EBW3 Epping Forest East

The eastern part of Epping Forest District isn't very near Epping and there's not a lot of forest either. Just lots of small villages and one small town, Ongar, and plenty of fields. However hidden away is one of gems of Essex, St Andrews Church at Greensted. It is the only remaining log church in England, built in the reign of King Canute and nearly a thousand years old. The typically Essex tower is a much later edition but the whole church is magical, one of my favorites. My walk didn't take me past this church but the Essex Way goes right past the front door.

On the route was Stapleford Airfield which has an interesting history. Amy Johnson flew from here in the thirties; the original airline got in to financial difficulties and the new owner moved operations to Heston and the rest is history; during the war the RAF took over and the airfield was used to fly SOE agents into Europe; in 1945 a hanger was hit by a V2 rocket killing seventeen people, many of whom are buried in North Weald cemetary. In 1987 I flew from this airfield on a thirty minute flight and got to take the controls for a few minutes, scary but fun.

Walk 5 took me from Stapleford Abbots via Lambourne to Cabin Hill in Hainault Forest, where the Essex border meets the borders of Havering and Redbridge. It was a very chilly morning which blossomed into a fantastic autumn day with warm sunshine and cloudless skies. It was a very pleasant walk entirely along footpaths and bridleways, only crossing two roads on the way. The first part was gently uphill to a ridge with great views west towards London. I spotted the aerials at Crystal Palace with the bins.

The first rest stop was at St Mary's church about a mile north of Stapleford Abbotts. I was quite surprised to meet to meet the old lady who had waited at the bus stop with me. Her name was Jean and she was the church sexton (unpaid verger) and invited me in for a cup of tea. After crossing some very wet grassy fields I climbed rather nervously over a stile into a field of cows, who were even more nervous and stampeded into the distance. The footpath went along the southern boundary of the airfield but there was no actual fence, the end of the runway was about fifty metres away and the landing planes flew right over my head.

The next rest stop was at Lambourne Church, whitewashed with typical Essex broach spire, but unfortunately this church was locked. This was a shame as it has some interesting memorials; one is to a bomb disposal officer called in to deal with two unexploded bombs left by the Germans in 1940. After dealing with first one, the officer went for tea at the Hall but was killed defusing the second bomb.

From Lambourne, I followed the Three Forests Way to Hainault Forest, the only bit of forest on the walk so far. Hainault, like Epping, is a shadow of its former self, it once stretched to Leytonstone. It was rescued from developers in 1906 (thank you). The country park is in Redbridge, the golf course is in Havering and the forest is in Essex. There are some fine views of central London, the Telecom Tower and London Eye clearly visible, and St Paul's Cathedral, allegedly. A really enjoyable 6 miles.

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EBW2-Brentwood

Brentwood, the next stop on the Great Tour of Essex (as I like to think of it) is the district to the north of Thurrock, bordering the London Borough of Havering. I used to work at Brentwood Library about twenty five years ago and I was once stopped in the street by a reader who thought she seen me on the TV, (she had). This should happen to everyone at least once in their lifetime. Brentwood and neighbouring Shenfield are dormitory towns for London-bound commuters but there are several pretty villages like Blackmore in the north of the district. Brentwood lies on a ridge of low hills that extend eastwards from Hampstead Heath on the northern edge of the Thames valley. Whilest not being exactly high, Brentwood can get quite cold in winter when the wind blows from the east and once, I got my car stuck in the entrance to the library during a snow storm.

Brentwood has two particularly fine country parks, Weald Park to the north and Thorndon to the south. Both were former country estates. Weald Park was occupied by the Army during WW2 and was subsequently demolished after the war. It has a deer park, a lake and some lovely parkland scenery. It was to have been the site of the mountain biking competition in the 2012 Olympics but the hills were not up to scratch so the competition has been moved to mountainous heights of Hadleigh Country Park (which featured in the Great Coast Walk) just outside Southend!

