Over the summer I've walked the new Thames Estuary Path which is a 29 mile route from Tilbury Town to Leigh-on-Sea. The path, which forms an important part of the MaxiGreen project, was funded by the Veolia North Thames Trust, EUInterreg IVA 2 Seas Programme and Essex County Council. The entire route benefits from a very comprehensive on line resource and mobile app at thamesestuarypath.co.uk, where you can find route maps and commentary on points of interest and history. I also picked up a "Explore the Thames Estuary Path" pamphlet from the Wat Tyler Country Park visitor centre which I ended up at by mistake having missed the turning outside Pitsea Train railway station.
The route can be done either way, the on-line guide splits in the route into five sections, each starting and finishing at a railway station on the very good C2C routes. Going west to east these sections are:
Tilbury Town to East Tilbury 7 miles
East Tilbury to Stanford-le-Hope 3.5 miles
Stanford-le-Hope to Pitsea 10 miles
Pitsea to Benfleet 3.5 miles
Benfleet to Leigh-on-Sea 4 miles.
I understand there is an extension planned to Chalkwell but this is not quite ready.
I split my walk in to four sections combining the Leigh-on-Sea to Pitsea sections and undertook each one on a Friday evening after work, and was fortunate enough to benefit from four very pleasant evenings giving me almost sufficient time to complete each walk in daylight apart from the 10 mile stretch between Pitsea and Standford-le-Hope.
When I first looked at the map I did not hold out much hope of this being much of a walk given that a fair amount of it is away from the Thames Estuary, but I was pleasantly surprised.
I started from the east so I was closer to home after the walk, so on 17 July 2015 I caught a train from London Fenchurch Street to Leigh-on-Sea, this took about 40 minutes as did all the journeys on the route regardless of where I got on or got off!
Picking up the route from the station was fairly straight forward although I did not see any of the promised signs. The route to Benfleet, which is 4 miles goes along the Benfleet Creek separating the mainland of Essex from Canvey Island and then along East Haven Creek for a very short distance before turning off and heading for Pitsea.
It was a marvellous summers evening, I was walking into the sun and benefited from some great views with the sun light reflecting in the creek waters with an abundance of impressive cloud formations.
The tide was out, revealing mudbanks, leaving the odd boat stranded at acute angles until the tide returned to straighten them. This was typical estuary scenery, flat, marshy and extensive sky lines. There was the occasional remains of previous industry which used to exist in days gone by.
In the main I had the entire path to myself, an occasional dog walker or jogger. As I approached Benfleet I walked next to Hadleigh Country Park which boasts the remains of Hadleigh Castle, standing proud on the hill above the estuary. Built in the reign of Henry II by Hubert de Burgh and now in ruins, but an impressive landmark all the same.
Soon South Benfleet marina came into sight together with a few businesses which service the boats and yachts. The marina was very well maintained, with nicely cut lawns, and benches to take in the view, very reminiscent of a previous walk undertaken some 25 years ago along the River Medway. One particular old boat had been converted into a bar/restaurant, I was tempted but was on a mission to catch a train.
It was a marvellous summers evening, I was walking into the sun and benefited from some great views with the sun light reflecting in the creek waters with an abundance of impressive cloud formations.
The tide was out, revealing mudbanks, leaving the odd boat stranded at acute angles until the tide returned to straighten them. This was typical estuary scenery, flat, marshy and extensive sky lines. There was the occasional remains of previous industry which used to exist in days gone by.
In the main I had the entire path to myself, an occasional dog walker or jogger. As I approached Benfleet I walked next to Hadleigh Country Park which boasts the remains of Hadleigh Castle, standing proud on the hill above the estuary. Built in the reign of Henry II by Hubert de Burgh and now in ruins, but an impressive landmark all the same.
Soon South Benfleet marina came into sight together with a few businesses which service the boats and yachts. The marina was very well maintained, with nicely cut lawns, and benches to take in the view, very reminiscent of a previous walk undertaken some 25 years ago along the River Medway. One particular old boat had been converted into a bar/restaurant, I was tempted but was on a mission to catch a train.
Once through Benfleet I continued to follow the creek and for a while I had A130 as company, this is the main road onto Canvey, eventually I passed under this road and headed inland, with the railway as company almost all the way to Pitsea, this area a conversation area Bowers Marsh. Along the way a couple of Pill Boxes were passed together with the isolated church St Margaret's Church Bowers Marsh. This sits in amongst the fields a distance from the village, a charming spot indeed.
The final couple of miles is alongside the railway in meadow land where I came face to face with some piebald horses, but they where not interested in me today.
