Barking & Dagenham - Countryside

Eastbrookend Country Park 

My latest walking challenge is to get out and about in Greater London, discovering the countryside and cultural heritage that is on my doorstep. What better place to start with than my home borough of Barking and Dagenham, (henceforward known as LBBD), it's the nearest and the first on the alphabetical list of London Boroughs. You may think that LBBD is not fertile territory for either culture or countryside but read on and you may be surprised.

Countryside
Less than one hundred years ago Dagenham was all farm land, indeed there was a market garden at the end on my street in the sixties. The far north of the borough has some actual farmland but there is little real countryside. What we do have is the Dagenham Corridor, a green strip in the east of borough made up two country parks, two nature reserves, one open space, and three parks. You can walk from the Ford Factory on the A13 to the Peace and Memorial Garden in Central Park crossing just two roads and a railway line, a route of about four miles.

Eastbrookend Country Park has been brought the land back to life since it was created in 1995. The area was used for gravel extraction and then the holes either filled up with water or were filled up with assorted rubbish, including rubble from the Blitz. I remember it from my childhood as a toxic wasteland. I was very sad to discover that the seven Park Rangers are to lose their jobs, a part of the Council's cost cutting measures. The Country Park is something for the borough to be proud of and I hope that all their hard work is not sacrificed on the altar of George Osbourne's fiscal policy.



The Chase

With so much water around The Chase Nature Reserve is a haven for wild fowl. On the day I visited it was mostly swans, but apparently there are skylarks in summer. The Chase is also home to very rare Black Poplar, which looks a bit like a young Whomping Willow. The other nature reserve in the Corridor really is on my doorstep. The local Parish churchyard is no longer used for burials and is now managed for the benefit of nature. Know as God's Little Acre, the meadow will be full of wildflowers in spring, so I must remember to take a look. Rippleside Nature Reserve occupies some derelict land next to an electricity sub-station in Barking Riverside. There is a little wood of Silver Birch that has colonised the area as apparently they don't need much in the way of topsoil.

Thames riverbank

The best kept secret in LBBD is the Thames riverbank. It has taken me years to find out how to get to this remote footpath, a little oasis of green between Dagenham Dock and Creekmouth. How long will it remain remote, secluded and peaceful? There are plans to build many new homes on derelict land nearby. There was another riverside open space at Creekmouth where the Roding joins the Thames, with picnic benches and steps down to the shore.

LBBD is blessed with some very large parks throughout the borough with an assortment of attractions. In my youth it was a real treat to visit Barking Park and ride on the little train (still there) or on the paddle steamer on the lake (not so sure that is still there). London County Council who built the Becontree estate created three large parks, Parsloes, from the old Parsloes Manor estate, Mayesbrook and Central. I doubt whether todays developers would be so generous or thoughtful to the needs of the residents. A BMX track is a recent addition to Old Dagenham park, my local.

Matchstick Island, Mayesbrook Park

Walking in LBBD

Sadly none of the seven strategic routes promoted by WalkLondon pass through LBBD, although one day the Thames Path North East Extention might (it was part of the Olympic plan). This idea was to extend the Thames path from Canary Wharf to Purfleet. May happen one day! The only self-guided route accompanied by a little booklet is the Timberland Trail around Eastbrookend Country park and the Chase. My booklet was about ten years old and most of the waymarks seem to have disappeared. LBBD produced a helpful leaflet on the Dagenham Corridor but it isn't available on pdf.  Eastbrookend, The Chase and the Beam provide us locals with a little bit of countryside to enjoy, it may not be the prettiest bit of open space in London but it'll do.

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Three Forests Way

Hainault Forest

This winter I completed a 60 (95km) mile circular walk called the Three Forests Way, linking the ancient Essex forests of Epping, Hainault and Hatfield. This walk was devised by ramblers in 1977 to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The official start point is Harlow in the west of Essex. The route then follows the River Stort north to Hatfield Forest and then turns south via the Roding Valley and Hainault Forest to Loughton. From here it goes over the high ground north of Epping, and beside the River Stort back to Harlow.