Thorndon Hall was the home of Lord Petre until 1919, when presumably due to straitened circumstances, he was forced to move back to his other house, Ingatestone Hall, about five miles up the road. Thorndon is larger than Weald, hillier and woodier, with some really fine views over the Thames Estuary and London. The country house survived as a golf clubhouse and now appears to luxurious appartments for the wealthy (no shortage of them around Brentwood). A large number of footpaths link up the two parts of the park and the surrounding access land so you can have a very enjoyable walk barely a few miles from the town centre.

Brentwood isn't the most touristy part of Essex, its main attractions, in additons to the fine parks, are Ingatestone Hall and the not-so-Secret Nuclear Bunker at Kelvedon Hatch. A visit to the bunker is both educational and fun, but watch out for actors pretending to be dead bodies on trollies. Being underground, there's not much to see except for this very large aerial which I sure somewhat gave the game away. Two other places of interest are Great Warley Church and Warley Place on the western outskirts of Brentwood. The church was designed in the Arts and Craft style and reckoned to be the finest example in Britain, hence its Grade 1 listing. Warley Place was the home of Miss Wilmott, a famous Edwardian gardener, and now a interesting ruin and nature reserve.

Once again I split the distance into two walks; the first walk went from West Horndon to Brentwood via Thorndon Country Park, Great Warley Church and Warley Place; the second went from Brentwood via Weald Country Park, under the M25 to Stapleford Abbotts over the border in Epping Forest District. The weather for both walks was mild, overcast with occasional sunny interval. The terrain was undulating and I reached the dizzying heights (for Essex) of 360ft/120m. The first walk was by far the most enjoyable.

Walk 3 consisted mainly of footpaths and bridleways linked by quiet country lanes, the exception being the A127 (Southend Arterial Road) that had to be crossed by 'pedestrian crossing', i.e. sprint across. Once across, I trekked up Jury Hill but low cloud and poor visibility ruined the usually suberb view. I was really lucky when another of the Church's army of volunteers turned up to clean Great Warley church while I was having a rest outside. Build and decorated in the Arts and Craft style in 1906, it is a very rare building indeed. Having revisited the Thatchers Arms for the first time since 1978, I braved the cows (who were in fact, very shy) and took a stroll around Warley Place. The best time to visit is the spring when the snowdrops and daffodils come out. I finished off with a stroll alongside the M25 which marks the Essex border for most of Brentwood, passing the home of one of Brentwood's millionaires, Barry Hearn of snooker fame. A thoroughly enjoyable 11 miles.

Walk 4 was an altogether different affair. It started out with a long climb up Wigley Bush Lane (delightful name) to South Weald Country Park but it went downhill from there, figuratively and literally. The first footpath to St Vincents Hamlet had disappeared forcing me to walk about two miles by road to the next footpath. Things improved for a bit until I had to walk for half a mile over a ploughed field to get to a tunnel beneath the M25. This tunnel proved exceedingly difficult to access so I had to fight my way through brambles, climb over a couple of fences, and lower myself down into a culvert than ran beneath the motorway. Then as the culvert got deeper and muddier I had to climb out! Things didn't improve much on the other side as I got soaked walking through long grass. Two more footpaths proved to be inaccessible so I gave up and took the road route back. More of an assault course than a walk. 9 miles



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EBW1-Thurrock

Thurrock, where this walk starts, is best known for the Lakeside Shopping Centre, the QEII Bridge and Tilbury Docks. It had a brief moment of fame as the 'funeral' in the film 4 Weddings etc, otherwise it's mainly an extention of urban, industrial London. Not a very attractive place for either walking or visiting, you might think. Well think again! Tilbury Fort (pictured) was the place where Queen Elizabeth I made her famous speech stirring up the troops before the Spanish Armada in 1558. There are several attractive villages just a few minutes from Lakeside like Horndon-on-the-Hill and Orsett and according to Thurrock Council , there are over 100 miles of footpaths and bridleways and they have a very nice map to prove it.