Following a final stretch down a dark alley beside a high fence and enclosed by trees ( I could and should have walked through the housing estate) I came out at Pitsea where I was able to catch a train back to Limehouse for my journey home
The next section I planned to undertake a two weeks (24 July 2015) later was to combine the Pitsea to Stanford-Le-Hope section and the East Tilbury section but at 13.5 miles was a little over optimistic for a friday evening, especially as I walked 15 minutes in the wrong direction after coming out of Pitsea Station which meant I was already half an hour (or 1.5 miles) behind schedule!
Needless to say I find the route in the immediate area outside Pitsea a little confusing and not very well signed posted, mainly due to the sign being hidden behind a tree, which was quite clear on my return! I then ran into trouble in meadows along side the railway which came up against a warehouse site and I ended up double backing on myself, which actually was the route.
Needless to say I find the route in the immediate area outside Pitsea a little confusing and not very well signed posted, mainly due to the sign being hidden behind a tree, which was quite clear on my return! I then ran into trouble in meadows along side the railway which came up against a warehouse site and I ended up double backing on myself, which actually was the route.
The route followed Vange Creek before cutting off across Fobbing Marshes, a very atmospheric area, and with the sun low in the sky I got some good photos, although it was a little disappointing that the tide was out in the creek revealing loads of mud.
Along this section next to the creek I put the willies up a herd of cows who stamped away from me, this makes a pleasant change as they normal stamped towards me.
As I had lost 30 minutes I was pretty sure I would end up walking in the dark so I undertook to catch up time by running for 10 minutes and walking for 20 minutes on the basis that I expected to cover one mile in ten minutes running. I did this for three lots of ten minutes and was quite pleased that I managed to run for the entire period!
Having crossed Fobbing Marsh I touched the edge of Fobbing Village and along the back paths I came to Corringham. I've been here before as East Thurrock United have their football ground here. I was able to buy some water and a bar of chocolate in the local garage before heading off towards Stanford Warren Nature Reserve which gave me great views of the huge cranes at the London Gateway Port.
The sun was setting now and it was a good sunset and it was good to get a photo of the combine harvester against the sun.
The sun was setting now and it was a good sunset and it was good to get a photo of the combine harvester against the sun.
It was at this point I decided to make for Stanford-le-hope railway station as it was getting dark, I passed through Mucking village, which when I was last here was in the middle of the Mucking Landfill site. I must have missed the turning to the station as when I returned I arrived at this point by a different route. The route I went on was via a housing estate but I was soon at the station in time to catch a train back to Limehouse at about 21:15 and it was dark by now.
So I now have two sections to complete, it's late August and the distance is a combined 10 miles and I won't be able to start until about 18:00, therefore I will be walking in the dark along the Thames at Tilbury so I decided to split it into two section. First I did East Tilbury to Tilbury Town the first/last section of the overall walk depending on your starting point which I chose to do on 7th August as its 7 odd miles and if I left it to the next opportunity, which would be 22nd August (owing to the beer festival) it would again be dark by the time I finished.
So I left work early at 16:30 having worked late the night before so had a good early start, having arrived at East Tilbury I was promptly held up by my wife, Beverley phoning me to see how I was getting on! Mind you whilst on the phone I spied some really nice blackberries so I used the time I had saved to collect a sandwich boxful, so that dessert sorted for Sunday.
The first part of this section is not very inspiring, as it walks alongside a housing estate and then the edge of the Mucking Marshes landfill site and of course the obligatory chain link fence, well at least it was not closed in and I could look across the marshes towards the river.
However, once you do arrive at the river you have splendid views up, down and cross the river. Down the river can been seen Mucking Landfill cranes and the London Gateway Dock, very impressive, across the river the Hoo Peninsula rising from the estuary, whilst up the river there's East Tilbury marshes on my side and Higham and Shorne Marshes on the other. But the best thing was all the ships sailing mainly down the river from Tilbury Dock. I could have spent ages just watching them. Unfortunately my camera battery was dead so I had to use my phone camera and my pictures were pretty poor.
When I got home I looked up one of the ships and discovered it was on its way to Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa with a number of stops on the way and was due to arrive some time in September fascinating!
I must say I really enjoyed the walk along the Thames here, once again it was a sunny evening with the makings of a good sunset and I was walking into it. I have done this walk before when training for the Kentish Kanter with my friend Phil Lush but I've not seen him for years.
The riverside walk eventually brings you to Coalhouse Fort an artillery fort built in the 1860s to guard the lower Thames from seaborne attack. Opposite across the river is Cliffe Fort. Coalhouse Fort sits near the site of an earlier battery set up by Henry VIII.
The Estuary path takes you round the back of the fort (which opens at various times throughout the year) and enables you to get a good idea of its purpose and size, it's also a good idea to walk around the front by the moat to see the gun emplacements.
On the path back down to the river you pass the rapid fire battery, the last surviving examples in this country although it's pretty overgrown and then on the river front is an experimental radar station, which sits on the site of the Tudor battery.
