This short, circular, flat walk was thoroughly enjoyable, with most of the 4-mile route being in ancient Essex woodland, starting in the medieval hunting grounds of Writtle Forest. There are plenty of opportunities for wildlife spotting along the way; we saw deer, rabbits, squirrels, birds, and a rat.
For the most part it was easy to navigate but as always, having a map never hurts. We were expecting a mud-bath, but it was dry underfoot and the bare trees and orange-leaved paths were a beautiful autumnal sight. If you do this walk after lockdown, there’s a pub at the end.
6.5 km / 4.1 Miles
Link to OS Map Route: Mill Green, Ingatestone Circular Walk
Conditions: A surprisingly mild late-November day. Mainly dry underfoot. Dry, overcast, 10 degrees.
Parking: Free, opposite The Cricketers pub
Mapletree Lane
We arrived around lunchtime and nabbed one of the few remaining parking spaces in Mill Green village, near Ingatestone. This free village car park doubles up as the pub car park but as the pub was closed for lockdown, we were surprised to see it full. We left the car park through a meadow clearing, its grass carpet still a vibrant green despite the time of year.
Conversely, the flora at the entrance to the woodland was in full autumn mode. The rusty ferns were brittle like skeletons, with wilting blackberry brambles curling over them.
Plenty of fruit remained on the plants, albeit long past their best. This was perhaps due to the superstition of not eating blackberries after Michaelmas (September 29th). On Michaelmas, the story goes that Archangel Michael defeated the angel Lucifer and banished him from heaven. He fell to hell, landed in a thorny blackberry bush, and proceeded to spit on it and curse the fruit.
We continued along Mapletree Lane bridleway, part of the long-distance footpath St. Peters Way. The floor was soft but not muddy, with horse hoof tracks gently compressed into surface. As we passed a red brick cottage, the homely smell of their log burner filled the air.
At Maple Tree cottage, St. Peters Way bears left and we went straight on down a wide track and into the woods. Crispy brown leaves littered the track, which was muddy in places but dry along the holly and tree lined edges.
Writtle Forest – Birch Spring and Parsons Spring
Mapletree Lane runs alongside the edge of Writtle Forest, but the woods we had now entered, Birch Spring, were also part of the medieval forest.
Along with Epping, Hainault and Hatfield, Writtle Forest was part of Royal Essex Forest, areas that had been set aside for royal hunting since Norman times. They are still privately owned today but fortunately, public footpaths such as this one pass through. In modern terms the name is a bit misleading since the woodland isn’t actually that close to Writtle.
The lack of foliage meant we easily spotted a herd of fallow deer on the move, probably startled by our greyhound. Further ahead, they crossed the track and headed deep into the western side of the woods.
As we continued deeper into the wood the track took a gentle descent. Despite the almost bare trees, the forest still managed to look dense. The trees are mainly sweet chestnut coppice, with oak and hornbeam in the damper parts, and maple, spindle and dogwood on the fringes.
The forest is briefly punctuated by Blackmore Road cutting through it, which we crossed on our way into Parsons Spring.
This section of woodland had a concrete track underfoot and the leaves had been helpfully swept to the side.
Disused gravel pits line both sides of the footpath. The Stanmore, or pebble, gravel from the pits dates from the early Ice Age.
The ground is mostly silty sand and sandy clay with layers of flint pebbles. The flint pebbles are mostly well-rounded – originally formed on an ancient beach – and probably derived from marine deposits in south Essex and Kent.
It’s also worth noting that Mill Green was a pottery production centre between 1270 and 1350; the clay and sand land providing ample materials for this local industry.
Just before the woods come to an end, we followed a footpath sign to the right and walked down an avenue of trees on the forest’s edge.
Barrow Farm to Ellis Woods
We emerged from the forest to re-cross Blackmore Road, a little further up than before, and down a tarmac track past Barrow Farm Riding for the Disabled. Despite some road crossings and right turns, the woodland to our right is still part of Writtle Forest, though now being privately owned, this section is marked as Barrow Wood on OS Maps.
We followed the woodland edge to the end, where it made way for Arrans Fishing Lake. Opposite stood a timber merchants. The scent of freshly treated wood filled our noses and was oddly comforting, despite smelling like a B&Q. Pallets of fenceposts lined the lane, and a rat or water vole – it was moving too quick for us to properly identify it – scurried underneath as we approached.
In the field opposite, a rabbit also fled from our view. This flurry of “small-furries” activity was extremely exciting for Jack the greyhound.
We emerged on to a road and zig zagged across it into Cock Lane. In a garden on the left, domesticated chickens and rabbits roamed freely; another extremely exciting moment for Jack.
We left the road to the right, then an immediate left into Ellis Wood, the second wood of the walk. The flora was very similar, but ambience noticeably more wild, with just a narrow footpath cutting between tall ferns and brambles, and tree roots clawing their way up through the dirt.
As we paused to reflect on how peaceful it was, I let out a humongous sneeze that echoed around the bare trees – “if you sneeze in the woods and no-one is around to hear it, does it make a noise?”
Farmland to Millgreen Common
The short portion of woodland opened up onto fields, which we were expecting to be freshly ploughed and muddy. Having just been sown, it was solid underfoot; the only squelchy bits were the tractor tyre marks across the field.
The next field was uphill, but green and grassy, then we made another zigzag road crossing into the final field.
This last field was slightly soft underfoot, with the claggy mud expected at this time of year. Standing on a track after the field, we lightened our load by kicking off the mud that had stuck to our boots, while working out our next turn.
Millgreen Common and Moore’s Ditch
We momentarily re-joined St Peter’s Way, following the footpath into the woods but ignoring its left turn shortly after, instead going into Millgreen Common woodland. The third and final wood of this walk.
Millgreen Common borders Writtle Forest (we were almost back at the start of the walk), and if you look on a map it’s amusing to compare the size of the common (land where us mere peasants were permitted to graze our livestock) with the expanse of land set aside strictly for Royal use.
In the woodland a thick blanket of leaves completely covered the path and 6 foot high holly bushes enveloped us. The onset of dusk made the tunnels dark and dramatic, with the added bonus of some bioluminescent fungi gently glowing on a rotting tree stump (possibly Honey Fungus – but we’re certainly not expert fungi identifiers, so please let us know if we’re wrong!).
The wild density of this woodland and the soft light at this time of day made it feel bigger than it was. There are a series of small paths and animal trails. Should you find yourself walking alongside Moore’s Ditch – an earthwork of unknown origin – you have technically gone the wrong way (not that we intentionally came off route, of course).
The woodland is tiny though and even if you take “a wrong turn”, as long as you’re heading roughly west you will eventually pop out on the main road through Mill Green village.
We followed the well-trodden path in a south westerly direction and despite this being the most natural and wild woodland of the walk, it was oddly busy. We found ourselves in a human traffic jam for the last 50-100 metres or so.
One final road crossing put us back at the car park. Were it not lockdown we would have enjoyed a pint at The Cricketers but fortunately this walk did not need to benefit from a pub at the end. It was perfectly pleasant as it was.
Love Wild Walks