To start with, there is about 20 miles of fine riverside walking along the Thames Estuary. Belhus Woods was once a deer park landscaped by Capability Brown. The country house has long since been demolished and the Long Pond was cut in half by the M25 in 1979. The country park is owned by Thurrock, run by Essex CC but most of the park is actually in Havering. Belhus is just one of several wooded areas in the west of the Borough that are part of the Thames Chase forest project.

The Mar Dyke, a tiny tributary of the Thames, flows through Thurrock, joining the big river at Purfleet. The Mardyke way is bridleway which runs for about seven miles through farmland, with excellent views of Langdon Hill to the east. At 377ft it the highest point of Thurrock, but most of the good views are from the bit that's in Basildon. So I had plenty of footpaths and countryside to work with in devising a walk from Essex border by the Thames to West Horndon in neighbouring Brentwood.

I split the distance into two walks; walk 1 from Rainham Station to Ockendon Station and walk 2 from Ockendon Station to West Horndon Station. I was blessed with some very good weather on both days. The first view of Essex was brilliant, the Queen Elizabeth II bridge bathed in sunshine with a fleet of little yachts racing up the Thames. The highlight of walk 1 was a guided tour around St Michael's Church in Aveley.There was a beautiful Flemish style painting and very old brass of Sir Ralph of Knevyynton, hidden away under a carpet and a piece of cardboard.

Walk 1 took me along the Thames from Rainham, with a brief stop for refreshments at Rainham RSPB. I aimed to link Purfleet and Aveley using footpath 145, which once was a nice country stroll but is now bisected by two railway lines, the old A13 and the new A13. Having failed to find a safe crossing over a six lane highway, I had to make my way to Aveley by road, discovering on the way that Aveley is on top of hill. From Aveley, I crossed Belhus park, getting slightly lost on the golf course, around the country park (another refreshment stop) and over the M25 to a little bit more woodland. Hidden away in Oak Wood is an icehouse and the overgrown remains of the Long Pond. Knocking down country houses and turning the estates into country parks for the masses is something of a recurring theme in Essex. Walk 1 finished at Ockendon Station and covered 13 miles.

Walk 2 should have started at Ockendon station but unfortunately I got on the wrong train and ended up at West Horndon instead. The highlight of this walk was probably me falling down the steps and landing on my backside. The route to Ockendon was almost all footpaths or bridleways. Some of it involved walking across ploughed fields, rather unpleasant after all the recent rain. One footpath seemed to end in a horse paddock forcing me to trespass through a farmyard. I actually met another walker along the Mardyke way. I had to inform him that the Harrow pub where he planned to stop for lunch had recently burned down. At the Ockendon end the footpath went along a driveway which once had avenue of limetrees. Only the stumps remained but you can see what it looked like in 2005 by clicking here.. 8 miles

So there you have it, first section completed, 21 miles walked. Take a look at the photos and you'll probably be surprised how green and pleasant Thurrock is.

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Walking around Essex

Where to next?

Having got a taste for long distance walking but unwilling to put too much effort into it, I decided to walk around the land borders of Essex, from Purfleet to Manningtree, like before, but in a clockwise direction. The aim will be to do linear walks using footpaths, byways and towpaths wherever possible, travelling on public transport. I'm going to try to keep within a mile off the border, on the Essex side of course.

Essex has quite a few long distance footpaths that I hope to use; London Loop, Three Forests Way, Lee Valley Walk, Stort Valley Way, Harcamlow Way, Stour Valley Path, St Edmunds Way, and the Essex Way.

Essex has land borders with Greater London, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex and the walk will go through eight districts, Thurrock, Brentwood, Epping Forest, Harlow, Uttlesford, Braintree, Colchester and Tendring. The border is about 150 miles and for ease of planning, I've split up the route into 18 sections. I hope to reach the sluice on the Stour sometime next summer.

