The suggested parking is on an access road to a BT building. This is used at times, so please park considerately.
(S/E) Walk along the access road to the gates then take the footpath on the left of the BT building. Enter the playing field and immediately turn left over the footbridge. Head up the hill, keeping close to the hedge on the left. At the top of the field, cross the stile and keep left on Rigbys Path. The path follows garden fences for a short distance. When it enters the churchyard keep straight ahead on a barely discernible path, with the fence of The Old Rectory on the left. On meeting a gravelled footpath, turn right, walking between yew bushes to a double metal gate.
Go through the gate to leave the churchyard. Turn sharp left following the paving slabs at the rear of The Bell pub to reach a narrow road at a fingerpost with The Old Gatehouse opposite. Turn right, heading along The Street towards a private road. This is St Peter's Way. Continue along this road, going through the gate adjacent to Purleigh Hall Barn. Where the track curves right, heading towards Purleigh Hall, the path goes straight ahead to a stile.
Cross the stile and pass a pair of field gates on the left that are marked 'No Footpath'. Continue ahead until, just before reaching a stile in the hedge, turn 120° left to follow an indistinct path down to a stile with a St Peter's Way marker. Cross the stile and head for a footbridge and stile on the opposite side of the field beside a large tree. Cross these and, ignoring a path 45° left, keep ahead in the same general direction, aiming for a gap in the hedge on the opposite side of the field - the path is generally well reinstated. After going under the power line the footbridge in the hedge ahead should now be visible.
(1) Cross the footbridge, climb the steps to cross the track-bed of the disused Maldon to Woodham Ferrers railway line, descend the steps on the other side and continue straight ahead on a cross-field path to a wooden swing gate. Go through the gate and bear half right to another gate at the end of a garden fence. Leave the field through this gate and turn right on Roundbush Road. After a few yards, where the road turns sharp left by farm buildings, take the clearly marked byway on the right.
(2) Just after the byway enters a wooded area the track splits three ways - here keep to the centre track between a hedge on the left and three trees on the right. There is a marker post here but it is often obscured by vegetation. After some way the track becomes better surfaced and, shortly thereafter, where it dog-legs left and right, take a footpath on the left through a swing gate into a field. Cross the field diagonally leftwards and go through the gate at the top left hand corner of the field into a narrow footpath between fence and hedge.
After a few yards, ignore a footpath on the right over a makeshift footbridge, continuing ahead to a gate and a path ahead over a raised section of plastic boardwalk. At the end of this, turn left to follow a path between fences with a derelict barn on the left. When the path emerges at a track, turn right; it soon becomes Crown Road which meets Fambridge Road with the Cold Norton village sign opposite. Cross the road.
To visit The Norton pub, cross St Stephens Road and walk downhill on Fambridge Road for 200 yards.
(3) Walk down St Stephens Road, passing the primary school. At the bottom of the hill, ignore a footpath on the right beside an Essex and Suffolk water compound, following the road left and crossing an old railway bridge where there are two entrances to a bridleway on the right. Take either of these, ignoring a footpath that goes ahead to join a field edge, turning half right on to the bridleway. Follow this for a little over half a mile to Honey Pot Lane.
(4) Drop down, cross the lane and re-join the marked bridleway on the left side of a dismantled bridge. Various tracks from the Three Rivers golf course cross and join the bridleway here, so beware of golf buggies. Ignore all these paths, keeping ahead on the bridleway. Just after going under an old railway bridge, at a sign for Stow Maries Nature Reserve, a path joins from the left down a raised earth bank - this was the site of the Stow Maries Halt platform. At a second sign for the nature reserve, at a waymarked post, keep ahead on the disused railway line bridleway.
(5)To visit The Prince Of Wales pub take a marked footpath on the right, which descends steps to a footbridge and field, following it alongside Poorhouse Wood to a road. Cross the road, turn right and walk along Woodham Road for a little over 200 yards.
Continue along the railway track bridleway. At the end of the path drop down to the right passing beside a gate to meet Woodham Road. Cross the road going half left to enter a bridleway beside a concrete block and GLE field gates. Follow it gently uphill until, after 1/3 mile, it eventually curves to the right and enters a vineyard. Go straight ahead uphill between vines and hedge.
