This section of the Essex Way has a wonderful variety of terrain. With views over the North Sea and the Stour Estuary, you’ll find there are salt marshes, woodlands, quiet villages, and open farmlands in between.
Overview
- Length 8 miles/5 km
- Difficulty Moderate – mostly firm underfoot, with some steep climbs
- Time 3 Hours
- Maps 1:50,000 Landranger 184 Thames Estuary
- Food & Drink The friendly Castle pub in Ramsey, about 2½ miles from Harwich
Getting there
Wrabness is situated on the branch line to Harwich, which normally requires a change of trains from London.
Greater Anglia trains run hourly every day from Manningtree (9 mins) where they connect with frequent services from London Liverpool Street (55-70 mins), usually timed to connect with the fastest express trains from London, giving a total journey time of 69 mins.
Wrabness
There are a few things you might want to see in Wrabness before setting off on this section of the Essex Way.
Wrabness All Saints Church and Bell Cage
The earliest part of All Saints Church, a doorway in the north wall, dates from the early 12th century, with additional sections added through to the 15th century.
The original roof of the chancel collapsed in 1697 and was rebuilt. At one time the church had a stone tower housing 5 bells, but this collapsed (possibly at the same time as the chancel roof fell in) and was never rebuilt.
In the 17th century, two of the bells were relocated, supposedly temporarily, to a wooden structure in the churchyard, where they remain today. It’s known as the bell tower, although it is commonly known as the bell cage.
© Robert Edwards under Creative Commons
Grayson Perry’s “A House For Essex”
© Amanda Slater under Creative Commons
Wrabness is also home to this quirky collaboration between the artist Grayson Perry and FAT architects.
It was designed to evoke the wayfarer’s lodges and chapels while being very distinctly a modern vision of its creators – that of being a shrine to the fictional saint Julie Cope!
The interior is richly decorated with unique art works by Grayson Perry. Tapestries, ceramics, decorative tiles and timberwork, and mosaic floors, all telling the story of Julie Cope’s life and death.
It is well worth the short 500m or so diversion from the path to take a look and you can even book it for a stay if you get lucky with your dates!
Wrabness to Harwich Directions
Starting from Wrabness train station, head down Station Road, and turn down Black Boy Lane.
Head over the railway and up the track until you see the signs for the Essex Way pointing you along Stone Lane.
Join the Essex way and turn right towards a small woodland and the river bank of the River Stour.
Copperas Bay
A little way along, you will pass “Strandlands” and head through a long field towards another woodland.
This section of the river is Copperas Bay, with terrific views across to the Suffolk coast opposite.
Behind you is Stour Wood, which has been coppiced for centuries and is owned by The Woodland Trust but is now managed by the RSPB, who also owns much of the area.
Once you reach the bird hide and the path will turn inland. This leg of the Essex Way passes through Copperas Wood, a 12-hectare SSSI nature reserve that has been traditionally used for Sweet Chestnut and Hornbeam coppicing.
Follow this track until it becomes a path along the edge of the field. Once you reach the end of the hedge, the path takes a slight left turn. Follow the path to a stile and cross this. Follow the path for another 150m following the hedge to another stile.
Copperas Bay Wildlife
Copperas Bay gets its name from the copperas (bisulphide of iron) that was once dredged up here, but these days the Stour Estuary is one of the most important estuaries in Britain for overwintering birds and other plants and wildlife.
The area consists of vast areas of intertidal mud flats and saltmarshes, which are ideal for birds such as black-tailed godwits, dunlin, redshank, pintail, brent geese, shelduck, and grey plover.
There is a public bird hide beside the Essex Way, so take your binoculars. The best time to bird-watch is about 2 hours before high tide when the feeding birds are forced to congregate nearer the shore.
Amongst their rare species are the Essex Emerald Moth and Sea Purslane, a plant thought extinct in Britain for 50 years before it was rediscovered in 1987.
Bob Peterson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Ramsey Windmill
Cross the stile and after another 100m, you will find another stile taking you into the paddock of White House Farm. From here you can see Ramsey Windmill and the path continues for another 50m before another stile takes you out of the paddock.
Ramsey windmill is a ‘post’ mill, the earliest and most popular type
of mill. The mill body is pivoted on a massive oak post so that the sails can always face the wind.
Continue towards the windmill, the path cuts off the corner of the field. As you pass the windmill, the path turns right down the quite steep hill.