Sections
1. Thurrock (bordering Havering, Greater London) 12.7 mls
2. Brentwood (bordering Havering, Greater London) 8.75 mls
3. Epping Forest A (bordering Havering, Greater London) 2.9 mls
4. Epping Forest B (bordering Redbridge, Greater London) 7.75 mls
5. Epping Forest C (bordering Waltham Forest Gtr London) 2.7 mls
6. Epping Forest D (bordering Enfield, Greater London) 2.45 mls
7. Epping Forest E (bordering Broxbourne, Hertfordshire) 7 mls
8. Epping Forest F1 (bordering East Herts, Hertfordshire) 2.4 mls
9. Harlow (bordering East Herts, Hertfordshire) 4.6 mls
10. Epping Forest F2 (bordering East Herts, Hertfordshire) 3 mls
11. Uttlesford A (bordering East Herts, Hertfordshire) 19.6 mls
12. Uttlesford B (bordering North Herts, Hertfordshire) 1.65mls
13. Uttlesford C (bordering South Cambs, Cambridgeshire) 24 mls
14. Braintree A (bordering South Cambs, Cambridgeshire) 2.76 mls
15. Braintree B (bordering St Edmundsbury, Suffolk) 16.9 mls
16. Braintree C (bordering Babergh, Suffolk) 16.5 mls
17. Colchester (bordering Babergh, Suffolk) 14.3 mls
18. Tendring (bordering Babergh Suffolk) 1.92 mls

Walked the Essex Coast!

Well I did it!

455 miles, 52 days (26 in Archie), averaging 8.9 miles a day.
Six estuaries (Thames, Roach, Crouch, Blackwater, Colne and Stour), four islands (Canvey, Wallasea, Mersea and Two Tree) and one Sea (North).

I started on gloomy, mild January day at Purfleet and finished on gloomy, mild September day in Manningtree and I couldn't have done it without the help and support of Archie, C2C trains, the Essex bus timetable and my feet. I celebrated by having a superb tea at the Quay tea rooms in Mistley.

I passed through nine of the fourteen district of Essex, (Basildon, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Colchester, Maldon, Rochford, Southend-on-Sea, Tendring, Thurrock), points going to Basildon with coastline on the Thames and Crouch estuaries. Amazingly most of the 350 miles of coastline is easily accessible by footpath, the exceptions being Foulness, (owned by the MOD), a large area south of Colchester between the Blackwater and the Colne (also owned by the MOD) and the western edge of Hamford Water (chemical and explosive factory). Several parts of the Thames Estuary coastline used for landfill will be transformed into nature reserves in the near future. Particularly exciting is the news that the Essex Wildlife Trust has purchased Mucking flats.

With all that walking I had plenty of time to think. Here are some of my thoughts; there are 1.7 million people in Essex and there is a boat and static caravan for each of us; Essex is a very beautiful county; Jaywick is one of the ugliest places I ever visited; birdwatching is interesting if you take a friend with to you to identify the birds. knots put on a great flying display; National Express East Anglian timetables are not be trusted and you can go off sea wall after a while.

However this trip was not without it problems. I've lost a GPS, broke a camera, blew up the hob cover in the van and wore out a pair of boots.

The best bit about this walk was the solitude and the peacefulness of the coast, mostly the only sounds were the wind, bird calls and water lapping on the shore. Meeting the couple who were walking around Britain warns me that coast walking can become addictive and if I had a spare year and half I would definitely continue.

Was it worth? Absolutely!

Photo albums
Thames Estuary
Roach and South Crouch
North Crouch
The Dengie
Blackwater Estuary
Mersea Island
Colne Estuary
Sunshine Coach and The Stour

The Sunshine Coast

The last part of the walk was along the Sunshine coast of Essex, from Sandy Point (which was stony) north to Stone Point (which was sandy). The high point of the walk was the Naze Tower and its views, particularly of the Suffolk coast, acting like a siren, tempting me to continue. The very last part of the walk was along the Stour estuary, past some very grand buildings on the other shore, ending at a sluice and the Suffolk border.



