EB5 Lee Valley

From Sewardstone the walk turns north and for next 40 miles or so the border is delineated by water, firstly the Lee Navigation and then the Stort Navigation. The river Lea is the traditional western border of Essex, separating us from Middlesex. The lower reaches have been lost to Greater London but that still leaves 20 miles of riverside walking to Dobbs Weir, where to Lea heads off into Hertfordshire. The Lea Valley Walk covers all 58 miles of the River Lea from Leagrave near Luton to Limehouse Basin on the Thames. The naturally flowing bit is called the Lea, the canalised bit is known as the Lee. The Lee Valley Regional Park stretches from 26 miles from Ware in Hertfordshire to the Thames. It provides watery leisure space for Londoners, nature reserves for wildlife and the home for white water canoing for the 2012 Olympics.

Waltham Abbey, as the name suggests, once had an Abbey, famous for being the last resting place of King Harold, possibly. His grave was behind the high alter, but as much of the abbey church and buildings disappeared in the Reformation, now he's marooned in the Abbey Gardens. The gardens are now a public park and there are plenty of information boards around to explain what remains of the monastery buildings. Waltham Abbey has some nice old half timbered buildings, a tiny museum with a fabulous piece of wood panelling on loan from the V & A and a rather old-fashioned tea shop where I had lunch.


The Lee Valley Park has a couple of campsites and I took advantage of the one on the Essex side of the river at Sewardstone. I rather think took advantage of me, charging £17.50 a night in the depths of November. I wasn't very impressed with the facilities; only one toilet block open; one cubicle out of action; showers that had no clothes pegs or stools. The best thing you can say about the site is that it was convenient for the walks I wanted to do. I expect they'll make a mint during the Olympics. I won't be going back.

Walk 8 This was a short circular walk from the campsite to link up with the previous walk. The weather was sunny but hazy obscuring the view from the top of Gilwell Hill across the Lee Valley and King George's Resevoir. The Scouts have an big campsite with an amazing obstacle course, somehow I managed to resist sliding down the big tubes. It would have been embarassing if I got stuck. From Sewardstone I took a footpath on the very edge of Essex back to the campsite. A muddy 2.5 miles


Walk 9 In complete constrast to the previous walk, the weather was dull, dark, dank and dismal. The route to Waltham Abbey hugged the Essex border by the Lee and crossed the Greenwich Meridian at some point. Surprisingly rural, I got to Waltham Abbey having only crossed one road. It was all a bit boggy until reaching Gunpowder Park, which is laid out with all-weather paths to encourage cyclists. This is a relatively new park, having previously been a Royal Ordnance munitions testing site, which has left some odd humps behind. The highlight for me was, obviously, Cob Hill, which I'm sure has a very nice view when it's not raining. I arrived at Waltham Abbey in time for lunch. A slightly damp 5.5 miles


Walk 10 Suitable replete, I set off for a circular walk around the Lee Valley Country Park leaving the Abbey gardens via a handy underpass. The country park has been created from old gravel pits, so is very popular with bird watchers. I'm not sure that November is the best time for a visit though. I headed towards Fishers Green via Cornmill meadows and returned along the canal towpath which fortunately, is on the Essex bank at this point. A few hardy souls were aboard moored boats but no one was taking their cruiser for a spin. I arrived back at Waltham Abbey in the gathering gloom to catch the hourly bus back to camp. Too late I realised I was at the wrong stop and made vague effort at running. To my amazement the bus driver took pity on me and picked me up. I was most effusive in my thanks. A watery 6.5 miles

Walk 11 Three months later and it's back to Fishers Green. This time I employed the services of a local guide a nature expert, Frankie. I should have listened to her as we headed off towards Nazeing as we had to retrace our steps as a promised footpath failed to materialise. We followed cycle route no 1 over Clayton Hill, in and around Nazeing and eventually rejoined the Lee towpath just south of Dobbs Weir. There was a good view from the hill over the Lee valley, if you avoid looking at Harlow. Very enjoyable 6 miles

Completed distance 80 miles

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EB5 Lee Valley

The Far East

This month's camping trip took me to Lowestoft in Suffolk. Why, you ask? To complete the compass rose of Britain by visiting the most easterly point, Lowestoft Ness. From the campsite at Kessingland I could see the bright lights of Lowestoft and Gulliver, Britains's tallest wind tower. I was lucky enough to secure the last beach side pitch, (the campsite has only been open an hour and half!). As it was rather cold, I retired early but set the alarm so I could see the dawn rise from bedroom window. I woke up to find the van encased in ice so I had to watch the very chilly dawn from outside instead. It was a pretty sunrise and I would be one of the first people in Britain to see it.

It about six miles from the campsite to Lowestoft and I was able to walk all the way along the coast. It was an absolutely glorious day, fully twelve hours of unbroken sunshine, the winds were light but chilly. Ness Point is hidden away behind the port, off Gas Works Roads towards the north of the town. It's a rather forlorn spot, marked by Euroscope, a direction finder giving distances to the capitals of Europe. The Hague is 110 miles away and London 106 miles. It also marked the other cardinal points of Britain; south, Lizard Point, 352 miles; north, Dunnet Head, 472 miles; west, Ardnamurchan Point, 451 miles.

