Length: 11.7 km/7.3 mi; Height Gain: 90m
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 and
travel back two stops on the District Line. This train will likely be crowded
though in rush hour.
Return trains from Upminster: xx.01, xx.08, xx.19, xx.31, xx.38 (journey time from 22 minutes to
Fenchurch Street). Trains stop Barking, West Ham and Limehouse.
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.
1 comment:
5 more or less on time, with 1 other way behind (he short cut and met us about half way along), so n=6 in w=pleasantly-warm weather. Start and Finish of the walk are some way off the green valley route, so residential roads must be negotiated first and last. Once we got to the river though, it was very quiet and peaceful, with hardly a soul about initially. The route soon veers away from the river to walk field boundaries with views and over former landfill sites/now woods or hay meadows with plenty of wildflowers. The viewpoint at the southern end of the walk did not disappoint: (most of) the NE of Greater London was on view, from the Dartford Bridge to The Shard.
Along the return route, in Hornchurch Country Park, we were delighted to see so many people use the various trim-trail and activity playground hardware while we also inspected the various info panels, memorial sculptures and leftover hardware commemorating the various RAF Stations that used to be here.
Near the end, the late sun made for some striking cloudscapes and we got to Upminster - broadly as planned - at 21.20. 4 stayed on for a meal at an Osteria, 22.36 train for those.
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