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Strolling along the Colne

The Colne is one of the shorter estuaries and certainly the narrowest, which gives good views of the opposite bank. Most of the western bank is inaccessable to anyone not in the military, so this walk started in Fingrinhoe, then north through Rowhedge to Hythe in Colchester where the tidal range ends. The walk along the eastern bank from Hythe to Brightlingsea is one of the best in Essex, taking you past the University of Essex campus, the delightful village of Wivenhoe and along a disused railway line to Alresford Creek. Wivenhoe was once an active port when very large ships towered over the nearby houses.

At the end of the Colne is Brightlingsea, a historic Cinque port, infamous in the 1990's for the live export of animals, prompting protests by local people and over-zealous policing/police brutality. Today, it has a huge marina and some posh development on the quayside. It is a rather quaint holiday destination, with colourful beach huts and an outdoor swimming pool. I had a very nice tea there with my friends.

Not really on the coast is St Osyth, a little town full of listed buildings. The cream of the crop is the Priory Gatehouse. The Priory itself is owned by developers and is up for sale, much to the dismay of the local residents. It's well worth a visit and has a couple of fine tea shops.

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A bit more coast

Here are some views of a sunny Sunday and a less sunny Monday yomping around the coast. Not far to go now




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London Loopy

Hamsey Green to Coulsdon Station

Section five of the London Loop takes you on a rollercoaster route over four Commons in Croydon with exceptional views of the North Downs. The finest bit of the Loop so far.

Why is the horse wearing a coast on a warm sunny day?

To find out more (about the walk not the horse) click here.

Visting the Ancestral Homeland

Just back from visitng the North East with my favorite niece and nephew. We did a whistle stop of some the iconic places and a few that featured a lot in my childhood and youth. The weather was very typical of holidays of yore, get to the seaside and down comes the rain! Otherwise it wasn't too bad.



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Blackwater Estuary

Views from my very enjoyable, week-long, seventy mile hike around the Blackwater Estuary, which at times, looked and felt like the Med.



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Mersea Island

Circumnavigate sunny Mersea Island!



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The Dengie

Some pictures from my epic day out crossing the Empty Quarter of Essex.



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Exmoor

Photos from a recent trip to Exmoor

WTEC - South bank of the River Crouch

The Crouch estuary is so long and thin I’ve renamed it the Peter Crouch. The river rises on Little Burstead golf course near Billericay, flows in a culvert through Wickford, and is navigable for seventeen and a half miles east from Battlesbridge, the lowest bridging point. It flows into the North Sea between Foulness Point to the south and Holliwell Point to the north. For a river that is just a piddling little stream near Billericay, the Crouch is quite majestic and is nearly half a mile wide at its mouth. The river is very popular with all kinds of pleasure craft as well as cargo boats and ferries to and from the Baltic. The Crouch estuary is an important wintering area for seabirds like Brent Geese, who seem to be very fond of Essex. A colony of grey seal lives in the mouth of the estuary.

Most of the river bank is accessible along the sea wall, built by Dutch engineers in the seventeenth century, who drained the marshes and changed the nature of the landscape. The first three miles of the southern bank is on Foulness and ipso facto, inaccessible. I got to within a mile of the coast when I visited Foulness Heritage Centre, near enough to see tantalising glimpses of large sails floating by. The Crouch is joined by its main tributary, the Roach, between Foulness and Wallasea Islands. The next three miles west on Wallasea Island is covered in a previous blog.

I walked the ten or so miles between Wallasea and Battlesbridge in three separate trips over couple of weeks. In the main the weather was pretty good, with lots of sunshine, the occasional shower and a chilly easterly breeze. Sometime between the middle of April and the beginning of May, the rape seed had blossomed bringing a splash of colour to the last part of the walk. The footpath along the sea wall varies quite a lot; at first it was grassy, then it became a concrete path with an odd angle, which made it quite difficult to walk along; then a broad concrete strip and then it disappeared altogether into the river. The path through Brandy Hole and Hullbridge was gravelly and quite popular with the locals; west of Hullbridge it was back to grass and quite deserted.

