Walking in Essex

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.

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!)

Author updates

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.

Author updates

Essex Way Stage 5

p169

The diversion to Cressing Temple Barns is no longer recommended owing to poor pedestrian access on the B1018.

Essex Way Stage 6

pp170-1

There is now a large solar farm under construction in the central section of this stage. After joining the road beyond Egypts Farm for 250m, revise the text as follows: Take the path on the left through a little wood, and veer left when out of it. When you reach the edge of a solar farm turn right, then at a marker post turn left through it. Turn right when you reach a hedgerow, cross an access track, and go through a gap, then in 120m turn left through a gap. In a dip, turn right and continue as before.

top of p172

Note that the right turn up towards Curd Hall Farm is about half a mile from Bradwell Farm - look out for rusty gates to your right.

Essex Way Stage 7

Bottom of p177

The geese alas appear to have left Bacon's Farm, but the barn has been renovated. Turn right past the barn and go through a gate to walk down to the Colne.

Essex Way Stage 8

Bottom of p179

Once you have crossed the road, go up steps and keep ahead. You cross a footbridge and then in 150m come to a larger footbridge. Don't cross it, but continue ahead. About half a mile from this footbridge, merge onto a farm access track, and stay on it until you reach a car park with with the hall and church of West Bergholt over to your left. Turn right at the car park, along the left side of a field ...

Essex Way Stage 9

p183

The marker to the woodland path has disappeared; the path is about 30m from the end of the track.

Bottom of p184

Now just keep ahead on the green lane until you can turn right onto a lane.

Essex Way Stage 10

p187

The pink house is now white

p188 par 2

After you reach the road beyond 'Brown Knolls', now don't join it but stay on the left edge of a field with the road just the other side of a hedgerow. At a gap, cross the road onto the gravel track. At a gap on the right, take the fenced path, which comes ot to a couple of benches. Veer right here, across the road, and take the path past the Old School House. Later, the ramshackle kissing gate has gone - just keep the wood on your right.

p191

In Wrabness Nature Reserve, the left fork is at a double bench. Later, make sure you go through the metal barrier not a metal gate.

Essex Way Stage 11

p194 par 1

150m along the bridleway, look for a right turn at a marker. You then come to a T junction. Turn left, then soon right down steps, to come to the sea wall.

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.

Walk 15 Debden and Widdington

Page 93 The community shop has now closed but the car park is still available.

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.