Horndon on the Hill Walk

This walk started from The Bell Inn, we were able to park on the main road opposite the pub which was built in the 15th century and in the early days it was a coaching inn. There has been at least one burning at the stake which was carried out at the back of the pub,Thomas Highbed a farmer was charged and condemned of heresy in 1555.

Details of Walk

• Date of Walk: 26/07/2009

• Distance: 2.21 Miles

• Level of Difficulty: A Easy Walk

• Car Park:  The Bell Inn or Street Parking SS17 8LD

• Refreshments: The Bell Inn

• Photos Taken on the Walk

This walk started from The Bell Inn, we were able to park on the main road opposite the pub which was built in the 15th century and in the early days it was a coaching inn. There has been at least one burning at the stake which was carried out at the back of the pub,Thomas Highbed a farmer was charged and condemned of heresy in 1555.The village has a wealth of history having been situated on the main trade route from East Anglia to Kent and the channel ports. Ferries across the Thames at Tilbury probably date back to Roman times.

From the pub we walked down the side of the building then carried straight on with a hedge to the left heading down hill towards the bypass road and here we had to climb up some steps to cross over the road on the other side we carried on a eastward line with a hedge on the left. We entered a wood and turned right following a stream on our left for a few yards until we came to a bridge we had to cross, then we carried on over another field until we reached the busy A13 this is where we turned left and walked about 250 yards to a style, once over the style we turned left again and we were now on a farm track.

We came across a lady coming from the other way and got chatting to her and she was doing the walk to take down details and sketches to do a write up of the walk in the local paper. About 400 yards up the track we turned right along a good headland path until we saw a pond and this is where we turned left through a gap towards a thicket which is a very dense stand of trees or tall shrubs, often dominated by only one or a few species.We entered the thicket passing a badger sett to a style, after climbing over it to go into a field which we crossed heading for a gap in a hedge and a style by a stream.

We walked with the hedge on the left until the stream turned away from the hedge we crossed a style to the other side of the hedge and continued to the next style. we turned slightly left to a bridge and a style in the hedge which took us through to a field by Wren Farm on our right and Arden Hall on our left, where it is alleged that Queen Elizabeth stayed after reviewing the Armada troops at Tilbury but this might not be right as it is also been said that she stayed in Saffron Gardens. From here we headed to the bypass that we had crossed earlier then it was up hill to the corner of North Hill and we stopped for awhile to look back at Arden Hall.

Now it was just a matter of walking down Hordon High Road passing the old school, two thatched cottages, also you have the Woolmarket which was erected in the 1500s. It was here that Dutch merchants who had moored vessels at nearby Mucking or Fobbing came to trade in the wool from the sheep that grazed below the village and now it is a meeting place for the villagers. As it was a fairly short walk we decided to go down to Leigh on Sea and spend the rest of the day looking round.

At this point of the walk you are standing in Essex with the field over the ditch on the left is in Cambridgeshire, and ahead across the bridge lies Suffolk, so if you had three legs you would be able to stand in three counties at the same time. So from here we crossed the bridge in to Suffolk and turned right along the headland path and after about 200 yards we crossed a shallow ditch bringing us into the next field. We kept on going until we turned right over a earth bridge back into Essex and then we headed back down on a good path to rejoin the the wide lane we came up on. When we reached the main road we turned left and headed back in to village passing some really nice buildings comprising of old and new.