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Walking in Essex
25 walks and a 96 mile 'across Essex' route
ISBN
9781786310224
Availability
Published
Published
11 Apr 2019
Reprinted
13 Feb 2023
Edition
Second
Pages
208
Size
17.20 x 11.60 x 1.25cm
Weight
240g
Delivery & Returns
Free Royal Mail 48 postage on UK orders. European postage is £3.50 per item. Worldwide postage is £5.50 per item. If you're not happy with your purchase for any reason, we'll give you a full refund.
More information...
Guidebook to 25 day walks in the county of Essex. Ranging from 4 to 17 miles, the walks showcase the county's delightfully varied landscape. Also includes a full description of the 96 mile 'Across Essex' route, which incorporates the Essex Way and a traverse of Epping Forest on its way from Manor Park to Harwich.
Seasons
all four seasons can be enjoyed by the walker in Essex. With its mostly clay soils, it's a good idea to wear boots after prolonged rainCentres
Chelmsford, Colchester, Harlow, Saffron Walden, Southend. Easy access also from neighbouring counties (including Kent by the Dartford crossing) and east and north LondonDifficulty
the walks are suitable for all abilities. Ascents are mostly short and rarely steep. Some longer walks of up to 18 miles are included for those seeking more of a challengeMust See
the coast - unspoilt and barely known away from the famous resorts; an internationally important refuge for bird life. Green lanes - Essex has more than any county save Dorset. Wood and forest - Epping, Hatfield, Hainault and many othersISBN
9781786310224
Availability
Published
Published
11 Apr 2019
Reprinted
13 Feb 2023
Edition
Second
Pages
208
Size
17.20 x 11.60 x 1.25cm
Weight
240g
Delivery & Returns
Free Royal Mail 48 postage on UK orders. European postage is £3.50 per item. Worldwide postage is £5.50 per item. If you're not happy with your purchase for any reason, we'll give you a full refund.
More information...
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Overview
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A guidebook to 25 day walks in Essex and a 155km (96 mile) long-distance route that follows the Essex Way from the fringes of London in the west to the port of Harwich in the east. With routes in the guidebook covering the whole of the county there’s something for beginner and experienced walkers alike.
The day walks are all circular, except for 3 linear routes, ranging from 7–29km (5–18 miles) in length and walkable in between 2 and 8 hours. The cross-Essex route consists of 11 stages of 8–23km (5–15 miles) in length, which take between 3 and 6 hours to walk.
- 1:50,000 OS maps included for each walk
- Transport, refreshment and accommodation information given for each stage of the cross-Essex walk
- Information given on local history, geology and wildlife
- Local points of interest are featured including Epping Forest, Constable’s Dedham Vale, Audley End
- Easy access from London, Chelmsford and Colchester
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Table of Contents
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Map key
Overview map
Introduction
The geology of Essex
Natural Essex
Town and village
When to go
Getting there and getting around
Where to stay
Access and waymarking
What to take
Maps
Using this guide
Coast and Estuary
Walk 1 The Naze peninsula
Walk 2 Mersea Island
Walk 3 The marshes around Tollesbury
Walk 4 St Peter’s Chapel and Bradwell marshes
Walk 5 River Crouch
Walk 6 Leigh-on-Sea and Hadleigh Castle
Inland Essex
Walk 7 Orsett Fen
Walk 8 Havering-atte-Bower
Walk 9 Hainault Forest and Lambourne
Walk 10 Mill Green and Writtle Forest
Walk 11 Danbury
Walk 12 Moreton and the Matchings
Walk 13 The River Stort at Harlow
Walk 14 Hatfield Forest
Walk 15 Debden and Widdington
Walk 16 Arkesden, Chrishall and Elmdon
Walk 17 Great Chesterford and Saffron Walden
Walk 18 Ashdon
Walk 19 Radwinter and Bendysh Woods
Walk 20 Thaxted and Great Easton
Walk 21 Finchingfield and Great Bardfield
Walk 22 Castle Hedingham and Hull’s Mill
Walk 23 Chalkney Wood and Earl’s Colne
Walk 24 Bures to Sudbury
Walk 25 Dedham
Across Essex: Manor Park to Harwich
Stage 1 Manor Park to Epping
Stage 2 Epping to Ongar
Stage 3 Ongar to Salt’s Green
Stage 4 Salt’s Green to Great Waltham
Stage 5 Great Waltham to White Notley
Stage 6 White Notley to Coggeshall
Stage 7 Coggeshall to Fordstreet Bridge
Stage 8 Fordstreet Bridge to Great Horkesley
Stage 9 Great Horkesley to Dedham
Stage 10 Dedham to Wrabness
Stage 11 Wrabness to Harwich
Appendix A Route summary table
Appendix B Useful contacts
Appendix C Nine more long-distance paths in Essex
Appendix D Further reading
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Updates
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February 2025
Author updates
Walk 14
The Koko Thai restaurant at the start is now a pub again, and has reverted to the name Green Man.
