Walks from Wickford
MapBeautiful walks starting or ending at Wickford Station.
Alternatively, view walks you can reach directly from Wickford by train.
Wickford to Battlesbridge
Rolling grassy fields, quiet lanes, scattered woods, reservoir nature reserve, river valley and tidal mudflats.
Time: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)
Warnings: Can be muddy.
Walk details: the Saturday Walkers Club (tips, local insights and turn-by-turn directions).
Chelmsford to Wickford
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: 6h30 (5h walking, 1h30 lunch)
Warnings: Follows a busy road for a sixth of the walk.
Walk details: Slow Ways.
Wickford to Rayleigh
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.
Rayleigh Mount (National Trust)
Time: 4h (2h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)
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.
Basildon to Wickford
Wickford to South Woodham Ferrers
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: 4h (2h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)
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.
Billericay to Wickford
A walk through fields and woods on footpaths and with a long section along a main road. The ground is rough in places with several stiles.
Woodland: a quarter under tree cover.
Time: 4h (2h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)
1 lunch spot: the Nags Head
Warnings: A long section along Heath Road has little or no pavement, with fast traffic and a sharp bend, which can feel unsafe. Cattle in a field near Castledon Road may be aggressive.
Walk details: Slow Ways.
Ingatestone to Wickford
Wid Valley fields, riverside paths, cattle farm estate, bluebell woods, tree-lined tracks and Crowsheath Community Woodland.
Time: 6h (4h30 walking, 1h30 lunch)
Warnings: Can be muddy.
Source: An alternative variant of Ingatestone to Battlesbridge (Saturday Walkers Club).