And still the ships kept coming, soon I was walking past the decommissioned Tilbury Power Station, with its coal pier in the estuary, there were some lads fishing listening to loud music but they wished me a good evening, luckily the tide was low otherwise this part could have been a bit tricky as the evidence is that the path get flooded.
Once past the Power Station I next encountered the outer defences of Tilbury Fort, now this is very impressive, I've been here a couple of times using the little ferry from Gravesend. Tilbury fort was built to defend London rom attack from the sea, particularly during the Spanish Armada and the Anglo-Dutch Wars. The defences were fully rebuilt as a bastion fort in the late seventeenth century and it is the finest surviving example of the military archiitecture of that era in England. The first time I went here English Heritage put on a Napoleanic re-enactment, great fun. There's lot to explore and do at the fort, and that's back in the 1990's so I expect its even better now.
Along the path is the Worlds End pub, which I must say was not very inviting, there were loads of articulated lorries parked up all around the Pub.
Soon Tilbury Riverside was reached, there used to be a railway station here but the line has now been truncated, there still a Crusie Terminal which they have tried to make inviting with flower tubs and hanging baskets, but come on this is Tilbury a Container Port!
The walk back to Tilbury station was uninspiring, huge lorries thundering past but I did take out to time to watch a container unloading in operation.
I just had a few minute to visit the local off licence for a bar of chocolate and a soft drink before catching my train back to Limehouse.
On to 21st August and the last section which is either the 3rd or 2nd section depending on which direction you are going in. I started from Stanford-le-Hope, only 3.5 miles so I would clearly finish in the light, although it was proving difficult to take photos as I arrived at East Tilbury and it wasn't even 20:00.
I half expected this short walk to cover the same ground as the Pitsea to Stanford-le-Hope stage but I was pleasantly surproised although there was some overlap.
On the path back down to the river you pass the rapid fire battery, the last surviving examples in this country although it's pretty overgrown and then on the river front is an experimental radar station, which sits on the site of the Tudor battery.
And still the ships kept coming, soon I was walking past the decommissioned Tilbury Power Station, with its coal pier in the estuary, there were some lads fishing listening to loud music but they wished me a good evening, luckily the tide was low otherwise this part could have been a bit tricky as the evidence is that the path get flooded.
Once past the Power Station I next encountered the outer defences of Tilbury Fort, now this is very impressive, I've been here a couple of times using the little ferry from Gravesend. Tilbury fort was built to defend London rom attack from the sea, particularly during the Spanish Armada and the Anglo-Dutch Wars. The defences were fully rebuilt as a bastion fort in the late seventeenth century and it is the finest surviving example of the military archiitecture of that era in England. The first time I went here English Heritage put on a Napoleanic re-enactment, great fun. There's lot to explore and do at the fort, and that's back in the 1990's so I expect its even better now.
Along the path is the Worlds End pub, which I must say was not very inviting, there were loads of articulated lorries parked up all around the Pub.
Soon Tilbury Riverside was reached, there used to be a railway station here but the line has now been truncated, there still a Crusie Terminal which they have tried to make inviting with flower tubs and hanging baskets, but come on this is Tilbury a Container Port!
The walk back to Tilbury station was uninspiring, huge lorries thundering past but I did take out to time to watch a container unloading in operation.
I just had a few minute to visit the local off licence for a bar of chocolate and a soft drink before catching my train back to Limehouse.
On to 21st August and the last section which is either the 3rd or 2nd section depending on which direction you are going in. I started from Stanford-le-Hope, only 3.5 miles so I would clearly finish in the light, although it was proving difficult to take photos as I arrived at East Tilbury and it wasn't even 20:00.
I half expected this short walk to cover the same ground as the Pitsea to Stanford-le-Hope stage but I was pleasantly surproised although there was some overlap.
From the station I was directed through the the village/town and then onto Mucking (been here before) where I took the opportunity to pick some more blackberries, once past Mucking it was across the Mucking Marshes but along side the railway this time, where I was fortunately to see a double headed Class 66, which I filmed but my film got corrupted!
I saw a few people out walking there dogs today or jogging. Having passed what I call Mucking lakes, I expect it an old gravel pit but it has no name on my map, I was soon joining up with the path into East Tilbury and the station where I had a 20 minute for my train to Limehouse.
So that's the Thames Estuary Walk completed, very enjoyable, completed over a four week period and undertaken after work on a Friday evening, highly recommended, and oh and was I blessed with good weather, as I write this up on August Bank Holiday Monday!
I saw a few people out walking there dogs today or jogging. Having passed what I call Mucking lakes, I expect it an old gravel pit but it has no name on my map, I was soon joining up with the path into East Tilbury and the station where I had a 20 minute for my train to Limehouse.
So that's the Thames Estuary Walk completed, very enjoyable, completed over a four week period and undertaken after work on a Friday evening, highly recommended, and oh and was I blessed with good weather, as I write this up on August Bank Holiday Monday!
