Romsou two

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Romsou here.

Hopefully this route keeps the benefits of RomSou 1 (so much green space!) while avoiding the two big problems - Little Belhus Country Park still being impassable (as of summer 2023) and Warwick Lane not being a safe road to walk along. There are a couple of other changes to avoid some smaller problems but it hasn't been fully tested before uploading.

Once out of the urban section around Romford this goes along several long chains of publicly accessible meadows, a playing field and woodlands following the route and floodplains of the River Beam and then the River Ingrebourne and, by way of a series of small young woodlands (part of the Thames Chase Forest project) and a traffic-free lane goes through Belhus Woods Country Park and some other woodlands, wetlands and meadows around it which are also open to the public. The last section through South Ockendon could be marginally more direct if you are looking to catch a train but it does pass the rather pretty and incongrous old farmstead of Little Belhus and also keeps close to the edge of the country park, so when it's fully opened people can feedback and a new hybrid route can be uploaded.

On paper it is longer than RomSou 1, but in practice it's only 700m longer, if you fit RomSou 1 to the closest paths etc that actually exist and this route has marginally less road walking, both around a third of the length. The new road walking on this route is all on pavements except for 120m along Bramble Lane - extra care needed here as it is the same road as Warwick Lane from RomSou 1.

Public transport and break points. Stations at either end. The first third of the route has good (Transport for London) bus connections up to entering Hornchurch Country Park. Corbets Tey village, roughly mid route, also has a TfL bus 370. There's a small parade at Mungo Park Rd in Hornchurch: Co-op, cafe and chippy. Corbets Tey has a pub, cafe and convenience store. Belhus Woods Country Park has a cafe and toilets by the big car park on Romford Road but no public transport

Hopefully this route keeps the benefits of RomSou 1 (so much green space!) while avoiding the two big problems - Little Belhus Country Park still being impassable (as of summer 2023) and Warwick Lane not being a safe road to walk along. There are a couple of other changes to avoid some smaller problems but it hasn't been fully tested before uploading.

Once out of the urban section around Romford this goes along several long chains of publicly accessible meadows, a playing field and woodlands following the route and floodplains of the River Beam and then the River Ingrebourne and, by way of a series of small young woodlands (part of the Thames Chase Forest project) and a traffic-free lane goes through Belhus Woods Country Park and some other woodlands, wetlands and meadows around it which are also open to the public. The last section through South Ockendon could be marginally more direct if you are looking to catch a train but it does pass the rather pretty and incongrous old farmstead of Little Belhus and also keeps close to the edge of the country park, so when it's fully opened people can feedback and a new hybrid route can be uploaded.

On paper it is longer than RomSou 1, but in practice it's only 700m longer, if you fit RomSou 1 to the closest paths etc that actually exist and this route has marginally less road walking, both around a third of the length. The new road walking on this route is all on pavements except for 120m along Bramble Lane - extra care needed here as it is the same road as Warwick Lane from RomSou 1.

Public transport and break points. Stations at either end. The first third of the route has good (Transport for London) bus connections up to entering Hornchurch Country Park. Corbets Tey village, roughly mid route, also has a TfL bus 370. There's a small parade at Mungo Park Rd in Hornchurch: Co-op, cafe and chippy. Corbets Tey has a pub, cafe and convenience store. Belhus Woods Country Park has a cafe and toilets by the big car park on Romford Road but no public transport