Little Baddow Walk

Little Baddow is a lovely village in amongst plenty of woods and has some exceptionally lovely good sized houses. After the walk if you have time go further down the main road outside The Rodney to Paper Mill Lock where you can seat by the lock have tea and cake.

Details of Walk

• Date of Walk: 23/08/2009

• Distance: 3.61 Miles

• Level of Difficulty: A Moderate Walk

• Starting Point Postcode: 

• Car Park: The Rodney CM3 4TQ

• Refreshments:  The Rodney or walk to the Paper Mill Lock

• No Photos Taken on the Walk

This walk started from The Rodney which is a 18th century building apparently in the late 1840's Charles Smith owned it and sold bread, groceries and beer. When The Old Rodney in the Warren up the hill became a private dwelling Charles moved the sign to his establishment. We have had a meal here with my Mum and Dad some years ago and Mum had been here some other times with members of my family. The walk is quite hilly and most of the hill work is at the beginning, leaving the down hill to the end which is the way I like it.

So from the pub we turned right up the road to the entrance on the left into the wood and this area is known as Heather Hills which is between Shrub Wood and the Warren. It was once owned by Lord Rayleigh, but it was sold in the 1920's by Mr and Mrs Gregory Nicholson of Dukes Orchard who presented it to the village so it could be open to the public all the time. We followed the paths through the wood until we came to a junction with a crossing bridleway where we turned right up hill till we came to the Old Rodney House. We entered the the garden through two gate posts and just past the house is a sunken tennis court. The Old Rodney in earlier years has been a alehouse, pleasure gardens and a hotel restaurant.

The name has changed many times including The Warren House, The Cock and Warren, The Old Rodney and The Old Rodney Hotel.

From here we took the left fork and continued crossing Spring Elms Lane and on wards to Postmans Lane crossing here we carried on for about 1/2 mile going through Pheasant House Wood to a signpost with four bridleway fingers pointing in all directions. We turned left and after 300 yards the path veered left into Woodham Walter Common. Just a few yards before a garden of a house we turned left and it was downhill until we came to a bridge over a stream and then we went up hill to Spring Elms which is a Poultry farm and turned left onto Spring Ems Lane for about 400 yards keeping a look out for a footpath sign on our right. We left the road at the sign to follow a short green lane to a path across the field leading to a road at Bassetts and here we were just in the Maldon district boundary. The house dates back to around 1670 and the house had to pay for six hearths which was a property tax called Hearth Tax and in certain countries during the medieval and early modern period, levied on each hearth, thus by metonymy on each family unit. It was calculated based on the number of hearths, for fireplaces, within a municipal area. Just pass the house we went over a stile and across a meadow to another stile which took us into Bassetts Wood and we followed the path through the wood until we went over a wooden bridge that took us out of the wood.

We then walked uphill over stiles in the field and then the last bit of the walk was over a foot bridge and crossing over a series of stiles through Warren Farm. When we arrived back at the pub we could not resist a cold shandy in the pubs garden. As the majority of the walk is through woods and this is where sometimes it can get a bit confusing which path to take and of cause we did as we did go wrong a couple of times but this just adds to the walk trying to work out which way to go.