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Protect the natural environment R iv e the countryside code • Leave no trace of your visit, take all your r
welcome to the essex coast D
e litter home b e Respect other people n • Don’t have BBQs or fires
There are 350 miles of Essex • Consider the local community and • Keep dogs under effective control 2 Felixstowe 1 other people enjoying the outdoors A coastline so enjoy your time to Dog poo - bag it and bin it • r Stour • Park carefully so access to gateways Rive get to know it. If you’re looking T he M Harwich ayf e for a day on the beach, walks and driveways is clear lower Lin Enjoy the outdoors Manningtree Wrabness Copperas • Leave gates and property Wood along coastal paths or tidal Dovercourt as you find them • Plan ahead, check what facilities riverbanks or activities with your family there are new 1 13 are open, be prepared places and things to do all year round. These ideas • Follow paths but give way toA Follow advice and local signs A120 others where it’s narrow • A1 will help you visit for the first time but will keep you 20 coming back. And it’s closer than you think! A12 Colchester Braintree Hythe Hamford Water Remember to plan ahead. A120 Horsey A 1 33 Island Some stretches of the path are remote N
Wivenhoe
Coast Line NE unshine NW and liable to flooding. Check tide times The S
Walton-on-
the-Naze
at tidetimes.org.uk
E W T NorfolkNorwich h e F litch Li Alresford Frinton-on-Sea SW SE
r R n i vo iv Suffolk e 2 eser 1 R e S A n r 1 to C Brightlingsea 3 r o e l 1 b n EssexA A b e Useful information Key London for your visit: Witham A road Point Clear Essex Mersea Island Water bottle refill: Wildlife Trust Kent Clacton-on-sea B road refill.org.uk/ get-the-refill-app/ Jaywick Railway & station Walks: gojauntly.com, theessexcoast Parking: MiPermit Parking App Public walks Paper Mill Lock River Chelmer
Heybridge As the crow flies its only around 40 miles from Canvey to Manningtree Chelmsford lackwat Bradwell visiting the essex coast Maldon Basin River B er A Shell bank 414 Northey Osea Bradwell-on-Sea Island Island 30 things to do, spot and Whether you fancy an exciting day on the beach or a peaceful walk by the sea, the 350 miles of discover on the essex coast Lawling the Essex coastline has something for you. Creek
To find out more visit theessexcoast.com Maylandsea
Woodham Fen Nature Reserve Southminster
ine For information on getting there ch Valley L The Crou by train visit greateranglia.co.uk Marsh Farm Monsale and esscrp.org.uk or by bus visit Country Park River Crouch A130 essexbus.info FACT Ferry Burnham- Road on-Crouch Islands are nestled into the estuaries of Tag your coastal pictures on Wallasea our largest rivers. social media #theessexcoast Island Wickford You can visit some please T he S o Paglesham u of them but always A127 th en Follow signs to keep noise levels low and dogs on leads d Line follow safety ach Rochford r Ro when walking in areas where birds are nesting. Rive notices. A130 essexcoast.birdaware.org
RSPB Bowers © Claire Driver/Drab Ltd. Marsh Content: Claire Driver. < London c2c line Leigh-on- Design and illustration: Sea Southend-on-Sea wearedrab.co.uk other websites to check out Shoeburyness VisitEssex.com theessexcoast.com With thanks to the Coastal Community Fund Canvey Island River Thames FUN Coastal RSPB.org.uk essexwt.org.uk NationalTrust.org.uk ideas for family Communitiesmunities Fund & friends #theessexcoast visitengland.com/destinations/east-england 18. Find a festival TRY SOMETHING NEW so much to discover... lose yourself ... Whatever the time of year there is always something going on near the sea, whether on 1. Pack light and travel1. Pack by light train From forts to festivals, smuggling in big skies, wide beaches land or in the skies. Keep an eye out for The The Mayflower, Sunshine Coast, stories and high and low places Essex Book Festival as well as local music, arts, Southend and Crouch Valley train and peaceful landscapes food and drink festivals that take place across
lines will help get you there. 14. Visit a Martello tower the whole county. The paths around the Blackwater and Colne 14. Visit a Martello tower. A 13-mile
estuaries or Woodham Fen Nature Reserve walk from Point Clear to Walton-on-the-Naze 19. Watch a boat race Catch the annual 2. 2.Discover Discover a new a place.new place are perfect for trying some of these ideas. takes you past the remaining six of these rare smack and barge races in Brightlingsea and It could be a different beach or circular forts, including Jaywick Martello Tower. Maldon or the Dredging Match in West Mersea. riverside town. (Check ahead for opening times). There’s plenty to 20. Walk a disused railway Walk a d choose from. 9. Take off your 15.15. Find an Essex lozenge 9. Take off your shoes Until 1964 the ‘Crab and shoes and socks The WW2 sea-wall pillboxes near Bradwell 3. Walk the coastal path and socks. Winkle’ train connected 3. Walk and Burnham-on-Crouch are a Whatever the weather Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe, crossing Take as long as you want, walking at stretched shape with the modern feel the grass, sand or Alresford Creek over a swing bridge. a time and pace that suits you. coastal path running over the top. water on your feet. Walk the embankments of the railway from Walk between train stations