Walk 3556 - printer friendly version

Arlesford Creek & Brightlingsea Circular Walk

Author - Lou Johnson

Length - 6.0 miles / 9.8 km

Ascent - 150 feet / 45 metres

Grade - easy

Start - OS grid reference TM078162
Lat 51.8058060 + Long 1.0127342
Postcode CO7 0HH (approx. location only)

This Essex walk starts from Brightlingsea, which I remember as a child with its beach, river and boats. A return visit years later brought back many happy memories and the chance to explore the area in more detail. The walk starts close to Batemans Tower where there is a car park and toilets (grid ref. TM078162).

Locate Western Promenade and walk along the sea front with Brightlingsea Creek to your right. Walk as far as the Lido and then turn left beside the fence. At the northern end of the Lido turn right and follow the clear path to pass the boating lake on your right. Reaching a road, turn left into Lower Park Road. The road curves to the right and shortly after turn left into Park Drive. Take the second right into Chestnut Way and reaching a T-junction turn left onto Marennes Crescent.

Continue to the end of this road and turn right onto the path (adjacent to house number 34). The path leads behind housing, passes a farm on the left to reach Church Road (grid ref. TM082178). Turn left along Church Road. After 250 metres the road bends right (grid ref. TM080179). Take the tarmac track on the left just after the bench and follow the waymarked path (sign partly hidden in vegetation) to pass a sports field.

The track initially continues between fields and after 350 metres passes between flooded gravel pits. Reaching the end of the flooded pit on your left, the track bends sharp left. Cross a dirt track and follow the path into a wooded area (grid ref. TM073181). The path veers right and then left alongside a service road with flooded gravel pits on either side. Continue ahead to reach a band of trees at a T-junction of wide gravel tracks (grid ref. TM070184). Go straight ahead here following a path into the trees and a gate. Go through the gate and head half right across the field to join Movers Lane (grid ref. TM069187). Again, there is ample evidence of past and current gravel extraction.

Turn left along Movers Lane. Ignore the track on the left heading to Moverons Farm. Continue walking for just over a kilometre staying on the track as it bears right, left and right again to reach the shore of Arlesford Creek (grid ref. TM063194). Turn left through a gate and follow the path with the creek on your right. The path soon swings round to the left and joins the old railway track-bed which runs alongside the River Colne. You now have nearly three kilometres of easy walking back to Bateman's Tower and the start of the walk.

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