67km Essex Explorer
A real ‘gravel’ road, rather than the usual South-East mud-fests which masquerade as ‘gravel’.
Ride overview
The beauty of the Elizabeth Line is that it takes bikes for free out of London and places you at either end at the start of a some great gravel adventures. This route is a dream of a ride for you ride over and round wide fields of grain, along ancient hedge-lined by-ways. The riding can be testing, but is never less than exciting; in summer there is much ‘true’ gravel interspersed with some lumpy mud-turned-summer-concrete tracks. Along the Mar Dyke especially, you’ll find after prolonged dry weather, cracks in the soil which wait to trap your wheels. So the route requires concentration, good bike handling and an appreciation for the wide open country spaces on London’s eastern boundary. The route is through classic ‘edgelands’ countryside, that liminal hinterland with its mix of warehouses, undisturbed country, motorways and Roman tracks. Ride in heat of summer when the tracks are dry and fast, or in late summer, when there’s plenty of feasting on bullaces and blackberries to be had. In spring the air is scented with cow parsley and alive with the song of reed warblers. Autumn is full of colour and gulls feast behind the ploughing tractors, whereas in winter the paths can be muddy, but compensating there is a peace and emptiness which is very restorative. There’s a joyous section alongside the Thames and during the ride, you pass two historic houses, Ingatestone and Rainham Halls (both of which have splendid cafés) and several Grade 1 listed churches, so if you’re looking for a gentler and more cultural day out, this route has you covered too.
Ride reviewed August 2024 and amended August 2025
Ride practicalities
START/FINISH: Shenfield/Brentwood (both on Elizabeth Line) DISTANCE: 67KM. TOTAL ASCENT: 450m TERRAIN AND SURFACES: gravel/forest trails and some busy-ish minor roads without cycle protection. In winter, or after heavy rain, some sections can be very muddy, in summer the mud becomes lumpy and hard MAINLINE TRAIN SERVICES: Elizabeth Line to Shenfield, C2C from Rainham (48km) to Fenchurch Street, Uxbridge trains to Liverpool Street or District Line into London LINKS TO OTHER RIDES: The Mar Dyke river ride, NCN 13, Bayswater to Purfleet, The Tower to Southend RECOMMENDED FOOD AND DRINK; Ingatestone; Ingatestone Hall Cafe, Rainham; Rainham Hall (NT) The Stables Cafe
Ride Notes
The Elizabeth line, late and over-budget it may have been, has been a blessing for Londoners, especially for those seeking a rapid exit from the heart of the city to the countryside. Take the line to the last stop - Shenfield - where this ride begins.
There’s little reason to linger in Shenfield, so ride through its suburbs and you’re quickly into a countryside of wheatfields and ancient woodlands. Before long you arrive at the gates of Ingatestone Hall, one of the gems of the route. It’s only open on Wednesdays and Sundays. The house has barely been touched in 500 years and is all the better for not being on the ‘Great Houses’ circuit, meaning it is not overcrowded and filled with dubious ‘attractions’. The cafe serves wonderful homemade cakes and lunches if you’re in need of an early re-fuel.
The Ford at Mountnessing
After the Hall, it’s a case of ‘let the gravel begin’. You race/potter depending on mood, beside fields, alongside ancient hedgerows and centuries-old oak trees. At Mountnessing, there’s the first of many beautiful churches and another very imposing hall. Take the bridleway with its very rickety gates and cross the ford - there’s no way around this relatively shallow waterway, so through you go. The gravel road continues to the railway crossing, where the second hazard awaits. To access the railway, you have to endure a Gladiators styled trial of water and very wobbly planks. This is the city’s hinterland and it’s a little rough around the edges, which makes for a much better adventure.
Approach to the railway crossing. It’s often filled with water
At the end of this gravel sector, there’s a dog-leg turn onto the A129 on which you ride for a couple of hundred metres. The turn off down church lane, leads past Hutton Hall and the church, then it’s onto more glorious gravel beside fields and through open country. Blind Lane and Green Lane are both ancient by-ways through the open countryside to Dunton Wayletts. The A127 has managed to cut through the old by-ways and the planners have failed to create linking underpasses, so there is nothing for it other than negotiate a busy roundabout before riding on the pavement for 300m beside the dual carriageway. At a lay-by you join another by-way and ride to West Horndon, a curious linear village in the middle of fields. Quiet (for Essex) Dunning’s lane then takes you across what was once fenland to the Mardyke.
