The Essex Way

The Essex Way meanders northwesterly across the county starting at London's Central Line tube station at Epping and continuing to the port of Harwich. It is a long distance footpath that, following ancient rights of way, links many of the places and events mentioned in previous chapters.

At Epping the outlaw Dick Turpin laid low in the Forest. If David Livingstone had followed the Essex Way he may have arrived back in Ongar in time for dinner. A few miles further along Willingale's two churches stand side by side on the same plot of land, but no squabbling sisters are to be seen. The footpath passes through Pleshey, mentioned in William Shakespeare's Richard II. Leaving Pleshey, the route traverses lands and manors formerly owned by the dynastic de Vere family and then by Essex bad boy Richard Riche. At Cressing the original granary barns still stand that served as storehouses for the Knights Templars. Turning east the path follows the River Blackwater leaving it to arrive at Coggeshall, the halfway point of the journey. Fortunately the gang that once terrorised the area, much like Dick Turpin did in Epping a hundred years before, has long gone.

Leaving Coggeshall, the Essex Way runs close to Boxted Hall where Edward III once spent the night on a secret assignation much to the chagrin of the citizens of Colchester. In 1648, during the English Civil War, fleeing Royalists, hotly pursued by Parliamentary forces, followed a route almost identical to the Essex Way travelling from London to Colchester.

From Boxted the way enters Constable Country passing right by John Constable's old school in Dedham. A few miles further on, nestling the banks of the River Stour, the old Manningtree haunts of the Witch Finder General, Matthew Hopkins reveal themselves. Just outside the town, legions of swans boldly strut up and down. Their ancestors would have much to tell if questioned. Richard Rigby's great folly, the twin towers at Mistley, loom into view. Following the banks of the Stour to Harwich, on the North Sea coast, the 81 miles of the Essex Way ends at the high lighthouse. The port was once the Parliamentary seat of Samuel Pepys and the birthplace of exploring sea captains Christopher Jones and Christopher Newport, the men who steered colonists to unknown fates in the New World.

Stunning scenery, mystery, intrigue, adventure and years of history - the Essex Way has them all.

High and Low Lighthouse at Harwich