Epping station – Bell Common – Copthall Green – Epping Long Green – Bumble’s Green – Aimes Green – Cheshunt station
A taste of the northern end of sylvan Epping Forest, followed by a hike through the quiet, little-known fertile uplands of the North Weald, descending to the wildlife-filled reservoirs of the Lee Valley.
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Length: 12 ¼ miles (19.6km)Underfoot: Whilst most of this walk is on well-surfaced paths or well-drained upland fields, you will encounter mud except in the driest conditions – in particular, on the first stretch out of Epping and on the long bridleway beyond Bumble’s Green. Good footwear essential.Terrain: Plenty of ascents and descents throughout the walk, including a long drop into and climb out of the valley of Cobbin’s Brook. However, the gradients are almost all gentle.Maps: 1:50,000 Landranger 167 Chelmsford; 1:25,000 Explorer 174 Epping Forest & Lee Valley.Getting there: Epping is the last station on its branch of the London Underground Central Line, with trains at least every 10 minutes from central London. Journey time from Oxford Circus is around 47mins. Trains run via Stratford for Jubilee, DLR and mainline connections (27 mins). |
Useful websites: The walk follows parts of the Forest Way. The route passes through parts of Epping Forest and the Lee Valley Park.Getting home: Cheshunt has 6 Greater Anglia services an hour (3 per hour on Sundays) to London Liverpool Street (23-33 mins), almost all of which call at either Tottenham Hale or Seven Sisters (9-18 mins) for Victoria line connections. There are also 2 trains per hour (1 per hour on Sundays) to Stratford (26 mins), also calling at Tottenham Hale.Fares: It is likely to be cheapest to buy separate tickets for the out and back journeys. Using pay-as-you-go on an Oyster card, a Zone 1 to Epping journey will cost £2.90 off-peak (free for under 10s, 70p for 11-15 with appropriate Oyster card). Without an Oyster card, a cash single is £5.30. To return, simply buy a Cheshunt to London single for £6.70 (£3.35 child, £4.45 railcard). |
- Arriving at Epping station, exit through the ticket hall and turn right along its access
Epping station: end of the line
road. Very soon, you cross and take the fenced tarmac path next to the entrance of the station car park.
- Continue up the concrete steps to join a residential road, turning left. Keep to this road over the brow of hill, a little beyond the summit turning right onto Western Avenue. Just after the curve to the left, turn right at a public footpath sign.
- Follow the clear, straight path – sometimes muddy – through a series of rises and dips. At a T-junction at the top of a rise veer right along the edge of a field, passing through a gap in the hedge next to a bench to reach a small road on Bell Common.
Bell Common
Bell Common is an attractive conservation area, no longer managed as a common, but being taken over by scrubs and trees. It was historically called Beacon Common and it has been suggested that the settlement here was originally established to maintain a warning beacon.
- Cross the road and walk between posts to join an unsurfaced road along the row of houses bordering common, a pleasant mixture of new and old cottages. Continue straight ahead where the road becomes tarmaced. At a road junction by Forest Gate Inn continue straight ahead on a larger road.
- Just after the junction with Ivy Chimneys Road, turn right between posts through a clearing in the woods (this clearing is in fact the roof of a tunnel on the M25). Just before reaching the edge of a cricket pitch, veer left on a clear path heading into the trees of Epping Forest.
Epping Forest
recreation area on the edge of the conurbation for well over a century. Almost 19km long on a north-south axis, this ancient woodland was a royal hunting forest from the 12th century, until being placed in the hands of the Corporation of London in 1878 to maintain for public access and enjoyment, preventing enclosure and halting the shrinkage of the forest.
- This soon joins a broader, firmer path dropping gently downhill. You cut across two small valleys and at the top of the rise out of the second, arrive at a large path junction. Here veer right, keeping to the broad, surfaced path. You pass the earthworks at Ambresbury Banks, with an information board, on the right.
Ambresbury Banks
Ambresbury Banks represent the remains of an iron age hill fort, the single ring of banks enclosing an area of 11 acres. It is believed to have been inhabited from some point in the 8th century BC until around 42AD, and is thought to have been part of a line of forts delineating the terriories of the Trinovantes and Catuvellauni tribes. Legend has it that this was the site of Boudica’s last stand against the Romans, but there is no evidence to support this.
- About 400m beyond, where the woods thin out, you reach a path junction on the edge of a patch of open heathland. Turn right here on a clear path. This soon brings you to the busy B1393.
- Cross with care and take the clear path opposite, which immediately curves left to
parallel the road. On reaching a small crossing road, turn right along it to a small car park. Pass the earth barrier which blocks the road to cars beyond this point and continue ahead on the former road, now effectively a narrow tarmac path through the woods, passing several attractive ponds. - Eventually reaching a road, cross and pass through the foot gate next to Copped Hall Park’s lodge houses ahead. Just after the gates, by an information board, turn left on a footpath (signed to Lodge Farm) through the rhododendron bushes.
