Pleshey - Stagden Cross - Plesheybury - Pleshey

Martin Stimson

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This walk starts in the charming and historic village of Pleshey. The village is a popular place of residence for Essex commuters, having once been an agricultural community. The village is also popular in the summer (but not too busy) with visitors who walk 'The Street' and visit the nearby Holy Trinity Church, the historic remains of a castle and the village pub. The walk starts and finishes in The Street. This comprises an attractive collection of cottages and gardens. After walking close to the remains of some early defensive trenches, sections of The Essex Way are explored, surrounded by native trees such as hawthorn, oak and sloe. The sloes or blackthorn are especially conspicuous in spring when covered in drifts of snow-white blossom on bare branches.

Sometimes walking on field margins and sometimes adjacent to small woodlands, this gentle walk, which is largely level, rambles through typical Essex arable farmland. Depending on the season and the rotations you will walk among and alongside crops such as barley, wheat and oil-seed rape. Apart from the occasional dog-walker and horse rider, this area is largely unpopulated and offers a quiet walk (as long as there is no farm machinery in use!) Farmland birds can be spotted in the hedgerows and lanes, sometimes deer in the woods and in spring the woodland section of The Essex Way is scattered with primroses, violets and bluebells. In the autumn the hedges display sloes and blackberries. Summertime is ideal to spot butterflies and bees as well as resident buzzards. The paths are mostly well-signed with yellow waymarkers and white-topped posts. The Essex Way is deliniated with two red poppies on the waymarkers. There is a small section on the quiet road in Stagden Cross but the verges are wide enough to walk on. At the end section between Plesheybury and Pleshey the walk is also on the verge for 100 yards facing oncoming light traffic. If there is time a visit to the Holy Trinity Church is well worth it.

England - East England - Essex - Countryside