WALKING IN WALKING IN ESSEX About the Author Peter Aylmer’s rich understanding of the Essex countryside started young, 25 WALKS AND A 96 MILE ‘ACROSS ESSEX’ ROUTE visiting his uncle’s farm in the Rodings. Since discovering walking as a pastime when a young man, he’s since climbed many hills and walked by Peter Aylmer many long-distance paths all over Britain, but still relishes the surprise on people’s faces when he tells them that some of his favourite walking is within his home county; Essex has many hundreds of fine unspoilt miles for walking, and a varied and surprising history to be uncovered. Peter’s website is www.trailman.co.uk.

Other Cicerone guides by the author Walking in

JUNIPER HOUSE, MURLEY MOSS, OXENHOLME ROAD, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA9 7RL www.cicerone.co.uk © Peter Aylmer 2019 CONTENTS Second edition 2019 ISBN: 978 1 78631 022 4 First edition 2013 Map key...... 6 Printed by KHL Printing, Singapore Overview map...... 8 A catalogue record for this book is available from the . All photographs are by the author unless otherwise stated. INTRODUCTION ...... 9 The geology of Essex...... 11 Natural Essex...... 12 © Crown copyright 2019 OS PU100012932 Town and village ...... 16 When to go ...... 18 Getting there and getting around ...... 19 Acknowledgements Where to stay...... 21 Fred Matthews and Harry Bitten, of the West Essex Ramblers, laid down in the Access and waymarking...... 21 1970s and 1980s a long-distance network for the county, which still What to take...... 23 forms its backbone. It gave me many years of happy exploration, and many of the Maps ...... 24 places and paths I thus discovered feature in this volume. Using this guide...... 24 The author also wishes to thank Simon Taylor at Essex County Council, Mark Iley of the Essex Wildlife Trust, and Tim Harris and Tony Morrison of the Wren Group, which does so much for wildlife and nature in . Thanks too COAST AND ESTUARY ...... 27 to professional photographer Johnnie Pakington, with whom I worked for many Walk 1 The Naze peninsula ...... 28 years, for his patient help and support. On a personal level, Liz Fox and Dave Walk 2 Mersea Island...... 32 Travers have been invaluable in walk testing – I thank Dave (alas, no longer with Walk 3 The marshes around Tollesbury...... 38 us) also for having had the good sense to have lived in Felixstowe, so that Essex Walk 4 St Peter’s Chapel and Bradwell marshes...... 44 was our natural meeting point for a quarter-century. In particular I thank my wife Walk 5 River Crouch...... 49 Barbara, walk tester, photo model and general motivator, all rolled in to one. Walk 6 Leigh-on-Sea and Hadleigh Castle...... 53

INLAND ESSEX ...... 59 Updates to this Guide Walk 7 Orsett Fen...... 60 While every effort is made by our authors to ensure the accuracy of guidebooks as Walk 8 Havering-atte-Bower...... 63 they go to print, changes can occur during the lifetime of an edition. Any updates Walk 9 and Lambourne ...... 66 that we know of for this guide will be on the Cicerone website (www.cicerone. Walk 10 Mill Green and Forest ...... 70 co.uk/1022/updates), so please check before planning your trip. We also advise Walk 11 Danbury...... 74 that you check information about such things as transport, accommodation and shops locally. Even rights of way can be altered over time. We are always grateful Walk 12 Moreton and the Matchings...... 79 for information about any discrepancies between a guidebook and the facts on Walk 13 The River Stort at Harlow ...... 84 the ground, sent by email to [email protected] or by post to Cicerone, Walk 14 ...... 89 Juniper House, Murley Moss, Oxenholme Road, Kendal LA9 7RL. Walk 15 Debden and Widdington...... 93 Register your book: To sign up to receive free updates, special offers and Walk 16 Arkesden, Chrishall and Elmdon...... 97 GPX files where available, register your book atwww.cicerone.co.uk . Walk 17 Great Chesterford and Saffron Walden ...... 102 Walk 18 Ashdon...... 109 Walk 19 Radwinter and Bendysh Woods...... 113 Front cover: Arkesden, start point of Walk 16  Walking in Essex

Walk 20 Thaxted and Great Easton...... 117 Walk 21 Finchingfield and Great Bardfield...... 122 Walk 22 Castle Hedingham and Hull’s Mill...... 125 Walk 23 and Earl’s Colne ...... 129 Walk 24 Bures to Sudbury...... 135 Walk 25 Dedham...... 139

