Colchester - Clapboarding, creek-crossing and catcalls

We'd been in Essex once before, when we did the Great Chesterford walk back in August 2013, but Colchester is very much at the heart of Essex, a historical town that was one of the main Celtic population centres and the first real capital of Britain.

So it was with no small amount of excitement that we boarded our train at Liverpool Street station and set off with the Friday evening commuters into the wilds of a county which, despite being so close to London, manages to feel distant and even a little bit exotic for London-dwellers like ourselves.

Lodgings and victuals

Arriving in Colchester station on a cold and dark Friday evening in February is quite bewildering, but we eventually negotiated our way around the concrete pedestrian overpasses and, in no time at all, found ourselves in the welcoming warmth of the North Hill hotel.  The North Hill hotel was a lovely place to stay and they gave us a nice little cottage at the back of the main building. We had dinner, bed and breakfast, so it was a very welcome start to our Colchester trip.

Colchester Town Hall

Lion mosaic

Colchester to Brightlingsea (87 bus)

Having checked out the map, we decided to start our walk at Brightlingsea, on the coast, walking back towards Colchester and our connections home.  There are surprisingly few public rights of way in this part of Essex and hardly any way-marked trails, so the path along the River Colne was our only real option.

Beach huts at Brightlingsea

Brightlingsea to Alresford Creek (3.2 miles/5.1 kilometres)

Brightlingsea is a pleasant seaside resort with beach huts and an attractive camping site. We started our walk at Victoria Place, following Station Road past the outdoor swimming pool and onto the seafront.  Being February, it was pretty cold, but we were lucky enough to start with cloudy but dry weather and fantastic views across to Point Clear and Mersea Island.

View of Point Clear on the Essex coast

There's a really impressive folly at Brightlingsea, called Bateman's Tower, built by a local landowner for his sick daughter. The path from Bateman's Tower, follows the estuary of the River Colne (which gave Colchester its name) through a nature reserve which was teeming with bird life. The landscape along this path was fantastic, a combination of salt marshes, mud flats and shingle.

Bateman's Tower at Brightlingsea

Path through the Colne Estuary nature reserve

It was fairly easy walking along this 3-mile stretch to Alresford Creek and, despite the cold weather, there were quite a few families and dog walkers out and about, enjoying the bracing sea air!

BAM (Best Aussie Mate) at the Colne Estuary

Alresford Creek via Mill Dam (2.5 miles/4 kilometres)

According to the map, we could cross Alresford Creek on a public bridleway, but that's obviously in low tide and, by the time we arrived at the Creek it was very much high tide and the only way of crossing the creek would have been by boat!  We don't generally have to think about tidal times, so it came as a bit of s surprise to see our path disappearing under, what was effectively, a river.

Alresford Creek at high tide

Our only option was to go upstream around the creek to the crossing point at Mill Dam. Unfortunately, the path along the south side of the creek went through private land, which made us feel a bit uncomfortable, but we felt we had no other choice but to follow this path.  It's quite a peaceful part of the world and, as we made our way along the creek to Mill Dam, the sombre facade of Brightlingsea Allsaints Church, kept a close watch on our every move.

Private path to Thorrington Tide Mill

Getting off the private path involved a lot of climbing over ditches and scrambling through trees, until we emerged into a private garden leading to the Mill Dam.  Thorrington Tide Mill is an impressive, weatherboard building and one of Britain's few remaining tide mill structures.  There's something about the landscape of Essex and East Anglia that's reminiscent of neighbouring lands, such as Holland and Zeeland, on the other side of the North Sea.

Thorrington Tide Mill

As we sat on a log beside the mill pond, munching chocolate and watching the ducks feeding on pond plants, we contemplated the very Dutch-like architecture of Thorrington Tide Mill and the historic links between East Anglia and the Netherlands.

Alresford Creek at Thorrington Tidal Mill

We were able to follow a public path along a beautiful stretch of land on the north side of the creek, until we reached the landing stage on the opposite shore of the creek from where we'd stood about an hour before.

Public footpath on the north side of Alresford Creek

A rare Essex waymarker

Parking at high tide

Ever since our trip to Rochester, Kent in January 2011, we've been a bit obsessed by weatherboarding (also known as clapboarding).  It seems to be pretty prevalent in the east and south east of England, although I noticed an unusual form of weatherboarding in this part of Essex, where one half of the building is painted white and the other half is painted black.

Black and white weatherboarding at Alresford

Alresford Creek to Wivenhoe (2 miles/3.25 kilometres)

It was quite muddy as we made our way through the thicket of trees at Alresford Grange and along the Colne river to the pretty riverside port of Wivenhoe.  We were very enamoured by Wivenhoe and the riverside developments in the village reminded us a lot of places in London like Limehouse basin. Wivenhoe seems to be the place where anyone from Colchester with a bit of money moves to.  There was certainly a lovely feeling in the village and it left us wanting to know more and perhaps revisit Wivenhoe at a future date.

Wivenhoe

Wivenhoe to Hythe (2.7 miles/4.3 kilometres)

On the opposite side of the river from Wivenhoe, we could see another pretty-looking village called Rowhedge and an attractive riverside pub called The Anchor.  Rowhedge and Wivenhoe used to be linked by ferry, but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

Rowhedge

From Wivenhoe we followed an amenable cycle path between the river and the railway track.  The landscape north of Wivenhoe is dominated by the student residences and other buildings belonging to the University of Essex.  The university, which was founded in the 1960's had quite a reputation as a hotbed of radical politics, but these days it's better known for its social sciences and high intake of overseas students.

Student residence buildings at the University of Essex

Hythe to Colchester Castle (1.4 miles/2.2 kilometres)

After our lovely day in the country, it was quite a shock to be back in the 'big city' again and Hythe, an outlying suburb of Colchester, looked a bit run-down compared to the prettier villages we'd seen earlier in the day.  We don't often get jeered at on our Chester walks, but something about our walking gear, sticks and ruddy faces excited the people of Colchester, so we had a few catcalls on our way into the town and one group of teenage boys even offered to point us in the direction of the nearest mountain (for non-UK readers, there are no mountains in Essex!).

Derelict building in Hythe

My abiding memories of Colchester were a police appeal on a poster for a young man who'd been murdered and a thicket of trees where a group of homeless people seemed to have set up camp.  As we reached Colchester town centre, the rain came on and Colchester castle looked squat and sullen at our arrival.

Colchester castle

Luckily we found a nice brasserie on North Hill, where we changed into clean clothes and celebrated our walk with a well-earned steak and glass of red wine.

Access for Wheelchair users

Path into Wivenhoe

The path from Brightlingsea through the Colne Estuary nature reserve was pretty accessible, although one-way only, so a good walk would be to go as far as Alresford Creek and then return to Brightlingsea.  

The footpaths around Alresford creek were completely inaccessible, however, the cycle path from Wivenhoe to Colchester was also pretty accessible for wheelchair users. 

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