15th September
I arrived at Upminster Bridge station on the District line at about ten past eleven in the morning which gave me plenty of time to complete sections 23 and 24 of the LOOP. First however a short diversion to Upminster Windmill, the actual mill this time rather than the pub as on my last visit at the end of Section 22.
Upminster Windmill was built for James Nokes, a local farmer, in 1803. It is a Grade II* listed building and in terms of quality, completeness and significance it is widely considered to be amongst the very best remaining English smock mills, so called because its shape is said to resemble the traditional clothing of agricultural workers. It is owned by the London Borough of Havering and managed by the Friends of Upminster Windmill. It works and they have open days but today the slats on the sails were fixed open and the stiff breeze was turning the fantail that keeps them pointed into the wind. Talking of wind today there was a Yellow Warning for high winds and it was certainly very gusty.
From the windmill I returned to the route of the LOOP along residential streets, occasionally holding onto my hat. Once through Hornchurch Stadium’s car park the way ahead shadowed the River Ingrebourne, as it would for much of the remaining walk. Passing through an open grass area and then crossing the river on a footbridge to a stretch of scrub, woodland and rough grass with the unseen river now behind trees on my left. Across Hacton Lane and around the children’s play area I followed the well surfaced path through Ingrebourne Valley Local Nature Reserve, through shallow puddles until the route turned away to the right over a little wooden bridge provided to allow dry progress when the River Ingrebourne frequently breaks its banks at this point. As it had indeed today.
Past another playground and a visitor centre and now I was entering Hornchurch Country Park, formerly RAF Hornchurch. Looking at the mostly wooded area that you pass through it’s hard to imagine that from 1928 until 1962 this was a military airfield, one that played a major part in the Battle of Britain being a Sector Airfield of RAF Fighter Command’s 11 Group, covering London and the south east of England and was attacked by the Luftwaffe on twenty occasions. It’s a lot quieter now but there are a number of leftovers dotted around from its wartime days, including several “pillbox” bunkers.
I passed Ingrebourne Marshes and climbed the slope up to where the control tower once stood, of which nothing remains but a good view to the south west.
The route carried on down the Ingrebourne Valley parallel to the river until turning west to skirt around Albyns Farm Lake and then south west again by Albyns Farm itself. This much restored and rebuilt medieval manor is surrounded by the sort of strikingly off-white high rendered wall that wouldn’t look out of place around a Spanish hacienda. Part way along which is a very large set of black wrought iron automatic gates with the name across them picked out in gold lettering and a CCTV entry system. It was probably the most Essex thing I saw all day (even if now technically in Greater London). I didn’t dare stand in front of the gates to take a photo though.
Onward through field and wood to cross Ingrebourne Hill where I made the short diversion to the hilltop viewpoint. The path up to the viewpoint has been laid out in a series of lazy back and forth loops by some planner and which therefore mostly has a desire path cutting across them directly to the top because no one has time for that nonsense. There’s a good view from the top, particularly of towers, cranes, and the odd wind turbine across Dagenham, Becontree, and Romford. I returned to the LOOP via the other zig-zag path (mostly, see above) and beside Lake Stilwell to join the Rainham Road and turn south towards the village of Rainham itself. I passed the telephone exchange and its adjacent Albion pub, crossed New Road near the roundabout and then along Bridge Road over the River Ingrebourne again before nipping into Tesco for a pee because every little helps 😀
Then I carried on along Bridge Road following signs to the railway station which is the end of Section 23. I found a bench beside the station that was out of the increasingly strong wind and took a break for half an hour to eat my picnic lunch, (ham and cheese sarnies, crisps, a flask of Bovril, and some grapes that were a bit past their best if you’re curious) and prepared to tackle Section 24 to Purfleet. That will be covered in the next blog though.
There’s the usual collection of photos from Section 23 in this FlickrAlbum.
