Words and photos: Simon Taylor on behalf of the Public Rights of Way team at Essex County Council
A quiet countryside walk on the border with Hertfordshire, just north of Bishop’s Stortford
Distance: 6.5 miles (10.5km).
Starting point: On-street parking is available in Rectory Lane, Farnham, postcode CM23 1HU, grid reference TL476248. If using sat nav, be careful as there is also a Rectory Lane in Farnham, Surrey!
Getting there: From the A120 roundabout north of Bishop’s Stortford take the B1383 towards the town. After 250 metres take the right-hand turn signposted to Farnham and Manuden. At the roundabout, take the second exit then straightaway turn left into Farnham Road.
Map: OS Explorer 194 Hertford & Bishop’s Stortford.
Refreshment: The walk passes the Rosey Lea tea room at Wickham Hall. The Three Horseshoes pub in Hazel Green is just a mile to the east.
Places of interest: The church of St. Mary the Virgin, Farnham (passed on the walk) was built in 1859 in the gothic revival style, on the foundations of a much older church. It retains some of the original interior fittings. Beyond the church can be seen the country mansion known as Hassobury, a Victorian construction with a distinctly Tudor flavour. Originally the home of the Gosling family (who produced several gentleman footballers of the late Victorian period, including two England captains), it became a school and is now divided into a number of private dwellings. To the east, the River Stort valley meanders up from Stansted Mountfitchet through the picturesque villages of Manuden, Little London and Clavering, which are all worth exploring. For some historic entertainment, there’s Mountfitchet Castle, incorporating the House on the Hill Museum with one of the largest toy collections in the world.
Interactive map: essexhighways.org/getting-around/public-rights-of-way/prow-interactive-map
The walk
1. Head to the eastern end of Rectory Lane (where the school is). Turn right and left, onto the lane to the church. From the church, follow the field-edge path south and continue straight (to the right of the hedge) at the path crossroads. At the lane turn left, then at the road junction take the hairpin left. The road descends down Mill Hill.
2. At the bottom of the hill a white cottage sits behind a hedge on a bend. Continue straight, passing the pillar box at the entrance to Walnut Tree Lane. Past the cottages at the top of the slope, the path continues as an unsurfaced bridleway. Pass a woodland on the left, then the bridleway bends left and enters the Wickham Hall estate.
3. For tea and cake head into the estate for the tea room. Otherwise, turn right as indicated by a metal fingerpost by the concrete track beside a new wooden building. The track crosses open fields (listen for skylarks) with views of the very north of Bishop’s Stortford away to the left. Pass another wood on your left, with a large farm building on the right. At the end, turn right and follow the track running beneath the smaller of the two sets of overhead power lines that dominate the landscape here (and which roughly mark the boundary between Essex and Hertfordshire).
4. After 400 metres the track turns left and passes under the power lines – you are now in Hertfordshire! Turn right and follow the track to the road. Turn left and follow the road to Upwick Green where, at Pillar Box Cottages, a lane turns off to the right, signposted as part of the Hertfordshire Way long distance footpath. The lane emerges onto field headlands and continues straight as a footpath beside a newly planted hedgerow. Continue straight at a footpath crossroads by a copse, still on the Hertfordshire Way.
5. Turn right at a waymarker to follow a field-edge track heading east. You are now on another long-distance walk, the Harcamlow Way, which sounds historic but was laid out in the 1970s, the name merely reflecting the fact that it passes from Harlow to Cambridge and back again. Keep straight on for almost a kilometre until the path skirts to the right around a wood before passing through a gateway in a hedge to emerge in a field crossed by the same two lines of pylons. Welcome back to Essex!
6. Cross the field, under the overhead cables, to join a gravel track, which then soon becomes a tarmacked lane. Pass Farnham Hall, then a phone box that has been converted into a book exchange.
7. At a small group of cottages, just before a quaintly thatched property, take a footpath to the right. This path doglegs left and then right and becomes enclosed on either side before emerging onto Rectory Lane where the walk commenced.
You may also like unusual Essex days out: https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/things-to-do/unusual-things-to-do-in-essex-8764156
You may also like a local's guide to Saffron Walden: https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/things-to-do/a-locals-guide-to-saffron-walden-8764102