The route isn't waymarked so I had to rely on the guidebook published in 1986, OS Explorer Maps 174, 175, 183, 194 & 195 and my two GPS's. I abandoned the guidebook after failing to identify 'a group of three trees' in Epping Forest. It wasn't too hard to get round as the route was marked on the Explorer maps. Most of the walking was off-road or on quiet lanes, with only one very short section on a busy road. It was surprising how easy it is to walk for a couple of hours without crossing a road or seeing a soul so close to surburbia.

Epping Forest stretches from the Olympic Borough of Newham to the south west borders of Essex. It's been owned and managed by the Corporation of London on behalf of us citizens since 1876. It is very well-used by walkers (with and without dogs), riders (of bikes and horses), model airplane owners and motor cyclists who congregate at the tea hut near High Beach. It's not a place for quiet comtemplative walking as you are never too far from a busy road. Nethertheless you can still get lost in the denser parts of the forest. Epping was a Royal Forest in Tudor times, Queen Elizabeth's hunting lodge is well worth a visit.

Hainault Forest has been a public open space since 1906. The country park part is the London borough of Redbridge, the Woodland Trust manage the part that lies in Essex and the bit in Havering is a public golf course. All three local authority boundaries meet at Cabin Hill, the highest point in Redbridge, 90m/205ft. The country park recently hosted 3,000+ troops in a Snooze Box Hotel, as part of the Olympic security organisation. This is another well-used open space and one that gives excellent views into London. On a clear day, the Shard, the Gherkin, the Telecom Tower and London Eye are all visible.

Hatfield Forest lies just south of Stansted airport. This was also a former Royal forest acquired by the National Trust in 1923. As it lies under the flight path of London's third airport, noise can sometimes be a problem. On the day I visited the cloud was so low the planes weren't visible. It's an excellent place for walking, with two waymarked trails and plenty of trees to get lost in. The large picnic/parking area is popular for family picnics. Wildlife abounds, deer in forest, duck on the lake and cows in the pasture.

Several other long distance routes share parts of the Three Forest Way; section 19 of the London Loop from Hainault to Chigwall; the Centenary Walk in Epping Forest; The Forest Way - waymarked route linked Epping and Hatfield Forests; The Stort Valley Way - a circular path between Epping and Harlow; The Essex Way and St Peter's Way near Ongar. Apart from the forests and fields, there is a very pleasant riverside section by the river Stort from Roydon to Sawbridgeworth.

I started this walk on a mild sunny day in November and finished on a snowy Saturday in January, covering a total of 65 miles (100km) in nine walks. The longest was 11 miles and the shortest was 4 miles. Mostly I used public transport, sometimes combined with the van so all the walks were linear. I experienced the whole gamut of British winter weather; sunny and cold, sunny and mild, light rain, heavy rain, floods, icy winds and snow. It took about 26 hours to complete the walk.

Highlights: nearly missing a herd of fallow deer that passed directly in front of me as I read the map, one large stag with twenty or so does; the beautiful sunny but cold morning spent walking from Roydon to Sawbridgeworth; the polar bear in Hatfield Broad Oak.

Lowlights: the toilets at Harlow bus station; wading knee deep through a flooded field; mud.

Snowy Essex

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The Thames Path - Hampton Court to Dartford

In 2009 I walked the London section of the Thames Path National Trail from Hampton Court in the west to the official start/finish point at the Thames Floor Barrier. I also did the southern extention to the Darenth Flood barrier in the shadow of the QE2 bridge at Dartford. (We are still waiting for the northern extention to Purfleet to be completed). The Greater London section is about 67 miles (107km) covering both banks of the Thames. I covered the distance over six days which weirdly included the hottest and coldest days in London  that year.

The Thames Path makes for excellent walking; it's flat, it's easy to find and get to, there are plenty of places to eat and drink, but mostly it's the variety of the views, meadows, parks, boats, bridges and the buildings to numerous to mention. As the path is also a cycle route in part, WATCH OUT FOR BIKES!

Walk London produce some excellent leaflets covering the route.

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