Ascent/Descent: 230/277 m; Net Walking Time: ca. 5 hours
Toughness: 4 out of 10
Take the 10.18 Clacton-on-Sea train from Liverpool Street (Stratford 10.25), arrives Ingatestone 10.45.
Return trains from Battlesbridge: 16.00, 16.38 (both: chg Wickford), 17.30, 18.23 (chg Wickford); from 45 minutes. And from Wickford: xx.11, xx.31, xx.51 (from 37 minutes).
Buy an Ingatestone return. You then may have to buy a Battlesbridge to Wickford single as well.
“This rewarding Essex walk avoids major roads and all remnants of industry and suburbia to initially traverse through grassy fields in the Wid Valley and follow the Wid itself for a while, before ascending through a wood to the lunch stop in Stock. Afterwards several charming woods and Hanningfield Reservoir Nature Reserve are passed through, before an early tea stop in South Hanningfield is reached. From there the route descends through more woods and fields into the Crouch Valley to the finish in Battlesbridge.”
Lunch: The Bakers Arms (food to 14.30) or The Hoop (food to 14.30) or The Bear Inn (food to 15.00), all in Stock.
Tea: Café on the Water at Hanningfield Reservoir, a pub en route in Hanningfield and one by Battlesbridge station plus other options (see pdf for details).
T=swc.158
1 comment:
1 on an earlier train, 6 off the scheduled one, one half an hour behind after some delays on his tube line. n=8 in w=sunny-initially-then-overcast weather (there was even about half an hour worth of spittle, after lunch). Lots of changes in the early part of the walk, as a massive cattle farm has been set up, meaning kilometres of new metal fencing (quite beautiful fencing at that). This also means that the footpath in those areas is not grazed anymore though, cue high grass and plenty of nettles...). The cattle herds though were a sight to behold: the largest I've seen in the South East, and some beautiful animals amongst them, in massive fields (plenty of formerly smaller ones knocked together, now even spanning the Wid River).
1 Wednesday Regular had dropped his handheld Garmin device early in the walk and walked back to try to find it, but failed to reappear, so we (erroneously, as it turns out) assumed he had abandoned the walk. [He mad eit to Strock eventually but we had already moved on, so he took buses back home] So 7 reunited at The Bakers Arms in Stock, lunching outside, while the sun was still out in force.
3 then took the Wickford ending, 4 went on to Battlesbridge, where the notorious arable fields at the end weren't that bad today, mostly with a clear ploughed path actually, some pastures though had energy-sapping high grass (and nettles were out in many places). Earlier we had plenty of buttercups and cow parsley and even still remnants of bluebell carpets in three places, now of the palest of blue though.
Quiet scenic walk that gets rougher towards the end, but - on balance - I think everyone enjoyed it.
The long walkers had grabbed some ice creams at the Visitor Centre of the Hanningfield Reservoir Nature Reserve, and then had time at the end for a drink at The Hawk before the 17.30 train.
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