(6) At a marker post for a four-way crossing of paths and horse barrier, keep forward towards the wood ahead, leaving the last of the vines on the right. Continue on the bridleway just inside the edge of Hawe's Wood, still going slightly uphill. At the top of the rise, follow the waymark sharp left, then shortly afterwards sharp right, Where the bridleway meets a tarmac lane from the left, go ahead on the lane.
(7) Where the lane turns right, follow it, passing a sign for Flambirds Private Road, going to the left of the gates if locked. Here there are yellow signs warning that this is a working airfield. Go through the gate at the end of the concrete track, crossing in front of the entrance to Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome to take the footpath that is virtually opposite, walking alongside the airfield fence.
(8) After 200 yards, where there is a defunct stile in the fence, bear half left to follow a usually fairly distinct path that snakes its way towards a gate in the fence ahead. Go through the gate and at this junction of paths turn sharp left to follow the field edge and fence. At the corner of the field, go through the hedge and cross the footbridge, keeping ahead on another field edge path. Cross a second footbridge and again keep ahead along a field edge path. Although the term 'path' is used here, there is no real sign that this is a path - it's just the edge of the fields. Cross a third footbridge, cross the concrete track, and again keep ahead along the side of the field. Go into the next field, crossing the ditch between ash and oak, once again keeping straight ahead.
(9) At the end of this field, cross a fourth footbridge and follow the waymark through scrubland with a reservoir bank on the right. The path meets a wider grassy track at a large oak, go forward with the hedge and ditch on the left. Pass through a gap in the hedge at the end of the field where, on the right, there is an attractive pond. There is no waymarking here - keep close to the hedge on the left through this private garden. On reaching a gate and Hackmans Lane, leave the garden to the left of the gate, cross the lane and take the fingerpost marked path opposite - St Peter's Way. Take the path directly ahead, between abandoned trucks on the left and hedge on the right, passing underneath telephone lines.
Follow the path along the field edge with a hedge on the right. Where the hedge ends, continue in the same direction to cross the field aiming for buildings and a (usually just visible) marker post. At the post (or the hedge if it has fallen down completely) do not go into the next field but turn right along the edge of the field, swinging left to meet Birchwood Road.
Turn right on the road and after a few yards, turn left, down Lodge Lane. Shortly after the entrance to Scotts Farm ignore footpaths left and right, continuing on the lane which begins to descend to the village. At the 30 MPH signs, immediately before the first building, turn right at the fingerpost for St Peter's Way, along another byway. The path doglegs right and left then curves left and begins to climb.
(10) Just before some black farm buildings on the left, look out for a partially obscured adjacent stile. The ground here can be very muddy at almost any time of year. Cross this into a horse paddock, heading diagonally right to a stile in the paddock corner. Cross the stile, going straight ahead to follow St Peter's Way ignoring paths on the left (marked) and unmarked (right). Disregard any side paths, keeping ahead on the wider grassy path. It enters a wooded area and emerges on to Chelmsford Road - the B1010.
(11) Cross the road entering into New Hall Vineyard over the footbridge opposite. The path originally went through the vines but now turns right, following waymarks at the edge of the field with the road on the right. These vines are over 50 years old and still produce fine wines. At the last row of vines, with a concrete access road ahead, turn right up a low bank and carefully cross the B1010.
(12) Take the unmarked and undefined path directly ahead between vines, heading towards a large tree at the top of the rise (being a footpath, the width between these rows of vines is slightly wider than between adjacent rows). On meeting a hedge from the right, continue ahead with the hedge now on your right. At the top of the field look back for some splendid views of the Blackwater estuary. Where the hedge bears left, cross into the grassy area beside a vineyard notice board, aiming for the opposite corner. Go through the hedge, down the steps and through a swing gate.
(13) Walk past the church, following the road to leave Church Hill and enter The Street. Pass The Bell and then just past it turn right at a fingerpost and post-mounted letterbox to follow familiar paving slabs to a double metal gate. Go through, follow the gravel path between the yew bushes again and just after the church's south door, turn left on the indistinct path close to the Old Rectory fence. Go along Rigbys Path, cross the stile by the seat, retracing the route downhill, turning right after the footbridge back to the start. (S/E)
