Little Easton Walk

This walk has lakes, streams, woodland and long empty fields and is ideal if you have a dog. Besides the delights of the Manor and Easton Lodge, you will walk across some open land that once was an airfield housing American bombers, you will see remnants of the airfield and in the church there is a commemorative window.

Details of Walk

• Date of Walk: 10/05/2015

• Distance: 5.62 Miles

• Level of Difficulty: A Easy Walk

• Car Park: Butchers Pasture (Roadside Parking) CM6 2JF

• Refreshments: The Stag

• Photos Taken on Walk

This walk you get both Little And Great Easton in one walk starting in Little Easton parking the car in Butchers Pastures and once booted up we returned to the main road turning left and going past the Stag Pub to where the road curves to the left we crossed over to a concrete finger-post and then sharp right along a narrow fenced path alongside White Gables.

We kept going with a fence to the right and where this ends, we continued along the bottom edge of a large garden and a pond on the left, It always seems strange when the footpath takes you through someones garden. At the end of the garden we had to go through a kissing gate and turn left then taking the right hand fork in the field to head towards Little Easton Manor. This path took us between the buildings, The Manor House to the right to the right is a reconstruction but the barn to the left, which houses a theatre, is genuinely old. We carried on to the gilded side-gate and walked up the road and to the left is Little Easton church which contains some 15th century wall paintings. We went right between two pillars on the drive to the gardens of Easton Lodge. Now we were passing between two lakes where there was plenty of ducks and geese, we continued on the drive out into the countryside. Along here to the left we could see the remains of the American air base with it's taxing strips, brick service buildings and hangers. From here in the distance we could see Stansted Airport and apparently if they had got the expansion they wanted years ago all this area would have been gone. On the left we passed Easton lodge with it striking water-tower and then we reached a sign for Brookend Farm.

We turned right here and straight away you see the smart stables to your left with horses in a paddock in front of them and when reaching a yard we veered to the right to join a fenced path. When we came to a tree we swung left but not entering the field but went along the edge with a fence to the left and at a T-junction we turned right. We reached a quiet sunken lane and went right, we were now on the Harcamlow Way carrying on for about 300 yards and just before a well trimmed conifer hedge at Cherth House we turned left at a finger-post and along the right edge of a field to find a bridge down in the corner. We went through a gate and up the left edge of a field and up the top there was a gate to the right of an old stable and we continued uphill to cross a stile to a road. Crossing diagonally left here starting on the right hand side edge of the field and continuing forward, about halfway up the path swung right and then left to resume it's direction.

We went forward crossing field boundaries and ignoring turnings we eventually swung right with a hedge to bring us to a lane where we turned right from here we made a short diversion to Tilty Church on the left, the church is very simple inside although the eastern end is what remains of a vast abbey that used to occupy this site. A drawing of the original abbey can be seen inside the church porch and we had a short break here and sat on a bench overlooking the valley where some of the remains of the larger abbey can be seen in the fields. We carried on retracing our steps back to the lane and crossed to follow the finger-post across a field and through a gap in the hedge and then diagonally right to a bridge over the River Chelmer. After crossing a second bridge it was straight up hill to go over a stile and kept going forward towards the houses of Great Easton.

There was a stile in the corner and a narrow path to the road with the St John & St Giles Church on our left. We were now in Great Easton and crossed diagonally right to keep left of the beamed Essex House to join a narrow path between Meadow View and a picket fence. As we walked down on the left there was a garden and people in it and they had a dog, we got talking and we must have been there some time having a good chat. It is good these walks most of the time you do not see anyone and if you do they are always very friendly. At the end of the path there was a field and we had to go slightly right towards a bridge and once over we kept going forward almost in line with the line of telephone poles to a plank bridge. We continued the field boundary and swung left and at the end of the hedge we went right to the boundary of the next field. Here we turned left to find a bridge on the right which we crossed and went up hill between fences and once we had gone through a gate we continued up a drive which brought us back to where we started in Butchers Pastures.