Waltham Abbey Walk

This was the first walk in our new book called Village walks in Essex in fact it is a town rather than village and for a change we did not start from a pub. Waltham Abbey has a delightful cluster of buildings around the area of the Abbey church. It lies on the Greenwich Meridian 0 degree longitude, which you have to cross as you begin the walk.

Details of Walk

• Date of Walk: 21/11/2010

• Distance: 4.75 Miles

• Level of Difficulty: A Easy Walk

• Car Park:Lee Valley Countryside Centre EN9 1XQ

• Refreshments:Tea Room by the Church

• Photos Taken on Walk

An Abbey has stood on the site since King Harold built the first in 1060. He is reputed to be buried in the Abbey grounds. Henry II founded the Augustinian Abbey here in 1177. Over the centuries many people have found inspiration in this lovely setting. Tennyson wrote of the bells of Waltham Abbey, and Thomas Tallis, organist till the Abbey was dissolved in 1540, was a notable musician. He provided the setting for the words of the Anglican service. The nearby Lee Navigation, once used in the transport of gunpowder for the arms factory, is now a delightful place where fishermen, walkers and cyclists rub shoulders with the narrow-boat visitors.

Well we made a good start and went wrong straight away but then it would have helped reading the directions better but that's part of the fun getting lost and working out how to get back on the right trail again. I remember watching a program on telly about river walks and this one I watched as I remember seeing and them talking about the gunpowder factory. Today they were doing a sponsored run around lee valley for the R.F.L.A I was tempted but had not brought any shorts. It was a different walk as we have not been on one where there is a canal and narrowboats, there is a Dragonfly Sanctuary but wrong time of year but there was plenty of water fowl to see. We finished the walk by having a look round the village and then having lunch in a quaint tea room by the church, lovely food we had steak and mushroom pie with veg and then shared apple crumble and custard just what you need to warm you up after a walk this time of year.