Towards the bottom of the hill, you will see Wesleyan Chapel and you will emerge onto the B1352. Turn left and you should see the Castle Pub about 150m along the road.
The Castle Pub
The Castle Pub offers lunch between 12:00 and 15:00, although it is closed on Mondays and has no food service on Tuesdays. They welcome walkers but not your muddy boots! So either leave your boots in the porch or cover them with plastic bags. They also offer camping
Opposite the pub is a road, go down this road, over Ramsey bridge until you reach a roundabout where the A120, Church Hill and Rectory Lane all meet. Across the roundabout, you should see a copse. Cross over the roundabout and head for this copse. The path goes behind a building and along to the right of the copse.
Little Oakley
Keep the copse on your left and follow the track to a hedge and there is a narrow path through the hedge. There is a rough path between two fields that will take a sharp right. You will pass a playing field on your right before the path opens out into Little Oakley village hall car park.
You should find yourself in the centre of the village and see the sign and the green between two roads with recycling bins along one side. One of these roads is called Mayer’s Lane and almost opposite where it joins Oakley road is the Essex Way path.
The track heads southeast, past a derelict farmhouse, called Burnthouse Farm. After about 400m follow the path to the left, past some trees for about 100m. You will then see some steps that will take you to the path.
Walk along the field edge path for about three-quarters of a mile/one kilometre until you reach the seawall.
Longbank and the Seawall
At this point, you should see the long bank stretching away in front of you and the Essex Way path makes a sharp left turn along the seawall.
The next stretch will see you walking on the seawall with the salt marshes to your right for a few hundred metres before the wall veers to the right. Stay on the seawall until you reach the Dovercourt caravan park.
At this point, the path goes around a pond and follows a track down to a small car park, where you will also find a toilet. You can find the path on the far right side of the car park from where you entered it.
The Seawalls and the Great Flood of 1953
South-East England is slowly sinking as Scotland rises, a long-term after-effect of the last Ice Age. With the additional threat posed by rising sea levels, Essex’s coast is at high risk of flooding.
During the Great Flood of 1953, the Bathside seawall in Harwich collapsed. A quarter of the town’s population lost their homes under 12 feet of water and several people died. Essex saw a gruesome tally of 113 deaths, while hundreds more perished across East Anglia and over the North Sea in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The seawalls have subsequently been raised and strengthened as part of a national sea-defence strategy.
Dovercourt Lighthouses
You will then find yourself walking along the coast beside some beach huts. After about half a mile/750 metres you will find yourself at the Dovercourt lighthouses.
© Chris Heaton under Creative Commons
Matt Green, is an avid hiker and lover of the great outdoors. He is always planning his next big trip or hitting the trails for a solo hike.
He’s traveled extensively to many remote regions and has plenty of experience exploring various terrains, and stories to tell.
History of the Dovercourt Lighthouses
The pair of strange-looking iron-framed Dovercourt lighthouses were built in 1863 to replace the high and low lighthouses in Harwich following a shift in the channel.
You can see the low lighthouse a little way offshore from the high lighthouse.
They went out of use in 1917 when the channel shifted again. The channel is now marked by buoys.
Harwich and the End of The Essex Way
The path gently curves to the right as you follow the coast until you reach the breakwater.
Do note, that this may not be passable at high tide, so you may need to use the local roads instead.
After the breakwater, you follow the path along the shore, past more beach huts until you see the Low Lighthouse (now a maritime museum)
© Chris Heaton under Creative Commons
Continue on past this until you see the Treadmill Crane. Turn left beside the crane and walk toward the brick-built High Lighthouse that looms ahead of you.
The Essex Way ends at the High Lighthouse and a plaque marks the end of the trail. Well, done, you made it!
© Chris Heaton under Creative Commons
Matt Green, is an avid hiker and lover of the great outdoors. He is always planning his next big trip or hitting the trails for a solo hike.
He’s traveled extensively to many remote regions and has plenty of experience exploring various terrains, and stories to tell.
Treadwheel Crane
Preserved on Harwich Green, you will find this unique treadwheel crane. The crane was built in 1667 on the site of the Naval Yard, now Navyard, and moved to its present site in 1932.
As the name suggests, it was operated by two men walking inside twin wooden treadwheels, but with no brake, it could be very dangerous.
The Treadmill underwent a major restoration that was finished in 2022
Things to do in Harwich
After you have got to the end of the Essex Way, there are a few things worth seeing in the historic town of Harwich.
