Witham and Maldon Circuit

Thames Sailing Barges on Maldon Quay

We started around midday from Witham Station (trains from Liverpool Street), on a hot sunny midsummer day. Here is a map of our ride, which covered about 24 miles.

NB The map shows my route, with various diversions and excursions which you may not wish to follow precisely. You can download the Google map info, as a KML/KMZ file, then convert to GPX using a site like GPS Visualiser.

We followed NCN16 and NCN1 through rolling countryside with a pleasing downhill gradient to the sea wall near Heybridge Basin on the Blackwater Estuary. Here, we had a leisurely lunch at the Jolly Sailor, before pressing on along the sea wall to the historic town of Maldon. We then made an excursion along the waterside park promenade to the imposing statue of Byrhtnoth, the Saxon king who chose to fight the marauding Vikings rather than pay them off. It did him little good, as he was killed and his force defeated, but it made for a good epic Old English poem, "the Battle of Maldon".

After grabbing a cuppa at one of the stalls in the park, we made our way back along the Chelmer Navigation towpath to near the village of Ulting, then on quiet lanes, until on the outskirts of Witham we picked up a short section of the Blackwater Rail Trail. This in turn joined with an excellent cycle path through parkland back to the station, where we arrived at about 7pm. This was a very enjoyable ride though the picturesque flatlands of the Essex Coast, which are well suited to easy cycling.

The photos tell the story.