Lion Creek lies between Wallasea and the mainland and is so twisty it took nearly forty five minutes to get to the start of the sea wall proper just across the creek from the campsite. Lion Creek has silted up and is now a nature reserve. Between Lion Creek and South Fambridge, about five miles, there was just birdsong for company and the occasional passing yacht. At low tide there were wading birds like oyster catchers feeding and I spotted a kestrel hovering. The beautiful little church of St Nicholas, Canewdon, dominates the skyline on top of a little hill. It was clearly visible on my walks further south and must have been a landmark for smugglers in the past. I had a very nice lunch at the Chequers pub in the village.

About a mile west of South Fambridge, the footpath came to a rather abrupt halt. The map indicated that it crossed a small stream, continued along the sea wall on a small island and crossed another stream and headed into Hullbridge. It may be possible to achieve this at low tide but I seriously doubt it.
I tried picking the path up from the Hullbridge side, following the footpath along the sea wall until it too disappeared. At one point I even had to walk the plank. Following the footpath east from Hullbridge, it petered out on a little strip of land surrounded by water.

The river near Hullbridge was full of yachts at their moorings and a huge group of swans who seemed to live on the northern bank. At one time there must have been a ferry between Hullbridge and South Woodham. There were some very fine houses with moorings and a several permanent holiday camps, popular with retired folk. There was even a street called the Esplanade, which clearly had delusions of grandeur. I could have used a tea room at this point having walked about ten miles on the day

West of Hullbridge, the estuary becomes very bendy. I got a view of the inaccessible northern bank with yet another large static caravan park. Nobody was very keen on walking this part especially as it was raining at the time. The footpath ends about a mile from Battlesbridge, easily identified by a very large mill that is now an antiques centre. I had to trudge back to my campsite in the gathering gloom along a very busy road as the return footpath seemed to have vanished into some farmers show jumping ring.

To see more pictures of the Crouch Estuary click here.
To see pictures of the Thames Estuary click here.

WTEC - Wallasea Island

Wallasea Island, fourth largest island in Essex, is bounded to the north by the River Crouch; the River Roach to the east and south; to west and north west are Pagelsham Pool and Pagelsham Creek, which flow into the Roach and finally by Lion Creek, an inlet of the Crouch. I’m not sure it’s really an island as a small land bridge separates Lion Creek from Pagelsham Creek. It is however, pancake flat and very, very empty

Human settlement consists of one campsite, one pub, one marina, one timber yard, one wharf and one farm. Large boats from Scandinavia and Russia regularly deliver loads of shed, occasional ferries leave for the Baltic states and in the summer, you can take trips across the Crouch to Burnham. Otherwise the main attraction is the birdlife, wide open vistas and the tranquillity. The sea wall runs all around the island and gives great views along the Crouch, out to the North Sea and across to the mysterious isles of Foulness and Potton

Wallasea Island is currently undergoing a transformation. Five years ago the northern sea wall was breached to recreate a new wetland for wildlife and to try to halt the loss of such habitats. A new sea wall has been built along the northern shore overlooking the new lagoons, mudflats and artificial islands. Most of the interesting birds seemed to have left but I did spot a pair of little egrets. The RSPB have a plan to turn the rest of the island in a vast wetland area of marsh, mudflats and lagoons. Apparently the spoil from the Crossrail scheme in London will be brought by ship to Wallasea to raise land levels. All this is planned to happen over the next ten years to recreate the wetland landscape.

I walked around the island on a bright, sunny afternoon accompanied by a bitingly cold easterly wind. I made the most of Wallasea’s attractions, camped at the campsite, ate at the pub, watched the timber being unloaded and stared at the beautiful people on their boats. To me, the most attractive thing about the island was the vast emptiness of the place. The new sea wall runs eastwards for about two and half miles to Wallasea Ness, where the Roach and Crouch meet. There are information boards explaining the wetlands development taking place on the northern shore. On the opposite shore is the attractive town of Burnham-on-Crouch, a popular port for yachting types.

