London LOOP Section 20 – Chigwell to Havering Atte-Bower Christmas Day 2010

Christmas Day and instead of opening presents, stuffing turkey down our faces, or watching Morcambe and Wise on TV, we decide to head off to Chigwell and do our first section of The London LOOP. This is a circular walk around London divided into 24 sections and 150 miles (242km) in length.

Also called the London Outer Orbital Path or the M25 for walkers. We first became aware of the London LOOP when out walking near Romford. The green finger posts of a flying Kestrel fastened to street furniture stimulated our interest in finding out more about this long distance walk. The idea of doing it in relatively short sections appealed to us, as it would be possible to do a section in a single day, in the hope that we might complete the circuit of London within a year or so.

Now Betty is a local girl, so I leave it to her to take us to Chigwell Station, where the section begins. With limited transport options on Christmas Day we decide to leave my car at Havering Atte-Bower and go in her car to Chigwell. What was it I was saying about her being a local girl?

In Error… Grange Hill..

We arrive at Chigwell Station, snow on the ground and a nip in the air. Out come the directions and map. It is all nonsense! The directions are rubbish. The map is lying! No matter which way up we look at the map, it is wrong. It is only then that I look at the writing above the station entrance and discover that this is Grange Hill, not Chigwell.

Back into the car and a short drive to the real Chigwell. Here we park up and find Chigwell Station.

Parking near Chigwell Station

The map is correct and the directions make sense, as we trundle through the snow and carefully pick our way along icy pavements.

We soon arrive at Ye Olde Kings Head, which the LOOP directions tell us lays claim to being the most famous pub in Essex.

Ye Olde Kings Head Pub

This highlights the dilemma of Essex people living in this part of London. Are we in Essex or London? Betty was born in London but without moving house she became a Essexer. She is quite firmly of the opinion that she is an Essex Girl. So where does this leave The Kings Head? Who cares as long as the beer tastes ok and what was good enough for Charles Dickens or Dick Turpin is good enough for me. Alas, it being Christmas morning the pub is shut, so we have to press on with our walk, the quality of the beer or the pub unresolved.

After a few yards we turn right and enter a meadow full of snow and well camouflaged gulls.

We also notice a couple of horses, which on spying us wander over in what we perceive as a menacing manner. They are probably just being friendly, but Betty is not keen to find out so our pace quickens, as do the horses’. Eventually we break into a run and clear the stile at the other end. Sanctuary found we then negotiate with the horses, which seem harmless enough (with a stile between us).

In fact this is to be the first of several encounters with horses, which are the commonest animals you will encounter as you pick your way around the periphery of London.

Our next encounter with a living creature catches us quite by surprise. After walking down the road a short distance and taking the path into the next field we encounter a scantily clad lady (of oriental Asian extraction) in the process of performing Tai Chi in the middle of a farmer’s field, in sub-zero temperatures. Were she to be practicing Karate I would give her a wide birth, but decide Tai Chi offers no danger. We approach undetected and only at the last minute does she realise she is not alone in a field on Christmas morning and nearly falls over in surprise. This LOOP walking is obviously going to be a bundle of surprises!

After a pleasant section of track and field walking we can hear the sound of humming. However, this does not turn out to be the local church choir tuning up ready for Christmas carols, but the local waterworks, pumping millions of gallons of water into tanks and reservoirs. As we gaze across the acres of water in front of us we realise the water surface is covered in gulls and other water birds, all happily bobbing up and down on the water we and other locals are about to drink. Now, I have had encounters with birds in the past, usually involving a white splat on my head or shoulders. I hope these ones are not considering polluting our water supply. Best to assume that the water will be cleaned one more time before being pumped to the water tower at Havering Atte-Bower, prior to being fed into Romford’s water supply (Ever since this encounter I have been suspicious of the purity of what comes out of our kitchen tap!).

The water treatment plant

As we move on beyond the waterworks, picking our way across a couple of meadows, we find ourselves admiring a well kept back garden before the path leads into Chapel Lane at Chigwell Row. What I like about The LOOP is that you are following a sort of treasure hunt taking you across fields, behind factories and gardens to end up transported as if by magic into a town, village or busy road where the world is in complete contrast to the one you have just left. You feel like Dr Who emerging from his TARDIS into a strange new world. In our case the world (Chigwell Row) is familiar to us, but this makes our emergence all the more fascinating.