ACROSS ESSEX: MANOR TO HARWICH...... 143 Stage 1 Manor Park to Epping...... 145 Stage 2 Epping to Ongar...... 153 Stage 3 Ongar to Salt’s Green ...... 157 Stage 4 Salt’s Green to Great Waltham ...... 161 Stage 5 Great Waltham to White Notley ...... 164 Stage 6 White Notley to Coggeshall ...... 170 Stage 7 Coggeshall to Fordstreet Bridge...... 175 Stage 8 Fordstreet Bridge to Great Horkesley...... 179 Stage 9 Great Horkesley to Dedham...... 183 Stage 10 Dedham to Wrabness...... 187 Stage 11 Wrabness to Harwich...... 192

Appendix A Route summary table...... 197 Appendix B Useful contacts...... 200 Appendix C Nine more long-distance paths in Essex...... 201 Appendix D Further reading...... 203

Route symbols on OS map extracts Features on the overview map (for OS legend see printed OS maps)

route County/Unitary boundary alternative route Urban area start/finish point start point Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty finish point eg, Dedham Vale

alternative start/finish point route direction On Plain in (Across Essex, Stage 1)

6 7  Walking in Essex

INTRODUCTION Ramsgate and Heaths Suffolk Coast Start points 1-25) (walks Stages (across Essex) Sandwich 11 The Naze bo

A12 Stour A14 1

Margate A299 11

Market

A28

Clacton-on-Sea Wickham A291 ouch

A120 133

A A14 10

bp A12

Whitstable A137 2 est Mersea

A1071 Ipswich W nham-on-C r 9 ale 4 V Bu r Dedham 8 Isle of 3 Colchester 5 Sheppey A134 A2

SUFFOLK A1141 bo

Southend-on-Sea

7 A249 bn

A134

A12

R Stour Maldon A131 Witham 6 A1124

ee Green lane before Great Bowsers (Walk 18) 6

A414 ESSEX

bm # A228

Sudbury A1092

5 A143 Braint r Thames

A1017 r A130 My uncle was a farmer, first in Fyfield, – great and ancient forests, and an

e A131 Chatham t R

a A127 w then in Great Easton, so for me going abundance of green lanes. There are k A228

- c A130 alden a l 4 to Essex meant playing with the egg- no great heights, it is true, although

B 8 A13 Chelmsford R 2 A227

1 7 ! Basildon

A Grays grading machine or seeing the cows descend from the 482ft high point A12 on W bu , f r

3 A2

+ come back for milking, or maybe an near the border and you A1307

M20

Sa f

A11 M25

( A225

& A1060 evening walk to the village pub. This will enjoy lovely rolling views across $ A113 8 * 2

M11 M11 is still the reality of life for many in the a distant downland landscape. entwood M25 Harlow Bishop’s Stortford Bishop’s B r county, and because its population And then there is the coastline ) 9

is concentrated in the southern con- – all Southend, Clacton, tarmacked A20

A120

A505 urbations and a handful of medium- proms and caravan sites? Well, there 1 % A10 Epping A232

M25

A12

A10

A603 sized towns, there’s an awful lot of are a few, and no reason why not. But A10

Croydon A205 rural countryside to explore. at 560 miles, there is a lot of loneli-

A1198 A414 I wonder whether any critic ness in between, with saltmarsh rais-

A602 A505

A507 Stevenage

A406 of Essex has ever looked at a map. ing fine lamb, creeks overwintering A24

A1(M) Should they do so, they will see internationally-significant bird popu-

A1 A1 Sandy a clearly-marked river valleys – cul- lations, and a constant alternation

e

L A316 R minating in the Area of Outstanding between estuary and seashore with- M1 Location of Walks

St Albans

HERTFORDSHIRE

A505 LONDON A Natural Beauty that is the Stour Valley out parallel throughout these islands.

