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.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW TO SEE MORE PICTURES

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



Click on the picture to open the album