Walks you can reach from Billericay by train

A heritage trail from the station around the historic town of Rayleigh, whose origins predate Saxon times — its name means 'a clearing of deer', it appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, and by 1222 its forests were royal hunting grounds. Takes in Rayleigh Mount and the parish church.

Walk details: Essex & South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership (local insights).

A circular across countryside and along part of the sea wall, returning along the banks of the River Roach to the attractive historic market town of Rochford.

Rochford

Time: 4h

Lunch: Passes a convenient pub for refreshment.

Walk details: Essex & South Suffolk Community Rail Partnership (local insights).

Rolling grassy fields, quiet lanes, scattered woods, reservoir nature reserve, river valley and tidal mudflats.

Time: 4h30

Warnings: Can be muddy.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Entirely flat, urban city-centre streets, royal parks, riverside Thames path, canal towpath and historic financial district.

Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).

Recommended: The views from Leigh on Sea looking out to the sea are beautiful. Quiet woodlands, farm paths, horse yards and pretty residential areas and passing through a nature reserve before reaching the coast at Leigh-on-Sea. Includes a safer crossing of the A127. The route passes through a nature reserve near Hadleigh and goes past a windmill.

Time: 2h–4h

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Recommended: Beautiful buildings and churches and amazing woodlands. A largely green route from central Chelmsford out through Galleywood, with clear, well-signposted paths through woodlands and farmers' fields and plus a stretch through the village of Stock. Can be combined with onward routes heading down to the coast.

Woodland: a fifth under tree cover.

Time: 5h–9h30

Warnings: Follows a busy road for a sixth of the walk.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

A mostly flat suburban and green-belt route mixing pavement, paths, tracks, fields and woodland, with one unavoidable A-road section (about 600m, on pavement) and a hillier approach to Rayleigh. Some seldom-used footpaths are overgrown; classic green-belt mix of residential and scruffy farmland and semi-rural-industrial land. Optional greener finish via Rayleigh Mount and the old castle earthworks (National Trust, with closing times). Woodland Trust land near Rayleigh for picnics.

Time: 2h30–4h30

Lunch: Cafe by a garden centre just off route at the A129/A1245 roundabout.

Warnings: Crossing the busy, fast London Road requires waiting for a gap; vehicles also move fast at the A129/A1245 roundabout, crossed via an island. Some overgrown footpaths. An unofficial railway crossing at Rayleigh station involves steps.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Some great views of London. A varied, undulating route: grey urban roads out of Romford, then green and pleasant parks, nature reserves, common land and farm fields, with some steeper parts. Mostly good paths but some muddy and boggy sections near the M25 crossing; barriers and stiles exclude wheels. Briefly joins the London Loop near Harold Wood Park. No facilities in the middle section. Crosses from Greater London into Essex.

Time: 3h30–7h

Lunch: Shops and pubs at either end but no facilities in the middle.

Warnings: The A127 crossing has a central refuge but no lights, so requires care. Some stiles in poor repair before the M25 road bridge and boggy lower-lying paths; the entrance to Tyler's Common from the south-west is unclear.

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Time: 2h30–5h

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Uses a foot and cycle path along the A127 to the Rayleigh Weir roundabout to cross safely.

Time: 3h30–7h30

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Time: 2h30–4h30

Walk details: Slow Ways.

Mainly quiet, paved suburban streets out of Wickford, then off-road footpaths across fields and through paddocks to Battlesbridge, a woodland stretch, field paths running parallel to the railway and finishing through an Essex Wildlife Trust reserve that can be damp and a mud bath after wet weather. Passes Battlesbridge station, allowing the walk to be split or a return train to Wickford. Woodham Fen is an Essex Wildlife Trust reserve.

Time: 2h30–5h

2 lunch spots: battlesbridge — the Hawk, or the Green Bottle

Warnings: Two difficult crossings of the busy Burnham Road (A132), which can require a long wait for a gap to cross both lanes; Woodham Fen reserve and the trail immediately after its footbridge can be a mud bath after wet weather.

Walk details: Slow Ways.