First you follow a few residential roads in the tiny village of West Horndon (photo #1), but soon you cross under the railway you find yourself on footpaths at the edges of fields (photo #2, #3), with hedges on one side. After crossing a farmyard (photo #5, #6), you find yourself walking along a lane (photo #7)....

Derick Rethans

I walked from South Ockendon to West Horndon on a chilly damp day with on and off drizzle. After a couple of 90 turns and over a narrow bridge with stile you are beside Mardyke with a good path leading to a road, Fen Lane. The route is drawn on the South East side of the road but there is a good path a little offset from the North West side, although this requires you to cross the road twice at the East end, still better than walking in the road....

Strider

I wouldn't recommend this route overall, but if you could find a way from West Horndon to the Old Church Hill car park I'd definitely recommend the eastern half into Basildon....

Daisy C

A) narrow path with 1) a lot of thorny undergrowth - take secateurs 2) dangerous crumbling path by stream with deep drop and seasonally hidden by nettles (see WesCha 1 review);. B) paddocks with 1) official path blocked by locked gate surrounded by deep puddle (unsigned unofficial reroute is drier and not blocked) and 2) crumbling rotten steps on two stiles, one with uncovered electric fence;. Then south on Harrow Lane, then join the path heading east at ///clap.zebra.cling (permissive entrance to RoW) is just south of Glass House Retreat (labelled Jack Poulter's Path on Slow Ways map) and rejoin this route at ///hedge.owners.mull. But... I suspect that path is currently very muddy, rutted and churned up by heavy equipment for the solar farm being installed/expanded. Difficult right now but should be better soon, after installation is finished. P9) muddy churn and ruts (related to solar farm) S of stile P11) from C) muddy path on wrong side of fence (beside solar farm)...

Daisy C

About 3/4 off road (a mix of fieldside paths, farm tracks) and the road remainder was quiet (pavement or decent sightlines and verges). As I was testing this in combination with SouWes 1 and did miss some Fen Lane road walking....

Daisy C

At the north end of all that the route was incorrectly drawn, which would make the path neglect seem even worse and could not be resolved by better maintenance or drier weather - so route will be flagged for accuracy. Luckily easy fixes exist, except for the metal gate and possibility of meeting heavy machinery on the tracks, which should resolve when the land fill is full, or the solar farm is complete....

Daisy C

This "dangerous" and inaccessible section lasted for approx 1 mile, and i would suggest that the landowners have "actively" neglected this route so as to make it nearly unpassable....

scott Leonard

A short walk though West Horndon (what a friendly village, 7 'good mornings' in 7 minutes) takes you to a narrow path that quickly opens out across open fields for a few km. Across a narrow bridge and through a farm/fishery the path turns into a track taking you to Fen Lane. Old Church Hill is very narrow but very quiet and goes up hill to a path though woods to open fields beside Hall Wood....

Strider

Starting off I took the detour, as suggested by the previous reviewer, and quickly found long residential streets going gently uphill through Emerson park. Undeterred I carried on and crossed another pathless grass field to a small bridge over a stream. Back across the bridge I walked for 400m before I found a low fence and a place to leap the stream, another 700m and over another fence got me back to the marked path on the other side of the scrub, and yes, totally blocked that way too....

Strider

The intention behind this route is inviting: walk from Brentwood to West Horndon utilising pleasant woodland leading to a local, well known Country Park which you then walk the length of. Unfortunately the connection between the top of Thorndon Country Park and West Horndon requires you to cross the busy A127 Southend Arterial Road which is very far from being safe and, as such, something we did not attempt....

Stephen Mayo

I walked the middle stretch of this route between Bakers Street and the Glasshouse Wellness Centre,There is a pub and a bus stop at Bakers Street.The first part is a minor road and this leads to a well marked footpath.The terrain is flat and no obstacles for walking found ,A number of small bridges were crossed.This is a lovely country walk ideal for people that want apeaceful stroll in the countryside...

Rodway

At the other end of the route the map shows a footpath through the industrial estate opposite West Horndon station. We found an unlocked gate to the left of the path (100m away) and were able to cross the estate to the station....

Truz99