As a port dating back to the 1100s when the harbour was created by a storm surge, most of its history revolves around the sea, both architecturally and in food.
The Mayflower and the Maritime Heritage Trail
Harwich dockyard is where the Mayflower is believed to have been built and where its captain, Christopher Jones, lived and was married twice.
Other famous sailors set off from Harwich including Hawkins, Drake, and Frobisher during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and the diarist Samuel Pepys was once MP for the town.
Harwich itself is an early example of a grid-based street layout, which was constructed in the 13th Century, by the Earl of Norfolk to exploit the position of Harwich on the confluence of the Stour and Orwell rivers and the North Sea.
The best way to see all this is to take the Harwich Maritime Trail. The Maritime Heritage Trail goes from Ha’Penny Pier Visitor Centre on the Quay and there are guided walking tours throughout the summer. The Ha’Penny Pier Visitor Centre also houses a Mayflower exhibition.
The trail takes in the Low Lighthouse Maritime Museum, and Lifeboat Museum, where you can get aboard a lifeboat. You can also see St Nicholas’ Church where Christopher Jones was married (although the church was rebuilt in 1821) and visit his house on King’s Head Street.
Christopher Jones’s house has recently been opened to the public after restoration. Many of the original features from Jones’ time are visible and the master bedroom has been restored to its former glory.
The later history includes the large circular Redoubt Fort, which was built in 1808 to protect Harwich from a Napoleonic invasion and the Electric Palace, the oldest still operating cinema in the UK
The Dovercourt and Harwich Lighthouses
As you approached Harwich you will have seen the Dovercourt High and Low lighthouses on the promenade. You will have finished your walk at the Harwich High lighthouse and you will have walked past the Low lighthouse 50 yards away on the seafront.
The original Harwich High and Low lighthouses formed a pair of lights that would appear one above the other for ships on the correct course around Landguard Point up the Harwich Harbour. The changing course of the shipping channel made these lighthouses redundant and was replaced in 1863 by the iron Dovercourt Lighthouses.
In 1917 Harwich Harbour Board took over responsibility for navigation and decided to mark the deep-water channel with a series of lighted buoys, rendering the lighthouses redundant.
© Chris Heaton under Creative Commons
Matt Green, is an avid hiker and lover of the great outdoors. He is always planning his next big trip or hitting the trails for a solo hike.
He’s traveled extensively to many remote regions and has plenty of experience exploring various terrains, and stories to tell.
Both of the Harwich lighthouses are now home to small museums. The Low lighthouse is home to the town’s Maritime Museum, while the High Lighthouse is leased to the National Vintage Wireless and Television Museum Trust to display their collection.
Electric Palace Cinema
© Maria under Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Built in 1911, the Harwich Electric Palace Cinema is one of the oldest purpose-built cinemas still in use. It even still has its silent screen, original projection room, and ornamental frontage all still intact.
Digital projectors were bought in 2011 to allow it to show the latest films, but the original projectors mean it can still show pre-digital films on the equipment they were designed to be shown on making it a big hit with cinema history-buffs.
They also put on music and other shows on the stage
Redoubt Fort
Redoubt Fort is a 180ft (60m) diameter circular fort built in 1808 to defend the port of Harwich against a Napoleonic invasion. It was designed to house 10 guns on the battlements and house up to 300 troops at a push.
Restored by the Harwich society, part of the fort is now a military museum and the summer months see battle re-enactments and other events.
© John Fielding under Creative Commons
Harwich Town Brewing Company
After all that walking around you might need something to quench your thirst. The Harwich Town Brewing Company was established in 2007 with the aim of reviving a centuries-old tradition of brewing in Harwich.
Tey produce a very tasty range of beers of various styles using malting barley from East Anglia, and hops from around the world.
The Pier Bar & Hotel
Finally, if you need a place to eat and/or stay after you have finished the Essex Way, I can thoroughly recommend the Pier. Situated in an 1860 listed building overlooking the port, and Ha’Penny pier (hence the name!)
The restaurant boasts a delicious array of locally sourced seafood, you can even see where they bring it in from the balcony! Get there for sundown and, weather permitting, you can get some amazing sunsets across the water to accompany the food.
The rooms are all decorated to match the naval history of the area…the largest suite is even called The Mayflower and well worth treating yourself
Matt Green, is an avid hiker and lover of the great outdoors. He is always planning his next big trip or hitting the trails for a solo hike.
He’s traveled extensively to many remote regions and has plenty of experience exploring various terrains, and stories to tell.