Walk 19
pp 113-4. Footpaths between the footbridge and Little Bendysh Wood have been tweaked, to the mutual benefit of both walker and landowner. After you have crossed the footbridge, don't switch sides of the hedgerow in 150 metres, but keep it on your left. After a sharp left turn, go through a gap, soon passing the pond. The 'easier option' in brackets on p114 is now legal and recommended.
Map: (1:25k, OS haven't got round to updating 1:50k yet!)
Walk 24
p135 The car park at Bures station is no longer free.
p137 par 1 If you have continued across the very minor road, it is better now not to go through the gate, but to stay with the fence on your right. This avoids the waist-high fence. However, it could become very overgrown in summer.
p138 In Kone Park, there is now a short cut to the railway embankment by using National Cycle Network 13, clearly waymarked. After some development in Sudbury, a better way into the town is still to turn left after the second bridge, but now turn left at a house called Solo, go over crossroads, then turn right on a road which leads to the Market Hill.
Essex Way stage 3
p157 Note in information box The Essex Way north of High Ongar has been reopened and the diversion is no longer necessary.
p158 last par The Essex Way no longer goes through a gate at the private drive to 'Witney Green' but instead turns right about 40 metres further on, onto a fenced path.
Essex Way stage 4
p161 The Beehive pub in Great Waltham was closed as of February 2025, but the village now has a café called The Stores. (Applies to stage 5 also.)
p164 The wooden marker has disappeared. Make sure you turn right to keep a second reservoir on your left.
September 2024
Updates
Walk 1 The Naze Peninsula
p28: There is now also an Essex Wildlife Trust visitor centre and café on the peninsula.
p30: The information board is just past the old café, not the visitor centre.
Walk 2 Mersea Island
p33 last paragraph: The permissive path is now the official right-of-way. However, the section from just west of Maydays Farm to The Strood is not (as at September 2024) in good condition. The path is often rutted, and grass lays across the path, making for a slippery surface. Care needs to be taken, especially after a little kink in the path to go through trees and cross a creek, at TM 021 151.
Walk 11 Danbury
p74 The car park is now called the Woods car park. The white-topped posts at the kissing gate have disappeared, instead keep fencing on your right to a sheep pen and then turn left on a path that veers right, until the posts appear.
p78 The black arrows of the nature trail have now mostly disappeared, to be replaced by orange waymarkers with different numbering. Ignore the waymarker at board number 3, but start following them when you turn right onto the bridleway, as far as the big signboard about Danbury Ridge.
Walk 12 Moreton and the Matchings
p81 The Stort Valley Way waymarkers after Magdalen Laver church have disappeared. After you leave the church and cross the earth bridge, turn left. After a footbridge, turn left again, and when you reach a minor road, turn left onto it.
p84 After you go through the gap and veer half-left, head towards a house. Cross a ditch to its left, then turn right across grass to the gate that leads to the road.
