Tollesbury, Essex

First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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Coastal Essex is full of subtle magic. Last night I’d stood out in the moated garden of Wicks Hall farmhouse at midnight, listening to a nightingale fluting from a nearby thicket. This morning it was the chaffinches’ turn to be heard. The lime trees around the village lockup in Tollesbury’s square were loud with their short, explosive proclamations of spring. I ducked into St Mary’s Church to admire the famous ‘swearing font’ with its inscription:

‘Good people all I pray take Care

That in ye Church you doe not Sware

As this man Did.’

After levying a £5 fine on John Norman in 1718 for drunkenly shouting and cursing during a service, the Tollesbury churchwardens use the money to buy a new font and deliver a sermon in stone at the same time – a nice touch of rustic pragmatism.

In the village street cocks crowed from back yards. A saw whined in a workshop. A whiff of sawdust and resin floated from Adrian Wombwell’s boatbuilding shed. ‘Out exploring?’ enquired a dog walker. ‘Enjoy the day, mate!’

Down on the edge of Tollesbury saltings, a fine row of wooden sail lofts stood sentinel. Once they held the drying sails of huge Jumbo class racing yachts; nowadays small businesses fill their resonant interiors. Beyond them a dash of scarlet in the drab carpet of the marsh showed where the old Porthcawl lightship lay in retirement. Halyards chinked, black-headed gulls swore like John Norman in their screechy voices, and a breath of salt came up Woodrolfe Creek on the wind.

I walked the sea wall all morning and never saw a soul. Hares bounded away across the level grazing marshes. The reed beds along the dykes were alive with bunting chatter, and lapwings creaked and tumbled like bundles of rags over the fields. At Shinglehead Point the ribs of an ancient wooden vessel lay in the mudbank like fish bones. Across the wide Blackwater Estuary the square box shape of Bradwell nuclear power station sat squat on the flat horizon, the least significant item in all this open landscape today.

Out at The Wick I found the remains of Tollesbury Pier, a few old wooden piles with their feet in the Blackwater. There were great hopes of establishing a resort here when the pier opened in 1907 – trippers from Clacton, yachts from London, a packet steamer to the Hook of Holland … Nothing came of it. The pier legs rot gently; grass and thistles smother the trackbed of the Kelvedon, Tiptree & Tollesbury Pier Light Railway.

Where could you find a more peaceful and solitary walk on a bright, blowy spring morning? Yet Piccadilly Circus lies less than an hour away.

 

Start & finish: Tollesbury village square, CM9 8RG (OS ref TM 956104)

Getting there: Bus (www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk) – plenty of services, e.g. 91 from Witham, 92 from Colchester

Road: A12 to Kelvedon, B1023 to Tollesbury

Walk (7 miles, easy grade, OS Explorer 176): With your back to church, turn right out of square along B1023. Ahead at bend along Woodrolfe Road to sail lofts (966107). Detour: gravel path behind leads to lightship. Opposite Tollesbury Sailing Club, right up steps (fingerpost) along bank. Pass marina; at 3-way fingerpost (969103), left along sea wall path for 4 and a half miles. Pass Left Decoy (961084); in another quarter-mile, bear right inland (958083) along farm track past Bohuns Hall (956099) to Tollesbury.

NB – Online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch: King’s Head PH (01621-869203) or Hope Inn (01621-868317), Tollesbury

Accommodation: Wicks Manor, Witham Road, Tolleshunt Major, CM9 8JU (01621-860629; www.wicksmanor.co.uk)

More info: Maldon TIC (01621-856503); www.visitessex.com