The reed choked, Mar Dyke
The river is in need of a great deal of love, having failed a Department of Environment test due to the wash-off from the industrial fields. That said, nature is not giving up; there are dragonflies to marvel over, various warblers to tune into, luscious greenery to bask in. Depending on the season, there are numerous flowers to add sparkle to the ride. To your left as you ride, there are as many solar panels and pylons as there are stalks of barley. Whilst the birds provide the tune, the base notes come from the distant rumble of traffic grumbling towards the QEII Dartford Crossing. The riding is over lumpy and grassy ground. Whatever the season it is fatiguing and challenging. Muddy in winter, very hard and lumpy in summer, but with such lovely surround to enjoy, you’ll not notice the strain. Hard to believe with the river so choked with weed, that in the 19th century, the Mar Dyke was an important inland waterway connecting the fields of Essex to the Thames. “ Shallow draught Thames barges would travel up the Mardyke and through the fens collecting corn and hay from farmers. The barges, often heavily laden with stacked bales, would be ‘poled’ through this flat landscape to take straw and hay to the large population of working horses in London. On the return trip, the barges would often bring the resultant manure, to fertilise the land.” (Mar Dyke information board).
At Stifford, the track becomes gravelly again and you ride under cliffs formed by the Thames when it wandered over these parts after the melting of the ice, 12,000 years ago. You pedal under various road bridges including the M25, each a cathedral of concrete and steel. Spray painted figures are the new angels.
Then, it’s Purfleet. Noisy riding beside busy roads which feed the Thameside docks. Brambles and buddleia line the traffic-free cycle paths into the town. In distant days, Purfleet doubled up as a gunpowder depository and an isolation unit for smallpox victims. Today, poverty gnaws at the town, so ride on, towards the incomparable Rainham Marshes.
As you ride across the marshes on gravel tracks, you cross into Greater London, but was Essex until 1965. Locals still consider themselves as Essex people. The marshes are the city’s biggest open space - a hazy mix of rustling reeds, jokes, a river, D-Day barges and a diver. It’s internationally famous for its bird-life. The wide river, the huge sky, the distant towers of London are all worth stopping for, as is the newly (2025) Gurkha Memorial.
The Mardyke Way
At Rainham, once an important Thames crossing, you have the opportunity to pause at both the ‘most beautiful Thameside house, Rainham Hall’. A curious epithet for the house is some distance from the river. There is however, a great cafe. A few metres away is Rainham church, one of the oldest in London. It’s nave presses down onto Norman dog-toothed arches. Squat and heavy. Very old. History and a damp-stone smell mingle with the dust motes. Once out of the town, you begin another long stretch of traffic-free riding on NCN 136, which runs beside the river Ingrebourne. Look out for bits of runway, pill boxes, and other quietly wasting remnants of the former base of RAF Hornchurch, one of the foremost airfields in the Battle of Britain. The riding is luxurious; a metalled path weaves between willows and water meadows. It’s a bird rich area and the Essex Wildlife Centre will sell you any number of books to help you identify what you see grazing, swimming, gliding, flying, pecking, and chirping in the reeds.
Upminster has to be negotiated on mainly traffic-free cycle paths before you turn onto Tylers Green - where Wat Tyler assembled his army of Peasants in 1381 before their march on London. A bridlepath takes you over the M25, before more gravel riding on superb trails takes you towards Brentwood. If it’s a Thursday, you may be tempted to stop at the Grade 1 listed Great Warley church, where there is one of the rarest interiors of any church in England. Stop and you’ll see why.
A short pedal takes you to Brentford station, where an Elizabeth line train will whisk you back into town. If there’s a wait, why not make a journey up to Brentwood’s Cathedral, one of the few purpose-built, twentieth century cathedrals in the country.
All the details given on this route are given in good faith. However, situations on the ground can change, so if you know of any access issues, closures, or have any thoughts and feedback on the route, please include them in the comments section below.
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