Just to remind the reader, it is December and there is thick snow on the ground. So if you are reading this in the height of summer it may bear little comparison with what you see or feel. Nonetheless, try to imagine how different the LOOP scenery can be at different times of year and if you can’t – well just revisit in December!

The next stretch of our walk takes us across the road, past a playground and then through a small wood before emerging onto the A1112. This brief disruption to the tranquillity of the walk is soon behind us as we enter Hainault Forest Country Park.

Here the snow is not so deep, but the twisted old hornbeams have a threatening Tolkienish feel to them and I’m certain I catch a glimpse of elvan folk from the corner of my eye.

A little beyond the hornbeam woodland we encounter an interesting collection of sculptures laid out as though in some sort of prehistoric ring. I suspect the only rituals that take place here involve groups of teenagers on summer’s evenings, experimenting with illicit alcohol and challenging other social taboos. The intricate carving on each sculpted post bears close inspection and creates an air of mystery on this chilly morning.

Walking on Christmas Day gives you the countryside to yourself, despite being within 20 or 30 miles of 7 million other souls. We occasionally observe a hardy dog walker but our solitary existence continues as we strike across what on any other day would be open grassland, but today is a centimetre or two of fresh snow. Rabbits and deer have passed this way earlier, their distinctive prints and slots clearly visible in the snow.

Footprints in the snow-from left to right – dog, running deer slots, rabbit and pheasant

We almost unwittingly pass from the country park onto the golf course, which is un-surprisingly, devoid of golfers. With the snow on the ground you would only identify it as a golf course by the presence of the odd forlorn looking flag located in the middle of a particularly level piece of white. The route picks its way across the course, mostly amongst lines of mature trees, where you can hide from volleys of flying golf balls and where your presence minimises the disturbance caused to those poor souls who have to pay to have their “good walk ruined”, to use the apocryphal quotation often attributed to Mark Twain.

The golf course behind us we now enter farmland, picking our way alongside low hedges, dividing arable fields awaiting the spring thaw, before the new years’ crop dares to push forth fresh green shoots. As we walk our spirits are lifted by the familiar sight of Collier Row and it’s landmark block of flats seen through the frost-laden air. Home and Christmas Dinner are not so far away now.

After crossing perhaps a kilometre of farmland, the route emerges onto a metalled road and less taxing walking. A little further up the road we approach what the LOOP directions describe as “a rickety farm area” with a pile of steaming stable straw opposite. This mass of decomposing vegetable matter gives off an almost tangible source of warm moist vapour, which turns to steam as it meets the cold December air.

However, this is a distraction from the challenge that greets us ahead. The road is a skating rink of ice and we have to carefully pick our way through the ice floes in our endeavour to reach the safety of solid ground beyond. Alas, despite the deep treads of my new hiking boots, the world suddenly goes horizontal and I find myself somewhat diminished in stature, both physically and psychologically, as I realise I have failed in my quest to remain bipedal.

Treacherous ice

Betty is clucking around like a mother hen, concerned that I may have broken something. As it turns out I have…… Fortunately the mince pies in my backpack have at least broken my fall, but are alas mere crumbs, having made the supreme sacrifice to save me. Since I am at ground level I decide to commemorate my survival and the demise of the mince pies, by consuming what remains of them. Duly fortified we stagger across further treacherous ice, like toddlers learning the art of staying vertical. The importance of being bipedal is ingrained in us throughout life and must be a primeval human necessity, otherwise why else would falling over be perhaps the single most embarrassing error one can make in life?

Shortly we escape the road and pick our way up bridleway 227 to Havering Country Park. As the land rises we get an excellent view behind us, revealing the route we have been following for the last few miles.

A view west from Havering-atte-Bower

The remaining 20 minutes takes us out of the cold and into the relative warmth of woodland, past some impressive Wellingtonia trees and to the Victorian parish church of one-time royal Havering-atte-Bower. Here my car awaits to whisk us back to the warmth of our Romford abode and the promise of Christmas dinner and more than a few measures of alcohol.

Our first section of the London LOOP has proved to be a fascinating alternative to Christmas Day torpor. Packed with incidents, but dominated by long stretches of solitude across beautiful countryside. I hope all the sections are as good as this one. Tomorrow we walk in the footsteps of Good King Wenceslas, as we walk from Chingford to Chigwell, on the Feast of Stephen.