Soumal two

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Soumal here.

This is a great route that manages to avoid roads for most of its length. I walked it on the Sunday of the May Day bank holiday weekend in fine weather, travelling from South Woodham Ferrers to Maldon. I’ve walked between these two settlements many times, this route takes some different paths to my familiar journey and to my surprise offers a refreshing alternative that I'll walk again.

From Woodham station, it’s up Hullbridge Road to the roundabout junction with the Burnham Road (B1012). You need to get on to the north side of the Burnham Road to join a footpath across the fields. There is a traffic light crossing with a beg button just east of the roundabout but there’s no pavement on the north side of the road, so you’re best off using the pavement on the south side until you are opposite Hamberts Farm. There’s no controlled crossing here and the cars move apace, so take care to find a suitable gap in traffic. The footpath leads north a little east of Hamberts Farm - the footpath sign was obscured by foliage when I walked.

You follow the hedge line until the third field. Here the footpath strikes off diagonally north-east across more fields to meet a bend in Edwin’s Hall Road. When I walked the fields were newly planted and this diagonal was not maintained, so I decided to circle the field edges instead. At Edwin’s Hall Road, the stile was overwhelmed by bramble but an adjacent break in the hedge provided access. It’s road walking here on a quiet lane. You shortly break off again into a new vineyard and go around Hawes Wood.

The route passes Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome. If you are lucky you might see some historic aircraft taking off or landing. Fridays to Sundays you can access the on-site cafe without paying for entry.

Next, it’s more field walking, slowly going uphill to Purleigh. There are some great views here looking out across the Dengie peninsula and towards Maldon and the River Blackwater. The Bell in Purleigh is the perfect stop-off point for refreshments.

Suitably refreshed you carry on north through New Hall, the oldest of the local vineyards and up past Hazeleigh Hall before turning east towards the old railway line. (At my time of walking a new solar farm was being constructed on the intervening field - not yet updated on maps or Google Earth.) The embankment of the dismantled railway line now takes you north to the edge of Maldon. A traffic light crossing a little west of where you emerge takes you over the ring road to Wycke Hill Business Park. A pedestrian path goes north to the east of the Morrisons supermarket connecting with more footpaths and quiet suburban streets that take you into central Maldon.

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