Essex church walk

I recently visited two small Essex villages with unusual churches. Willingale has two churches that share a churchyard; St Andrews Willingale Spain is the older, smaller church with a wooden belfrey to the south; St Christopher Willingale Doe lies to the north with a tower, battlements and buttresses. The Essex Way runs through the churchyard.


The land around Willingale is very flat and was the site of the wartime airfield known as RAF Chipping Ongar, home to the 387th Bomb Group, USAAF. Unbelievably, in 1979, Willingale was shortlisted a potential site for London third airport.


About a mile away is the village of Shellow Bowells, surely the best name in Essex. I set off along the Essex Way in pleasant watery sunshine but it turned misty and murky long before I got back. The church in Shellow is a rarity in Essex as it is Georgian, built in 1754. It now appears to be a house or office. I returned to Willingale via Shellow Hall where I received a over-enthusiastic greeting from the farmer's spaniel.

I spotted a most unusual, turbined powered scarecrow which certainly frightened me, good use of green technology!