or find In Walton-on-the-Naze, a mile-long trail takes you by two pillboxes either end, stopping at the Creek where there circular routes that loop back to fallen onto the beach. tendringcoastalheritage.org.uk/ 10.10. Look Look at atthe theclouds. clouds are still parts of the bridge. the station or car park. content/trails/walton-naze-second-world-war-trail 21. Eat every day oysters Essex Native Oysters 4. Tempt your taste buds T Cirrus FACT 16.16. Go Go to to a regatta have been farmed in Essex since Roman times and were once There are many cafes, pubs and restaurants Stratus clouds are From April to September these are a mix an everyday food. See the oyster pits at Paglesham in all along the coast so you’ll never be far flat, cumulus clouds of exciting boat races, on-shore activities, Rochford and on Mersea Island, which still produces from refreshments. Why not try some Cumulus are fluffy, cirrus food and drink and are perfect for learning oysters for the local, national and international market. local produce, maybe oysters in Mersea Nimbus clouds are wispy. about the different boats you can see in
or cockles in Leigh-on-sea? Stratus Nimbus means it’s the many marinas around Essex. 22. A modern surprise Striking 20th century buildings on The going to rain. 17. Climb to the top of a tower Essex Coast include The Labworth Cafe in 5. Essex from the sea 100 steps gets you to the top of the High Canvey Island which shares a designer with the Change your view and explore by canoe, Get to know cumulus from cumulonimbus clouds to Lighthouse in Harwich and 111 steps to the Sydney Opera House, Royal Corinthian Yacht paddleboard or windsurfing. predict the weather or maybe just let your imagination top of Walton’s Naze Tower. Check( ahead Club in Burnham-on-Crouch and the modernist Many local sailing clubs hire out go and start to see shapes and faces. for opening times). houses on the Frinton Park Estate. leisure boats or check Explore-Essex.com for 11.11. TakeTake notice. notice 227. See a seal7 Try around Harwich, Walton and the Crouch and sailing lessons in Mersea and Bradwell. Spend time looking at the different Wild Essex is a diverse landscape of mud shells on the beach, tracing the flats, salt marshes and grassland Roach rivers. You might catch sight 6.6. Take Take a boata boat t trip patterns of water channels across of one on your own walk or you can join a guided tour. Check the internet From Maldon you can tour the the mud flats or watching how the 23. Hunt for fossils With a keen eye you for current tours by locations. River Blackwater wind moves the grasses. taking in Northey and can find sharks’ teeth and fossils at Walton, 28. Colourful beaches Osea Islands or take Dovercourt or on the river banks around 12. Le one of the small 12. Let your senses take over Maylandsea. Some people find it easier to search On the saltmarshes spot pink sea lavender and golden for fossils in the winter or on cloudy days. samphire and on the shingle look out for the green passenger ferries from Harwich, Wivenhoe or Brightlingsea. Close your eyes, tune into edible sea beet (sometimes called sea spinach) and Check VisitEssex.com for details before arriving. the sounds closest to you 24. Pack your binoculars Away from the busy towns are bluey-purple sea kale with white flowers. then slowly move your 7. The sea is closer than you think RSPB, Essex Wildlife Trust and National Trust reserves that attention to more distant 29. Find hidden plants provide the perfect habitat for birds, including beach When the tide Pick up Colchester’s Town to Sea sculpture trail at sounds, maybe of birds, nesting little terns, ringed plovers and oyster catchers goes out it will reveal different plants all year the medieval Hythe port and still be on the coastal insects or the waves. and over-wintering brent geese. round such as sea lettuce, bladder wrack, path visitcolchester.com/things-to-do/town- carrageen and gutweed. 25. Visit a brownfield to-sea-trail-p1191841 13. Change when you visit 25. Visit a rainforest 30. Walk an ancient woodland A different time of year will 8. Walk a canal The Chelmer and Blackwater The Canvey Wick reserve have its own smells and The path through the Copperas Wood navigation has connected is the most biodiverse per square foot in the UK sounds and daybreak or Nature Reserve near Wrabness allows Chelmsford with the estuary and an important site for rare and endangered sunset look, glimpses of the River Stour through since 1796. Enjoy a invertebrates including bees, wasps and beetles. feel and sound break at Heybridge the trees. different. thelandtrust.org.uk/space/canvey-wick/ Basin or half way FACT FACT 26. Shell spotting along the 13-mile Essex has one of the longest The Bradwell You can tell how The information in this leaflet is produced in
canal walk at good faith and is correct to the best of the coastlines in England, 350 miles, shell bank is made up of mainly cockle and old a cockle is by the publishers’ knowledge at the time of going to Paper Mill Lock. although as the crow flies it’s only oyster shells but a walk along any beach is bands on the shell press, but is subject to alteration.
around 40 miles from Canvey to sure to turn up razor clams, scallops and whelks. © Drab Ltd./Claire Driver. Content, Claire Driver. Design and illustration, wearedrab.co.uk. Manningtree.