8 9 Ampthill Bedford Walking in Essex The geology of Essex

THE GEOLOGY OF ESSEX the underpinning geology is of Upper A definition first of all: in this book, Chalk beds, rather than the London ‘Essex’ means the historic county Clay that predominates elsewhere in including the London boroughs east the county. While never quite emu- of the Lea, roughly equivalent to the lating the downland scarps of Sussex post-Roman Kingdom of the East or Bedfordshire, this chalk country Saxons. Water, important then as now has a distinctive feel of its own, quite to the defender of a contested terri- literally in terms of the texture under tory, defines most of its boundaries: foot, and visually with its undulations the North Sea to the east, the Thames and whiteness. to the south, the Lea and Stort to the The chalk never disappears from west, and the Stour to the north. Each underneath Essex: it dips deep under- of these has a character very different ground, perhaps 400ft below, and to the others, and this one fact alone reappears in the far south around gives a variety to the landscape. Grays. The little nature reserve at It’s only in the north-west of the Chafford Gorges, an easy stroll from On Orsett Fen (Walk 7) county that water-boundaries are Lakeside shopping centre should you absent. Here, the county takes in the tire of retail therapy, is set amid old Little of south-east England can lay and above all these marsh frogs which catchment area of the upper Cam, chalk quarries. a claim to remoteness; but walk 14 make such a belching chorus in the and indeed comes within seven miles In the basin of London Clay miles south from St Peter’s Chapel and background’. The refreshment of these of Cambridge itself. It’s also here that between the two chalk ridges, you will pass neither habitation nor marshes is by no means unique – on a public road – it requires some skill to smaller scale, a similar transformation better that, even in a national park. occurred earlier on Two Tree Island, Contemporary authors such as passed on Walk 6. Robert Macfarlane and Jules Pretty are Against that you have of course among those who have written about the pressure of population growth, the ‘wildness’ of Essex. They do so increasingly lax planning laws and from the viewpoint that the county is climate change. Occasional victo- a county in flux, and this for me is the ries, such as the abandonment of the heart of the matter. So, for example, second runway proposal at Stansted, Macfarlane visits Rainham Marshes, mean that treasures such as Thaxted and discovers how land ‘ripe with (Walk 20) can still be enjoyed in rela- sewage reek, the groundwater ran- tive peace. I have walked the Essex cid with chemicals’ has in ten years coast with a trusty 1992 Landranger been transformed by the RSPB into a map which is in places hopelessly place with ‘an extraordinary spring inadequate, so frequent are the sea soundscape – the sedge and reed wall breaches that have created new warblers chirruping away like gos- tidal saltmarsh. (Walk 2 and Walk 3 The River Colne below Bacon’s Farm (Across Essex, Stage 7) sipy neighbours, the coots squabbling have examples.)

10 11 Walking in Essex Natural Essex the Thames once flowed. Around the Crouch, the Blackwater and the 500,000 years ago, the Thames was a Colne. Each is the outflow to a river of tributary of the Rhine, taking a course that name. So effective are the bound- across the county to roughly where ary-rivers in constricting Essex that the is now. An these three interior rivers stray into no effective southern barrier to the river other county. was provided by a mix of sand, clay and flint known as the ‘Bagshot Beds’, which still emerges at many of the NATURAL ESSEX high points in the south of the county including High Beach in Epping Forest Woodland and the Danbury Ridge. After the Ice Ages, much of Essex The Ice Ages since, which saw became heavily wooded – enough to ice sheets as far south as Hornchurch, merit its own name in the literature successively pushed the river south, of the prehistoric, the Great Forest of eventually to its present course. But Essex. Early settlers set about clearing those Ice Ages did far more than the trees where they could, but suffi- Bluebells in Chalkney Wood (Walk 23) divert the Thames. As the ice sheets cient remained in medieval times that repeatedly pushed south and retreated Henry I could decree that much of the north, they scoured the land-surface, county be set aside as a royal hunting forest. The remnants of this can be predominated. Echoes of that for- dragging materials from elsewhere seen to this day at Hatfield Forest, mer pattern remain: for example, and uncovering new deposits. where deer were introduced around the small-leaved limes of Chalkney In much of northern Essex, the 1100 to aid the process. The ancient Wood (Walk 23) are now of national newer Boulder Clay (perhaps 80,000 tree-management practices of coppic- importance. years old) overlays London Clay. The ing and have been carried Such has been the pressure on two are sufficiently different to affect out here and elsewhere for many cen- woodlands – particularly marked in the agricultural uses of the county: turies, with the former in particular Essex, for its lack of stone has led to the former has enough chalk and still a mainstay of woodland manage- wood becoming a building material lime bundled within it to be good for ment in the county. of choice even for churches – that crop growing, whereas sheep and cat- Oliver Rackham, that most per- today only six per cent (albeit grow- tle thrive on the latter. And where the ceptive writer on English woodlands, ing) of the county is wooded. Sweet London Clay silts are deposited around pointed to four principal forest-zones chestnut, beech and hawthorn are the shoreline, oysters thrive, and flocks in the ancient county. Hatfield, among other prominent species, with of gulls and waders pick out the nutri- Epping, Hainault and Writtle, the willow and alder on river-courses. The ents from plants and insects. four great surviving forests, lie in a elm has made a modest comeback To return to the rivers of Essex: zone that was principally hornbeam. since the depredations of Dutch Elm some define its boundaries, but oth- In the chalk of the north-west, ash, disease: let’s hope that any devasta- ers define its interior. Between the maple and hazel predominated. The tion from ash die-back disease will be Hornbeam pollard in Thames and Stour estuaries, three Hainault Forest (Walk 9) Stour and Colne valleys supported localised and temporary rather than other great inlets march into Essex: lime, while further south chestnut widespread and permanent.