About halfway along the northern shore is a large pylon, which turned out to be a webcam covering the shore line to monitor to the development of the saltmash and mudflats. It made me feel a bit nervous when I had to answer a call of nature as there are no trees or bushes on Wallasea. From the end of the sea wall I got a glimpse of the Dengie peninsula on the northern shore and turning south along the Roach, I spotted the church on Foulness. The actual footpath ends about halfway along the eastern shore but unwillingly to turn back and in the absence of a ‘no entry’ sign, I decided to continue around the island.

It was quite tough to walk along the top of the sea wall on the southern shore, due to the thick grass so I walked along the base out of the wind, popping up every so often to admire the view and to spot places I’d seen on previous walks. I thought I was going to regret my trespass when, on reaching the end of the sea wall, I was met by a very locked gate and tall, spikey fence. Luckier than I deserved, I spotted a small gap in the defences and was able to squeeze through and five minutes later was back in Archie imbibing a reviving cuppa.

To see more pictures of Wallasea Island click here.
To see pictures of the Thames Estuary click here.

WTEC - The north bank of the Roach

The north bank of the Roach stretches from Stambridge Mills near Rochford north eastwards to Wallasea Ness where the river flows into the Crouch, a distance of about eight miles. The Roach is joined by its major tributary, Pagelsham Creek, just north of Potton Island. It is possible to walk uninterrupted along the sea wall to Pagelsham and continue north west by Pagelsham Creek to Wallasea Island. I made this walk over a couple of days with varying degrees of sunlight but the same chilly easterly breeze.

It’s very peaceful by the river, with just birdsong and waves lapping on the shore for company. The north bank was more popular with walkers than the south bank but I encountered only a few. Next to Stambridge Mills is Broomhills, the former home of Captain John Harnott, founder of the Thames River Police. A mile or so further along is the large inlet of Bartonhall creek, now almost silted up. The sea wall is a bit wild and overgrown in places. The next inlet, Stannett’s creek has been damned and is now a freshwater lagoon that was humming with birds, large and small.

The only village close to the Roach is Pagelsham, divided in Churchend (near the Church) and East End (in the east). There are lots of old interesting houses dotted about; Churchend has several white weatherboarded cottages and pub, the Punch bowl; Jubilee cottages really stand out with their bright colours and the church was very pretty with a very welcome seat. To reach Pagelsham East end you have to follow the footpath through the boatyard back to the village about a quarter of a mile away.

Here I stopped for lunch at the other pub, the Plough and Sail, owned by a member of the Oliver family, the pub mafia of Essex. The pub is well known for its food and was almost full by 12.30pm so I was lucky to get a seat. Not so lucky as it turned out as I broke a tooth on a piece of French bread but luckier than my neighbour who found a hair in his bubble and squeak. If you still fancy giving the place a try, either arrive early or book.

The last few miles past Pagelsham Pool and along Pagelsham creek are a bit of Essex wilderness. Looking mostly east, are very big skies filled with the river and the empty islands of Wallasea, Potton and Foulness, and those mysterious military buildings dotted on the horizon. There were a few craft moored in the river, either romantic looking sail boats or interesting wrecks. Turning north towards Wallasea, the occasional sail drifted through the landscape on the river Crouch and the yacht club at Burnham gleamed in the sunshine.

My base for this walk (and several others) was the Riverside Holiday Village on Wallasea Island, a large static caravan site with a few pitches for tourers. I don’t usually choose to stay on these sorts of sites but this one was clean and quiet, with all the usual facilities and some unusual ones like mobile library stops, wall-to-wall ducks and nesting swans.

To see more picture of the Roach Estuary click here
To see pictures of the Thames Estuary click here

Click here for directions and map for a nice long walk to Pagelsham and the Roach Valley.