Warming up for winter in style

8:32am Thursday 27th October 2005

Walk 96 - Rickling Green - 6.5 miles
Len Banister explores the diversity of Essex.

Attractive villages, extensive woodland and big skies - a typical Essex mixture this week.

We start the walk from Rickling Green which is the kind of village which ex-pats remember with fondness. Its expansive green which has escaped the clutches of developers has at one side an attractive pavilion overlooking the pitch; on the other side is the aptly named Cricketers pub.

Once off the road we are quickly immersed in Coney Wood, the first of several really interesting woods which are visited on our route.

Having passed through Quendon, another pretty village which is rather spoilt by the busy B1383, we go past the church and on alongside Quendon Wood which is really inviting but with no public access.

During the latter stages of the walk you cannot help but be conscious of the power lines which are converging westward on the transformer station at Stocking Pelham.

Actually these lines and pylons can be extraordinarily useful to the map reader when identifying exact locations on a walk like this.

Choose a fine day for this outing and make the most of a route which provides the opportunity for a good workout before winter weather sets in.

1. Start

Walk away from the Cricketers to reach the road. Turn right and, after about 50 metres go left at a concrete finger post to go up a drive which forks right past the entrance to Greenacre.

When, a little later, the drive swings right go straight on along a narrow path with allotments to your right. Keep forward at a junction and follow a waymarker which takes you past houses.

At the next waymarker, with open ground visible ahead, go right. Soon this path is waymarked and after a time you will come to a wide track with a chain linked fence ahead. Go left so that the fence is on your right. Follow the fence at a fork by going right and go right at the next fork where the fence ends. You emerge from the wood at a field edge.

2. 0.7 miles/ 1.1km

Go slightly left across the field to join a wide gravelled track. Go right (this is the Harcamlow Way) and, after a few metres, before crossing a ditch go right at a waymarker to walk up the right-hand boundary of a field. At the end, turn left in front of a house with a swimming pool and then go right to walk beside it with a paddock to the left.

3. 1.1 miles/1.7km

You reach the main road at the village of Quendon. Turn right then soon left up the lane to the church with its ornate steeple. Go beyond the small car park and into an uncultivated field, soon forking right to reach the edge of a large field.

Go left along the hedge and, where this ends, go diagonally right across the field towards woodland. Once you reach the trees go left and, at the end of the wood right so that you are now walking with trees on your right and a view of the M11 over to your left. Keep forward for about mile. Just after passing under power lines you will go right then left along the edge of a smaller wood to reach a stile.

Go forward across the field aiming for a greyish house ahead. You will go to the right of this house alongside a hedge to reach a metal gate (you will need to lift this slightly in order to undo the latch.)

4. 2.6 miles/ 4.2km

Turn right down a lane of attractive houses to emerge on the main road alongside the Chequers Pub. Cross over and find a stile in the hedge slightly to the left.

A waymarker guides you on the path as it swings right through mixed woodland. You emerge briefly into an area of bracken to quickly be guided left over a plank bridge into more woodland. The evergreen nature of the trees here lends a dark mysterious air to this part of the walk. Keep forward to reach a stile at a field edge.

5. 2.9 miles/ 4.7km

Go left and, after 10 metres, right to walk along a field edge with a ditch on the right. About half-way along this massive field, at a T-junction, go left on a cross-field track. At the end, go slightly right over a ditch to reach a wide track.

Turn right (for the next couple of miles you will once again be on the Harcamlow Way). The track leaves woodland and twists and turns with the field edge to eventually reach a lane.

6. 4.1 miles/ 6.5km

Turn right along the lane to the point where power lines cross overhead on a sharp left turn.

Go left here at a fingerpost along a beautiful hedged track. Soon you are walking along the right-hand edge of another large field. You continue along the side of a wood and, where this ends, go left across the field to a hedge and a gap to go right up another field edge.

Where the field narrows, go left across the field to walk alongside a pond and reach a farm track. Turn right and continue to Rickling Hall Farm. Go into the farmyard and turn right to walk between two huge barns along a wide green. Where this ends, continue forward on the right-hand side of the hedge. Reach a road.

7. 5.1 miles/8.2km

Turn right, just past the speed limit sign for Rickling Green, turn left at a finger post and, after a few metres, right at a way marker crossing plank bridge.

At another waymarker the path forks and you go right and keep forward on a path which becomes much clearer on the ground. Eventually you will reach a familiar drive and return to the road. Go right to reach your car.

Walkers Notebook

Starting Point / Parking: Rickling Green can be reached by turning off the B1383 at Quendon (the B1383 runs between Sawbridgeworth and Newport). Once at the Green you can identify a small parking area in front of the pub and school. If this is full, park alongside but not on the Green.

Distance: 6.4 miles/10.2km.

Time: 3 hours.

Terrain: mainly flat with good paths, suitable for dogs.

Stiles: 5 Near: Newport and Stansted Mountfitchett.

Refreshments: pubs at the start and Ugley.

Public Toilets: none Public Transport: bus services through Quendon en route to Saffron Walden from Takely, Sawbridgeworth and Harlow.

Map and Grid Reference: Explorer 195 513298.

More Information: West Essex Ramblers: memberships and free programme of walks with leaders: 020 8524 2737 (Redbridge Group: 01708 456 771 and Lea Valley Friends who specialise in walks of 3 to 4 miles: 020 8529 7328).