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Rule of Thirty: for the foreseeableOpen water, grassland, woodland, marshland, fenland via a series of linked green spaces along the Ingrebourne River: Hornchurch to Upminster
Length:
11.7 km/7.3 mi; Height Gain: 90m
Net
Walking Time: 2 ½ hours
Meet
18.45 hours prompt outside
Hornchurch Station (District Line to Upminster, in Zone 6), travel time from
Tower Hill 43 minutes, from West Ham (Jubilee Line, DLR and Mainline
trains) 25 minutes, from Barking 14 minutes, from Upminster 3
minutes.
Your
fastest option will be
to take a Mainline train from Fenchurch Street (walk 2 minutes from Tower Hill,
10 from Bank) via Limehouse, West Ham, Barking to Upminster (24 minutes
journey) and travel back two stops on the District Line.
Return
trains
from Upminster (today via Barking and Stratford to L’pool Street): 21.03, 21.33, 22.02, 22.36.
Return
District Line:
every few minutes
The
part of the Ingrebourne Valley walked through on this walk comprises a varied
and unique mixture of interlinked and partly overlapping local green spaces -
Ingrebourne Valley Greenway, Berwick Glades, Berwick Woods, Hornchurch Country
Park, Ingrebourne Hill and the Sutton, Hacton and Gaynes Parkways. These
include habitats ranging from river, open water, grassland, secondary and
ancient woodland, marshland, fenland (with the largest continuous area of
freshwater reed beds in Greater London), and – not to forget – some arable
farmland.
Partly
former airfield, ex-quarries, farmland or landfill site, it is now a continuous
green space and contains – pound for pound – one of the best viewpoints of
London’s Skyline, from all of 11 metres above sea!
Walk
Options:
Several
shortcuts are possible, as the southerly parts of the outbound and
return routes are running close to each other, these are obvious on the route
map.
Bus
Stops for services to District Line stations are located close to the route after 8
km and 9.2 km.
Follow
the outbound route back to Hornchurch station instead of going to Upminster: cut 1.8
km.
An
Extension through Berwick Woods to the reed-fringed Berwick Pond adds 1.4
km.
Refreshments: Several Restaurants,
Pubs and a Tap Room in Upminster, see the pdf or webpage for details.
For
a detailed route map, gpx/kml file, photos and pdf
directions click here.
T=short.34
1 comment:
n=4 in w=balmy weather.
Largely event-free today, hardly any dog walkers or other walkers were encountered.
Lots of greenery, wildflowers, birdlife, including some relatively rare ones (an egret, a handful of cygnets and - yes, yes - a cuckoo, the latter only heard but not seen of course, across the marshland pond...).
We reached Upminster's centre at 21.10 where 3 chose to eat at Osteria due Amici and 1 went straight to the station. 22.08 train for us. Lovely evening.
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