Chiche three

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This is a great, long walk. I trod it in late April, eastwards from Chipping Ongar to Chelmsford, on a day of mixed weather. The route largely avoids roads and has significant stretches through fields and forests away from the road network. I've marked it down for some missing way marking on the ground, going via Writtle (which seems an unnecessary diversion), and for some ambiguous route alignment in Chelmsford. None of these are serious faults though. I would advise walking with a good map that shows public footpaths at a useful scale (eg. OS Explorer 183).

From the starting point in Chipping Ongar, the mapped route goes north up the High Street before turning east on Love Lane going past Ongar Sports Club and out into agricultural fields. This follows the Three Forests Way one of three recreational paths that intersect hereabouts. You’ll swiftly leave ways with this though and soon after reach a point where the Essex Way and St Peter’s Way meet your path and them diverge. Here you’ll take the route of St Peter’s Way, signposted by a red badge showing an inverted cross and the cross-keys of the saint. (I think a preferable way out of town would be to go a little south down the High Street and turn east onto Castle Street, taking St Peter’s Way recreational path from its starting point where it shares the route with the Essex Way, this soon meets the described route but avoids the pavement stomp for a quicker way into the countryside).

The path across the fields terminates in a small woodland. A set of concrete stairs exits into a High Ongar cul-de-sac which may initially confuse but the mapped route swiftly takes you around to Mill Lane where the route proceeds again across agricultural fields. When I walked, the footpath signs into the field were obscured by foliage, a small electrical transformer provides a more visible indicator. Many footpaths diverge and intersect in the following fields so attention needs to be paid to avoid going off course.

The traipse over the fields leads onto the quiet access road of Woolmonger’s Lane, a short passage north on Nine Ashes Road to a village green and then east on a bridleway/lane towards Paslow Common Farm. 

At this point, I found the route onwards difficult to to discern. Construction was in progress on a cluster of new houses with vehicles and fencing blocking what seemed like candidates for the route ahead. I noticed a broken post with way marking signs discarded in a ditch. My OS map wasn’t much help here as it shows the route going diagonally though a building. There was no posted information on ROW diversion or temporary closure. The problem here may be a temporary one produced by the nearly finished construction. One hopes a clear route will soon be signposted again - but a quick search online indicates that others have had trouble here trying to follow St Peter’s Way. Someone, more successful than I, suggested that you take the lane to Paslow Common Farm, walk around the cemented farm courtyard, don’t continue beside the hedge but turn left along the field edge towards the back of the farm buildings from which the footpath then proceeds onwards across a field. I didn’t find this route but instead made my away around to the field and used my phone GPS to get back on track.

The track across the field leads to the village of Blackmore. Here the OS map and on-the-ground way marking for St Peter’s Way present an errant route via the Church of St Laurence. The Slow Ways mapped route provides a more pragmatic traverse past the pub and tea rooms.

Out the other side of Blackmore it’s a wonderful long section of field walking and paths through woods all the way to Mill Green. I stopped for lunch here at The Carpenters. After Mill Green it’s another pleasant hike though field and forest until you emerge on Nathan’s Lane.

As mentioned in the description it’s road-walking here but only two cars passed me in the stretch walked to the next off-road footpath (I walked on a Saturday afternoon).

[I would be minded to take a different way forward here, continuing on Nathan’s Lane a little further to where it meets Margaretting Road, taking that south a little before turning east on the track signposted for ‘Mascalls’. This leads into South Wood, part of Hylands Park. Going north along the track through the Writtle Belt of trees eventually takes you to a pedestrian/cyclist underpass beneath the A414 and a route skirting the east of Writtle before rejoining the mapped path.]

The path across the field from Nathan’s Lane delivers you to The Causeway with a safe enough footway to the roundabout crossing of the A414. After this it’s pavement walking around the edge of Writtle before turning north to Writtle Green and after a bit of crossing roads and more pavement on to Lawford Lane and a greenway out towards Chelmsford. Look out for the site where Marconi’s hut once stood.

After crossing the River Can I found the Slow Ways mapping too generalised or ambiguous to follow. Here, however, you also cross paths with the well signposted National Cycle Route 1 which can lead you into the centre of Chelmsford or to the rail/bus station. NB,. the ‘times to destinations’ on the signs here are for cyclists not walkers so don’t be disappointed by your speed of progress!.

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