An easy going ride around this Essex peninsula which is defined by flat Essex marshland. The ride starts and finishes at Burnham-on-Crouch and visits Bradwell-on-Sea, St Lawrence, Maylandsea and Southminster.

Pub lunch.

Siutable for all bikes.

Report

There were four of us on the ride – Ian, Nick, Colin and Gwen.

If you’re heading out to Burnham on Crouch or Southminster from Liverpool Street the advice from the driver is to change at Wickford not Shenfield as advised by the web national rail timetable. Doing this should save you lugging your bike to another platform.

Off the train at Burnham-on-Crouch on the sunshine we headed north through Southminster where we had a quick stop for adjustments to clothing, an experiment to see if a chain could be lubed with suntan lotion and to dump some rubbish. An array of recycling bins couldn’t provide us with a suitable receptacle for a plastic bottle and Gwen also lost a pair of gloves here. You’ll have to ask Gwen if the lubrication experiment worked but if you see her with a brown chain it’s probably tanned and not rusty.

Through Southminster and we passed wide loads, police road blocks and countless signs protesting against rural industrialisation. I failed to get a photo of one of these, but the signs featured what looked like a wind turbine crossed out. Wouldn’t you prefer a wind farm to a whacking great nuclear power station up the road? Then again it may have been a protest against huge 3 armed monsters or against the extension to Stanstead Airport. All views prevailed in our group.
This area is unique though and at this time of year it’s very easy to appreciate, fields carpeted with purple flowers and roadsides lined with a diversity of flora and fauna that needs to be seen to be believed. Apparently post Second World War widespread use of fertilisers has led to a reduction in the amount of wild flowers we see in our fields as a small variety of fast growing grasses swamp other delicate flowers. The sides of fields and road side verges don’t get fertilised so a great variety of flowers can still exist here.

On one of the country lanes a horse took a definite dislike to us and turned on its hoofs to head off in the opposite direction. Once we’d stopped the rider managed to coax the horse by – it’s in one of my mountain biking books that you should always stop to let horses pass that are approaching you.

On through Tillingham and then through Bradwell-on-Sea that isn’t on the sea and down the Roman road to St. Peter’s Chapel. Built on the site of an old Roman fort it looks like a barn and was once used as a barn before being used as a chapel again. Cedd originally founded a monastery on the site in 654 AD (a history). It’s a nice peaceful spot and it will be worth returning here again in the future and go down to the beach across the cockle spit with a picnic.

We went back up the Roman road and had a coffee before heading off to Bradwell nuclear power station whose two unimaginative square blocks had been visible on the horizon for some time. Before reaching the power station we made a brief stop at the infinitely more original Bradwell Bay RAF war memorial.

My 2004 OS map had a visitor centre sited at the power station but on arrival we were told it had been closed for years. No matter onto Bradwell Waterside where we could admire the square block from another perspective. Oddly they looked just the same and equally uninspired.

St. Lawrence Bay was next but before reaching it we were treated to another inexplicable juxtaposition. On top of the hill approaching St. Lawrence Bay the rather nice St. Lawrence church had a huge concrete funnel type water tower next to it. There were some nice views across the Blackwater Estuary apart from the two nuclear lumps in the distance across the bay. We had dinner in the garden at the Stone Inn. The prices were reasonable. My Steak and Ale pie was £6 and there were cheaper bar snacks.

Maylandsea was our last port of call and will be stricken off the list of places to visit on our next ride to this area. There wasn’t really a lot to recommend it unless you wanted a burger bar or your boat/ship was in need of attention.

From Maylandsea it was only a short ride over Mayland Hill to Burnham-on-Crouch and the train home.

Don’t let my harping on about the dull architecture put you off – this is a fascinating and beautiful area – great to explore, I’m sure we only scratched the surface and its a good place to take anyone who wants to test there legs out of London for the first time. I’ll definitely be back.

35.6 miles
850 feet of climbing (a flat ride)

Ian Pendleton