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.