Copped Hall lodge houses
Copped Hall is a ruined 18th century mansion, set in a huge area of parkland now split in two by the M25 orbital motorway. The Georgian mansion, which you will glimpse later, replaced a 16th century house, visited on at least one occasion by Elizabeth I. The house was gutted by fire in 1917, probably caused by discarded cigarettes when the inhabitants gathered on the roof to watch a Zeppelin being destroyed over Grays. Like Epping Forest, the house and park are now in the hands of the Corporation of London, and a trust is slowly rebuilding the Hall.
- Keep to the waymarked path as it swings right through younger woodland towards the M25, then passing through a long tunnel under the motorway.
- At the path junction immediately beyond the M25, keep right, climbing the bank beside
the motorway. Just before a stile turn left on a clear path (there is no waymark at the junction) along the centre of a narrow wooded strip. The path winds along this pleasant strip – full of bluebells in the spring – for about 1km, eventually coming alongside a stream. As you approach a cottage, you get a brief glimpse of the tall chimneys of Copped Hall on the hill to the right. - At a track, turn left (signed to Copthall Green) past pretty Lodge Farm. On reaching a minor road, turn right along it across the wooded common.
- By the first house on the left, cut right through the hedge (marked with a Forest Way
Descending to Cobbin’s Brook
waymark). The right of way officially cuts across the field but it is easier to take the track to the left along the field edge. As you follow the track, a fine panorama of rolling, fertile fields separated by dense hedgerows opens up ahead. Keep to the track as it twists around field edges down into quiet valley of Cobbin’s Brook.
- On reaching the stream, follow track R alongside it. Coming alongside Spratt’s Hedgerow Wood on the right, follow the track left over the stream. Immediately after the bridge, turn left off the main track to follow the faint path along the side of the hedgerow, gently climbing. There are waymarks here, but they are rather hidden in the hedge.
- As you climb, views open up behind you back to Epping Forest and to the tower blocks
Looking back to Epping Forest
of north east London. Pass to the left of a large modern barn and exit, just to the right of a double gate, onto the small road by Parvills Farm. Cross the road and take the footpath opposite (following the Forest Way waymark).
- Still climbing gently, keep beside the left hand hedgerow, again ignoring the course of the right of way shown on the map. At a junction of fields follow the path right to a pylon and from there left, climbing again and now back on the right of way route shown on map.
- Pass through one hedgerow and, as you approach a second, cut left through a gap in the
Epping Long Green
hedge to join a broad grassy path running between the two hedges to your left. Emerge by beautiful group of weatherboarded cottages (at the end of Epping Long Green) into a small field festooned with footpath signs.
- Follow the waymark straight ahead through the hedge, doglegging left then right to follow a small stream gently downhill, emerging onto the vast fields of Nazeingwood Common. Continue beside stream, with views west over the Lee Valley, before turning left over a footbridge.
- At the next hedgerow, turn right on a track (following a Stort Valley Way waymark).
Towards Bumble’s Green
Where the track swings right, follow the Stort Valley Way left over a footbridge and across fields towards the houses ahead at Bumble’s Green.
- Emerge onto a road opposite the 18th century King Harold’s Head pub. Turn left along the pavement through the mainly modern village. At a roundabout, turn left on little Bumbles Green Lane (marked with a byway sign).
- At the end of the houses, continue straight ahead on a climbing track (past a no cars sign). At the top of the hill, pass the Corporation of London sign and swing right, following a bridleway sign. Note the coal tax post in the undergrowth to the left just before the sign.
Above Bumble’s Green
Coal tax posts mark the point at which the historic duty on coal being brought into the City of London became payable to the Corporation. There are around 210 markers – with the cast iron post as seen here being the most common type – placed in an irregular ring between 12 and 18 miles form the centre of the City, even on the most obscure byways (as here!). When first levied in 1666, the duties were meant to support the rebuilding – particularly of St Paul’s Cathedral – after the Great Fire. They were subsequently used for more general infrastructure projects until they were abolished with the formation of the London County Council in 1889.
- Follow this broad path along the hilltop wooded strip – mainly very pleasant, though stretches will be very muddy after rain. You may, particularly as you pass over Galley Hill, disturb the large herd of deer that inhabit these woods.
- You emerge slightly unexpectedly at Aimes Green, a rather isolated collection of
Puck Lane
cottages and light industrial units. Joining a broad track, you turn right, keeping straight ahead at a junction by a modern semi-detached house. Keep to this track – known as Puck Lane – through a barrier and eventually climbing to a low ridge.
- At the top, the clear track ends and you descend on a faint path between hedges to join Chestnut Farm’s track. Turning right here brings you to the busy, narrow B194.