Walk 17 Great Chesterford and Saffron Walden
p105 The coppiced wood has been harvested and new saplings planted. After leaving Littlebury Green, take the bridleway straight ahead and veer right onto the concrete track.
Walk 21 Finchingfield and Great Bardfield
p124: The 'high conifer hedge' is now a fence, and the broad grass track that brings you to Watermill Cottage is now gravelled. The grassy bank leading to Finchingfield churchyard is now very severely overgrown; instead, go along a lane for a few metres, and then turn left to the churchyard.
Essex Way Stage 2 Epping to Ongar
p154 There is now just one boardwalk as you enter the reserve.
p155 The boardwalk before the M11 is now a gravelled path. After Toot Hill, much Essex Way signage has disappeared. Replace the two sentences after Weald Lodge as follows: Turn right after ‘The Cottage’, then in 50 metres cross a footbridge. Two more footbridges bring you to a large field. About half way along, veer left onto a hedged path. After an isolated house, turn left through a kissing gate. A fenced path leads to another kissing gate. Through it, turn right, and soon cross a minor road onto another path.
February 2024
Author updates
Walk 7 Orsett Fen
Page 61 The track in the centre of a narrow field has been ploughed up. Keep a ditch on your left for about 100 metres and then cross the field to the earth bridge.
Walk 10 Mill Green and Writtle Forest
Page 70 The Viper pub, near the finish, has re-opened. To reach it, stay on the track mentioned at the start of the last paragraph on page 72.
Walk 16 Arkesden, Chrishall and Elmdon
Page 100 Leaving Chrishall, the path is bordered by the new planting of Jubilee Wood. Just beyond, keep a new ditch on your left.
Walk 22 Castle Hedingham and Hull's Mill
There is now a second tea room in the village, Violet's.
Page 125 There are two new gates, the first in the dip beneath the farm, the second to its left; go through both.
Page 126 Instead of turning left after the solitary house, there is now a permissive path which avoids some rather scruffy ground. Continue on the track for about 200 metres after the house and turn left onto it. After a right turn and then a left turn, it heads gently downhill to an earth bridge. Cross it, and rejoin the route, taking a footbridge leading into trees. Note also that the steps after the fox-proof enclosure have now disappeared and there is a simple grassy slope instead.
Great Maplestead church is open during daylight hours. Visitors can use its kitchen for tea and coffee and there is a toilet too. Leave the church from the bench at the back of the churchyard.
Page 127 There are two footbridges in the willow plantation; take the second. In the parkland, the path is signed by the headland and no longer crosses to the water trough.
Page 129 From Alderford Mill, there is now a permissive path which keeps to the west bank of the Colne. It starts at a bench behind the mill and is easy to follow, just keep the houses of Sible Hedingham on your left. It finishes at a road bridge over the Colne; cross it and continue on the road to Castle Hedingham.October 2020
Walk 9 Hainault Forest and Lambourne
Page 68 The meadow after Lambourne End is now disfigured by a high, green fence, the sole purpose of which seems to be to corral walkers into a narrow corridor and restrict the views.
By Peter Aylmer
Peter Aylmer has climbed many hills and walked many long-distance paths all over Britain, and is equally at home in a tent or bothy in the Scottish Highlands as he is in a nature reserve hidden in some unconsidered London suburb.
Peter still relishes the surprise on people’s faces when he tells them that some of his favourite walking is in London and Essex. The secret is knowing where to look. This started early for Peter, visiting his uncle's farm in Essex; later, taking the tube out to Epping Forest after work so that he could walk back home through it. Now, as a walk leader for the Long Distance Walkers Association, he is still developing new routes through both town and country in southern England.
Peter spent his career in education, from teacher and politician to writer and editor at national level. He is now chair of trustees for the UK wing of an international aid charity.