12 13 Walking in Essex Natural Essex

Arable land altogether a positive, for so high are lengthy stretches, with little light pen- began far earlier, from Tudor times. Although many woodlands are essen- the numbers in some areas, that they etrating the canopy. This makes for (Around a quarter of the present tially islands within arable lands, are a significant threat to ground flora. cool, if damp underfoot, walking at 10,000 miles of hedgerows in Essex this is particularly so in the plateaus Essex woods have long been notable the height of summer. are Tudor or earlier.) The great excep- between river-valleys – what one might for their bluebells and, on the Suffolk- All of this might help dispel the tions were around Great Chesterford, term the Essex tablelands. Here most Cambridgeshire border, their oxlips: stereotype that Essex is either con- where the chalkland fields remained notably, contemporary management pick the right part of spring, and both urbation or prairie farm. They exist, fully open to 1804, and Epping and techniques require large field sizes will present a beautiful spectacle. and undoubtedly the grubbing out of Hainault forests, the first a victory, the and chemical treatment to produce Walk the paths in this book and hedgerows in the last half of the 20th second largely a defeat for the 19th- the crop yields that buyers require. you will get to know Essex hedge- century led to the loss of much biodi- century anti- movement. But Happily, the worst excesses of pes- rows and field headlands very well. versity as well as, in some areas, the even in the Essex tablelands, the relics ticide use have been outlawed since These essential wildlife corridors, pleasing patchwork that field-patterns of field patterns remain, and the 1970s, and from 2005 environ- linking woodlands and other habitats, can give to the eye. No doubt we often follow them. mental stewardship schemes have led enable pollination and develop their enjoy cheaper food as a result. That’s to new woods and hedgerows being own little ecology. As the seasons the key really: field sizes aren’t cho- Coast planted and buffer strips introduced. change, you will see snowdrop, cow- sen for their aesthetic impact, but Inland Essex is many habitats: coastal Between them, these have enabled slip, forget-me-not, poppy (the county because they are efficient for the Essex gives many more. The holiday- much wildlife to return, in particular flower), cow parsley, old man’s beard farming methods of the day. maker knows the sand (yet there isn’t the buzzard and white admiral butter- and many more. Green lanes are dif- The feudal system of the Middle much beyond Clacton-to-Walton), fly in the skies and the otter in the riv- ferent again: many of them, especially Ages had each peasant tending sev- and the shingle of Southend, but the ers. There are more deer in the county those on the first third of the Essex eral small strips of land spread across bathing requirements of Homo sapi- than at any time in recent history; not Way, are all but natural tunnels for the lord’s estate, strips separated from ens are of little significance compared each other by banks of unploughed to the international role of the coun- The horse-chestnut avenue north of Duddenhoe End (Walk 16) turf. Hedgerows every few yards, ty’s coast for bird life. One acre in or even fences, would have been every ten of this nation’s saltmarsh is both expensive and inefficient, and in Essex – look out for the blooming of restricted to larger-scale boundaries, the sea lavender in July; the tidal mud- such as between estates or parishes; flats of the river creeks and estuaries these in turn would have been rela- wind for miles inland; and cockle tively untouched since the Norman banks arise at almost every turn from conquest, if not Saxon times or before. river to sea. Marshland behind the Indeed, many of these remain. sea walls – raised mostly from around What folk-memory retains as 1600, but in some areas from the quintessential English landscape passing of the ‘Law of the Marsh’ in results from the enclosure of land, 1210 – can hide little lagoons, and principally brought in by parliamen- every borrow-dyke (created by exca- tary acts from the late 18th century, vation on the landward side of the sea as landowners moved to restrict com- wall) has its reed-bed. mon access to the land they owned. Within these and other coastal As it happens, in Essex this process habitats, the Darwinian richness of