- Cross the road with care and turn left along it. Luckily, after about 50m you can cut right over a small footbridge (footpath sign) on a permissive path which runs behind a cottage and then parallel to the road, descending towards the Lee Valley ahead.
- Just before a row of bungalows, cut left at a signpost back to the road, turning right along the pavement. At the corner ahead, turn right on Stubbins Hall Lane.
- Just past Stubbins Nursery, where the road splits, turn left (signed to the overflow car
Lee Valley
park), entering the Lee Valley Park. Where the road curves right, head left on a path between posts to reach a substantial footbridge over Horsemill Stream. Once across, you are immediately met by a panorama of one of the huge number of reservoirs in the Lee valley, likely to be teeming with bird life.
- Turn left on the tarmac path (signed to Waltham Abbey). The path follows the narrow, meandering strip of land between reservoir and river, with fine views of the wildlife on both.
- On reaching a small car park, pass through it and take the right hand road at the end, leading onto a path which climbs to a high footbridge across the lake. Beyond the bridge, the path wanders through the woods, along the shores of the lake.
- At a junction, keep straight ahead to cross a bridge over the Lee Navigation. Descend right to the towpath and turn right again (signed to Cheshunt and Waltham Abbey).
The Lee here is a canalised river, with navigation possible from the Thames at Bow right up to Hertford, around 10 miles upstream of here. Efforts to improve the navigability of the Lee began as early as the 15th century, with improvements such as locks and cut-offs continuing to be added well into the 19th century. As late as the 1950s, horse-drawn commercial barges were operating right through to Hertford, but since the 1980s there has been little if any commercial traffic.
Lee Navigation
- The Navigation runs alongside a small lake, with a water sports centre and youth hostel on the other side. Where the
Navigation curves slightly to the left, take a path right (signed to Cheshunt), passing through a car park. Keep straight ahead on the road over the Small River Lea and a level crossing. Cheshunt station is on the left immediately after the crossing.
Out of the LOOP 
Fantastic walk, thanks so much.
Hello,
Thank you for this website. It is a wonderful resource. I just wanted to let other walkers know that the path next to the B194 is not easy to reach due to seriously overgrown nettles and brambles blocking the footbridge. Further afield, the bridge across the lake is closed to traffic until the 26th of June 2017. However, a slightly longer path wich leads to the Lee Navigation can easily be taken instead.
Access to the path next to the B194 is more difficult. Footbridge and stiles, both to get in and out of the field have been removed. Access now requires a little scramble across the ditch and climbing the fence. Eminently doable, but a pain, and necessary, as that stretch of road would be treacherous to walk along.
Nice, varied walk. Thanks.
Sadly the footbridge and stiles that were there, but overgrown with brambles when I originally did this walk back in 2014, are now completely removed. I didn’t jump the fence in / out of the field, but jogged the 400m along the road. There is space to stand on the verge when cars are coming, but they’re often travelling fast, so it’s not ideal, but it’s certainly do-able.
Outside of Epping Forest and the Lea Valley Park, I hardly saw anyone other than a couple of dog-walkers and this was a hot Easter Sunday!
I saw a lot more deer this year. I spotted a herd of almost x 20 just north of Cobbins Brook and had a couple more sightings on Galley Hill [where we scared each other, suddenly appearing within a few metres of each other!] and Galley Hill Wood.
Great walk, thank you very much for posting!
We did this walk today – well actually a variation of it in which we cut it shorter in a couple of places, to make sure we finished in daylight.
An interesting and varied walk, thanks for posting, but definitely one for the hardcore mud lovers at this time of year! “Highlights” in this regard were Puck Lane, which was something like I imagine a Tough Mudder would be, and the approach to Parvills Farm, where the farmer is building a drainage ditch which means half a mile of the path (uphill) is now a slog through clayey mud. The hedgerow described in the instructions has also been destroyed.
We also could not see any trace of the path beside the B194. Walking along the road itself is definitely “advanced level” road walking with it being busy and fast, and having blind corners and summits. Sadly I can’t see an alternative on the map without changing the walk significantly.
Did this walk yesterday. Some lovely sections, and great instructions, as ever. Thanks! Didn’t see a soul for large parts of it, and the huge herd of deer was a real sight. Can confirm Simon’s comments re; Puck Lane and Parvill’s farm – I imagine it is dryer now than in Jan but Puck Lane still involved scrambling around some big puddles. The ascent down to the B194 has also become a sort of stream. Not massively treacherous but requires some care. From memory it may be possible to walk up the adjacent field to avoid some of the mud.
Same issue on the B194. In desperation I actually managed to find what might have once been the footpath, down the side of the last row of houses – there is a gap in the hedge which leads out into the field. But you might get an earful from the owner if seen. In any case the exit back onto the road at the end of the permissive path is pretty horrible – bridge has collapsed and covered in brambles, strewn with rubbish. If there is a way of avoiding that its best done – it was rush hour by this point so the road was really dangerous.