- Tour and lunch, £55pp; crouchridge. ROOMS AT THE INN ford- £12.30; visitmaldon com district.co.uk

THE HOUSE THAT BUNKER DOWN FOR GRAYSON BUILT THE CRICKETERS, John Vereker was well thoughtful extras like THE COLD WAR 3 In 2015, Living Architecture CLAVERING ahead of the curve when bikes to borrow, OS maps 11 When 25 acres of the Parrish commissioned artist Grayson Formerly the creation of he reinvented the and picnic hampers. Italian family’s arable farm at Kelvedon Perry and Fat Architects to build Trevor and Sally Oliver property as a gastropub food is the focus in the was requisitioned for the building of a A House for Essex near the River Stour. (Jamie’s parents, in case with rooms in the 1970s, pub-cum-trattoria. Cold War nuclear bunker in the 1950s, The result is a cheery nod to holy you were wondering), this and he’s still here, assisted Rooms from £150 they “farmed over it so the Russians buildings, from English wayside chap- long-running gastropub by the third generation of (thesuninndedham.com) couldn’t see”. They bought it back in els to Romanian monasteries, with a with rooms was taken his family. The style is 1992 and it’s genuinely creepy to walk dash of Thai temple thrown in. It over recently by the traditional and pub-like in FLITCH OF BACON, into a dreary “bungalow” in the woods sleeps four, booking is by ballot and it’s regional Chestnut group the main 600-year-old- LITTLE DUNMOW and descend into a cavernous military not cheap, so if you can’t stay, walk of pubs, but this hasn’t building, but it’s Daniel Clifford’s relaxed complex, complete with moaning sirens north from railway station altered its charm one bit. supplemented with a alternative to the two and eerie public information films. and pass the house en route to The food is still top-notch selection of cool boutique- Michelin-starred fare of Above ground are a high-ropes course, Wrabness Nature Reserve (essexwt. pub cuisine and the 22 style rooms in a Georgian the renowned Midsummer a world-class mud run (used for two org.uk/nature-reserves/wrabness), rooms – dotted around a annexe up the street. House is more restaurant- world championships pre-Covid) and home to turtledoves, nightingales, trio of buildings next door There are also a number of with-rooms than zip wires over the lake. At night, the barn owls and brent geese. and across the road – have rooms in Hill House, traditional inn, but in bunker is popular with paranormal Two nights midweek, £975, three been beautifully between the two. the heart of Dunmow and societies and ghost-hunters. nights at the weekend, £1,595; refurbished in a bright and Rooms from £80 with three comfy and Adults £8.50, children aged 5-16 £6.50; living-architecture.co.uk highly contemporary style (bell-inn.co.uk) beautifully decorated secretnuclearbunker.com and furnished with all the rooms, it’s an elevated A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE little luxuries you need. THE PHEASANT, offering for epicurean THE WILD WETLANDS Tom Bennett is a guide who They even provide a torch GESTINGTHORPE  And so to bed: one of the comfy rooms at the Flitch of Bacon travellers exploring this OF WALLASEA 4 specialises in intriguing Brit- to help you find your way In a very rural part of part of Essex. The 12 Essex has retained only a frac- ish hikes, and his bestseller is to the pub on a dark night. north Essex, this is a dishes with veg from the THE SUN INN, DEDHAM emphasis is on simple, tion of its natural, intertidal the Broomway walk off Foulness Rooms from £95 country pub at heart, with kitchen garden; their own This Essex bolthole, which hearty ingredients and salt marshes. Wallasea, once five Island. It fascinates people because it’s (thecricketers.co.uk) mismatched furniture, “Pheasant Bitter” using appeared in the Domesday unfussy techniques that sparsely populated marsh islands on the liminal and edgy – underwater at high wood-burning stoves, real hops smoked in their Book, is located in one of don’t stray too far from south side of the Crouch estuary, was tide, fringed with ordnance – with all THE BELL INN, ales and a loyal following on-site smokehouse; southeast ’s most the restaurant’s initial enclosed by Dutch engineers in the 15th the melancholy beauty of sky and HORNDON ON THE HILL who come for the honey from their bees; attractive villages in incarnation as a posh pub. century and turned to arable land in the sea. Luckily, Tom’s other skill is Expect comfy, well- excellent food and five and delicious fresh eggs the heart of Constable The garden, with its Big 1930s. Now the sea has been allowed to navigation: you wouldn’t tackle this on appointed rooms, stylish rooms. Everything from their hens. Rooms country. With creaky Green Egg BBQs and a bar, encroach, creating one of Britain’s larg- your own and he is licensed to guide and seasonal, local, is as local and personal as are all different, but floors, oak beams, squishy completes the picture. est wetland wildlife havens, bolstered here. The walk always sells out fast, so confident and reasonably you could want, with all have views of the sofas and open fireplace, it Rooms from £107 by three million tons of spoil from get on the mailing list. Bookings open priced food in a busy married owners Diana and rolling countryside. oozes character, but owner ( flitchofbacon.co.uk) London’s Crossrail underground rail Sept 1 for winter 2021 and Dec 1 for environment at this James running service Rooms from £95 Piers Baker has added project. The “island” is managed by the

spring 2022. Horndon-on-the-Hill inn. front and back, serving (thepheasant.net) everyday amenities and Martin Dunford RSPB, with three walking trails and two ENGLISH HERITAGE NICK ARDLEY; ALAMY;