I was able to watch the moon rise from my sitting room, and what a fantastic site it was too. Huge and pink, it seemed to fill the sky and moonlight on the water was brilliant. Apparently it was a super moon.

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EB4 Epping Forest

Epping Forest has been the playground of Londoners since 1878 when the Corporation of London became Conservators of Epping Forest and the general public were granted legal access for the first time. The Corporation acted to prevent greedy landowners from enclosing what remained of the Forest, (it's hard to visualise the City as champions of the comman man). Epping had been one of the many Royal Forests and covered much of Essex. The Forest was made up of a mixture of woodland and grazing, the trees provided cover for the deer and the locals grazed their cows and made off with firewood, pretty much as they do today. Epping is full of large, pollarded oaks, many centuries old. Pollarding prevented deer from eating the new growth. Sadly I didn't pass one on my walks but they are very impressive.

What remains of Epping forms a crescent shape extending from the Lower Forest just south of Harlow to Wanstead Flats, less than 6 miles from the heart of London. The main part of the Forest lies between Chingford and Epping with Loughton at the centre. Centenary Walk extends from 12 miles from Manor House to Epping, linking all the various parcels of land. It's a very enjoyable walk but comes with two particular hazards; firstly, the waymarking is poor and secondly, you have to cross some very busy roads. The highest point is Ambresbury Banks near Epping but Pole Hill, the highest point in Waltham Forest, has the best view, overlooking Central London, the Olympic Stadium, Millenium Dome and the aerials of Crystal Palace.

The undoubted jewel in the crown is the Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge, just south of the Essex border at Chingford. Actually built for Henry VIII, it provided a grandstand for monarch and guests to watch and/or participate in the hunt by loosing of their arrows at the deer, a latterday shooting party. It's free to visit and open most weekends. The other popular place is High Beach, so called from the sandy nature of the soil. It's the location of the Visitor Centre, several pubs, an ice cream van and hordes of picnickers on sunny days. Sadly, the Epping Forest Festival, a celebration of all things foresty, has been discontinued due to budget cuts. Shame!!


Walk 6 took me around the border with Redbridge, from Cabin Hill in Hainault Forest to the mighty river Ching on Whitehall Plain. It started and ended in trees but otherwise, you couldn't see the forest for the houses. This is the point where the Green Belt disappears and London and Essex merge. I'm pretty sure that the entrance to Grange Hill Station is in Essex but the platforms are in Redbridge. There was a very fine view from Grange Hill east towards the QEII bridge, Tilbury power station and Havering Ridge, giving me a chance to see how far I've come.

Then followed a long road section through Chigwell to Luxborough Lane to cross the M11. Just pass the Spurs training ground was a small bit of greenery along the Roding valley before more pavement pounding to Buckhurst Hill. I stopped for a snack at a local bakers but wouldn't recommend it. The last part of the route went through Lord's Bushes, past pretty St John's pond and ended on Whitehall Plain. The bridge over the Ching marks the point were Essex, Redbridge and Waltham Forest meet. I can only assume the Ching was a much mightier river if it required a ford because you wouldn't need to be Jade Johnson to jump over it now. The weather was mild and sunny, the trees wore their autumn colours, a pleasant 10 miles.

Walk 7 was a short hop taking me through Epping Forest to the River Lea or Lee, the traditional western boundary of Essex. Starting just over the border at the Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge, I followed the River Ching to Connaught water and then through the Bury Wood to Sewardstonebury. There isn't much waymarking in the Forest and it's quite easy to get lost so I had to use Brimble's Guide to Epping Forest, with large scale maps, to navigate. Once across Bury Road, I followed Woodman's Ride to Yardley Hill and down the other side to Sewardstone. It was another crisp, sunny autumnal day. However this is not the place to come if you want a quiet walk. You'll meet mountains bikers, horse riders, gangs of joggers, packs of dog walkers, rabbles of ramblers, screaming kids and blokes flying model aeroplanes, to name just a few. A pleasant, if crowded, 3 miles.

60 miles completed

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London Loopy

Coulsdon South Station to Banstead Downs

A short and boring section through the London Borough of Sutton, the main highlight was Oaks Park.

A Stalking Horse

To find out more (about the walk and my encounter with the horse) click here.

First Camping Trip of 2011

After a break over the winter Archie and I hit the road for our first jaunt of 2011. We took a spin around the M25 to the Caravan Club site at Denham, about 10 minutes from junction 17. The site is really a glorified car park with very big spaces and clean toilets. I expected a bit of aircraft noise, being not too far from Heathrow. I hadn't bargained for helicopters landing next door at Denham Airfield in the middle of the night!


Denham is in South Buckinghamshire, the birthplace of the Paralympics, but right next door to Hertfordshire, the County of Opportunity, to do what? There are plenty of posh houses about, Cilla Black lives in Denham Green, but surprise, surprise, I didn't meet her. Denham village was once the home of Sir John Mills who lived in this very nice house.

There was plenty of footpaths about and I purchased a local guide which I promptly lost without ever reading. I managed a couple of circular walks from the site to the Grand Union Canal on Friday and Sunday but Saturday was a washout. Once the rain stopped I strolled around the adjacent nature reserve. I drove off and left the stool behind, the sixth stool I either lost or driven over!

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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