Thaxted Walk

Thaxted is a lovely town to walk around with some really old buildings like the Guildhall, church and on the walk you can get up close to a brick build windmill. Also this is a good walk if you have a dog as most of the walk they can be off lead and has wide verges but if has rained it can get muddy in places as we found out.

Details of Walk

• Date of Walk: 25/01/2015

• Distance: 3.93 Miles

• Level of Difficulty: A Fairly Easy Walk

• Car Park: Margaret Street ( Free Car Park) CM6 2QN

• Refreshments: Pubs in Thaxted or you could try Poppy's Tea Room to the left of the guildhall

• Photos Taken on Walk

Starting from the car park we went right and then left through Margret Garden crossing to some steps and then left along Bell Lane to the main road where we turned right then crossed to the main road entrance of the church when in the church yard we took the path to the right to pass between two buildings, one thatched and the other tiled. The thatched one used to be where the Priest houses and later it become a almshouse and the tiled ones where almshouses from the start.

There was a notice pointing to the windmill which we followed through a gate along a terrace, going slightly right at the end through a kissing gate, then we walked along a hedged path passing by the windmill on the right known as John Webb's mill and dating from the start of the 19th century, this is a town mill, which means that the top is rotated into the wind by the fantail and the windmill is open on the weekends in the summer.We did stop here for awhile taking photos and from here you get a good view of planes coming and going into Stansted airport as it is right on the flight path and I think if not now but years ago they used to use the Churches spire to line up for the approach to the runway.

Now we were walking along the left end edge of a field and leaving the town behind us to a well defined cross-track where we turned right. At the bottom the bottom of the field we turned left and then right over a concrete bridge to cross the River Chelmer, when across we turned immediately right along the field edge, with the river, which is not much more than a stream at the this stage, to our right. As I said earlier the wide paths along the river are Ideal for dog walking and I said they could be muddy when it has rained which it had done during the week so yes it was a bit muddy. At the end we we went through a narrow gap in the hedge and over a plank bridge to the road. we crossed and then continued with the river to our right and a pumping station on the left. After two fields we kept going forward over another plank bridge and after hugging the edge of a quite large field we entered a smaller one ignoring the footbridge over to the right and carried forward over a cross-track and swinging right to rejoin the bank of the river

.We kept walking forward with the telephone poles and pylons to the left and a attractive garden on the right. At the end of the field we swung left and ignored a footbridge to the right. we continued up the field edge to a way-marker where we turned right down a concrete track. We turned left and kept walking to the next way-marker where we left the concrete track and then a few yards later we went right at another which is labelled Turpin's Trail to join another wide grassy field edge with a hedge on the right and again the river Chelmer to reach a road. We went across the river and turned left up a drive towards Goddards Farm. Soon we forked left, leaving the drive at a way-marker post, now we were on a wide verge with trees and the river to the left.

Just after the path and river we turned sharply left, and that brought us to another way-marker and here we turned right across the field to continue on a farm track, which goes up a bank. At the next field boundary we turned right to walk up the field with the hedge to the left of us, we went left at the corner to join a banked path climbing past houses to reach a drive where we went left passing The Barn to a road. At the wood we turned right then opposite a pylon we turned left past a barrier along a track the soon we went left over a plank bridge to walk with the hedge on the right. The path swung right along the right edge of a long narrow field. At the end we went right over yet another plank bridge where we did not cross the narrow field ahead but continued to the right alongside a hedge. Eventually at a way-marker we swung sharp left to approach a wood and just before it we went right over an earth bridge and dine a u-turn to walk with the hedge ion the right.

At the end of this section we ignored the turn to the left and kept going forward over the left of two rails bridges. We now followed the path to the left of the stream, when we approached the houses we kept to the middle of three paths across a meadow to go past a gate to a drive. A bit later we turned right and then at the end veered left and then forward towards Thaxted Pharmacy and the main road. We turned right here passing Gustav Holst's house on the left to the right of guildhall passing Dick Turpin's Cottage on the left. Then it was just continuing up hill to turn right at a no entry sign then right at the end of the lane back to the car park.