Good news, ramblers: two huge news stretches of the England Coast Path have just opened in Essex – making 40 percent of the county’s coastline now accessible to walkers.
The first route runs from Tilbury to Southend-on-Sea, while a second new stretch weaves from Southend up to Wallasea Island. Overall, 137km of paths have been added to the nationwide coastal route.
And there’s plenty of beautiful and interesting stuff to see along the way. The route passes through marshes, beaches and loads of other kinds of landscape, each brimming with birds and other coastal wildlife. Stop off at Tilbury Docks, and you can see where the SS Empire Windrush arrived in the UK in 1948. Or indeed the Tilbury Fort, which was used by King Henry VIII to defend London, and was also where Queen Elizabeth I gave her ‘Tilbury Speech’ before the Spanish Armada approached England.
Elsewhere, you can take in the ruins of Hadleigh Castle on the way to Leigh-on-Sea. This was a base for defending the Thames estuary against French raids during the Hundred Years War in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Tempted to make the trip? You can check out the full route here.
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