14 15 Walking in Essex Walk 1 – The Naze peninsula

WALK 1 The Naze peninsula

Start/Finish Walton-on-the-Naze pier (TM 254 215); parking on The Parade and off the High Street Distance 5½ miles (9km) Walking time 2½hr Maps OS Explorer 184, Landranger 168 Refreshments Pubs and cafés in the town, and a tearoom in the Naze tower Public transport Buses from Colchester (not Sundays) and Clacton; trains from Colchester

There is no better introduction to the Essex coastline than the Naze peninsula. Intricate backwaters host a wide variety of wildlife, and offer a playground for those who crew small boats; and shingle spit and sandy beach form the tide-margins, along with that Essex rarity, the cliff. These cliffs, formed two million years ago from iron-rich but soft Red Crag, are The cliffs below among the most prolific nationally for bird and tree fossils. The grassy top the Naze of the peninsula is a complete contrast, and the view from the Naze tower gives a broad panorama of coastal Essex and Suffolk.

With the pier on your right, walk slightly uphill for a few yards and turn left along Newgate Street. Follow this past the Victory pub, then turn right along the High Street, and left into North Street. At the end, turn right onto the sea wall, behind houses.

The marshland immediately adjacent was once a millpond, and later a boating lake known as The Mere, which closed in 1976.

Keep on the sea wall for the next three miles; the only possible point of doubt is early on, after the holiday park, where you need to go straight past the entrance to a small boatyard. Ahead, the cranes of the vast port of Felixstowe, across the , come ever closer but never intrude.

28 29 Walking in Essex Walk 1 – The Naze peninsula

WALTON BACKWATERS protect the land on which the tower sits, but such is Beyond the boatyard, where a channel quaintly known as The Twizzle the power of the sea that no attempt is being made to branches off the Walton channel, you enter the area known as the Walton protect the northern end of the peninsula. backwaters. Here, a mixture of low-lying islands, tidal saltmarshes, mud flats and sand flats provides a safe haven for many overwintering birds, including Continue from the bottom of the steps past the beach redshank, shelduck and teal, and a colony of several dozen harbour and grey huts – or if you can, on the sand, dabbling your toes. seals – russet-coloured rather than grey, owing to the iron in the Red Crag. On your way, the old lifeboat house hosts the Walton Of the islands, Skipper’s Island is accessible by foot causeway with per- Maritime Museum. Finally, keep along the esplanade mission from Essex Wildlife Trust; if you see a Land Rover apparently cross- back to the pier. ing low-tide mud, it’s on the longer causeway to Horsey Island, which has a bloodstock farm. The Backwaters were the setting for Secret Water, the eighth in the Swallows and Amazons series of children’s novels by Arthur Ransome.

There’s a slight change of character at the right turn onto Cormorant Creek (TM 250 248). It’s clear now that you are heading towards the open sea; it would seem logical that the creek gives access to it, but in fact it’s barred by a shingle spit topped by low sand dunes and The foreshore is a a shell bank. At the closest point to the foreshore, by a low tide alternative, interpretation board, the walk turns right following it from the again.3Pass a couple of small lagoons on an asphalt interpretation board path, and the effect of erosion becomes immediately to the steps up to the obvious: within a few yards, the path simply disappears. Crag Walk. Do not attempt to cross the fence. Keep beside it, follow the first grass path left into shrubs and out to the grassy plateau, and continue ahead to the Naze Tower. The tower, 86ft high, was built in 1720 to aid shipping. It now houses a tearoom, art gallery and viewing platform. Continue down the steps by an information board just past the café.

The cliffs areeroding by up to 2m a year; the medi- eval village of Walton is now several miles out to sea. For a more recent example of what erosion can do, note that the Second World War pillboxes on the foreshore once lay above the cliffs. It’s worth taking the Crag Walk, constructed in 2011, for a close-up view of the eroding cliffs. The Walk also helps to The Naze Tower

30 31