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Start: Car Park along School Road, Great Totham. Grid ref. TL 857 115. Gravelly verge at the side of School Road (close to its junction with Hall Road) (CM9 8P)
(S/E) Leave the parking area and turn left into Hall Road. Walk to the end of the road to meet Maldon Road (B1022) beside Great Totham Stores and Post Office. Turn right, following the main road passing a playing field and cricket pitch. Where the tarmac path ends carefully cross the road turn right and then almost immediately left at a marked footpath beside The Bull pub (and bus stop).
(1) Go ahead alongside the beer garden and then between garden fences and a hedge. Meeting a field, bear left and then slightly right to follow the grassy path. At the corner of the field, beneath a large oak, turn right to continue along the field edge. At the next field corner by a marker post turn left off the field to follow a wider path past two houses. The path meets a road just after Staplers.
(2) Turn right, heading towards a finger post on the left but do not take this path, continue ahead on Goat Lodge Road, which is normally very quiet. Pass some very desirable cottages on the left and ignore another marked path on the left into trees next to Woodlands.
(3) A few yards past Giffords, opposite the gates and entrance to Little Hill turn right towards Scripps Farm, down a wide, stony, farm track. Here there are good views over the River Blackwater. Pass through (or around) the farm gate, continuing ahead with barns and farm buildings on the left. Where the farm track meets Scripps (farmhouse), bear slightly right to follow the track through (or around) a field gate to continue on another track, gently downhill towards Maldon Road ahead, passing a field gate close to its end.
(4) Cross the road with great care (it can be busy with fast-moving traffic) to a gravelly track on the opposite side turn left and after a short distance turn right into Beckingham Road, which, although generally very quiet, carries golf club traffic. Pass the entrance to Forrester Park then the entrance to J R Bourne Engineering. Go past the entrance to Beckingham Manor, ignoring the marked footpath on the right. Pass the entrance to Fabian's Farm.
(5) Then, directly opposite Paynes Farm, take the marked path beside a five bar gate, soon passing a small orchard on the left (the going here can be muddy at the best of times). Crossing a footbridge, the path follows a field edge with a hedge on the right. At the field corner go ahead through a hedge gap - it can be wet and muddy here - to continue alongside another field. At the corner of this field again keep ahead past a poacher block to meet a country lane.
(6) Turn left on this quiet country lane (Church Road) which becomes a pleasant tunnel of trees before, after half a mile, turning sharp right and meeting Sheepcoates Lane from the right. Turn left, along Park Wood Lane, passing a wall, farm buildings and Voucher's Farmhouse on the left.
(7) At an attractive pond, ignore Office Lane on the left and the public footpath along Moor's Farm Chase to continue ahead on Park Wood Lane.
If you are not visiting The Swan, and see no need to walk to Little Totham and back, turn right here into Moor's Farm Chase and follow the directions from Waypoint 7 below (reduces the distance by roughly 1 mile).
(8) Where the lane turns sharp right, take the marked footpath on the left beside a metal field gate which goes ahead alongside a field, soon joining a stream and trees on the right. Continue on this grassy path with the stream - Penny's Brook - on the right, dog legging right then left, heading towards the houses of Little Totham. Cross a concrete culvert and turn left.
Then after just a few yards cross the ditch (Penny's Brook turned off north just before this) over a grassy culvert on a grassy culvert still heading towards the houses with the ditch on the right. Pass by a power-line pole to the corner of the field. Leave the field on the right via the path with waymarks and railings to reach a road - The Street. Turn left and proceed towards the pub's sign, visible ahead, to reach The Swan.
(9) Leaving the pub, turn right to retrace the route this time going left then right over the two culverts.
(8) At Park Wood Lane turn right, heading back to Moor's Farm Chase opposite the pond.
(7) Turn left (amended route turn right) along this stony chase and on meeting the gates of Moor's Farm turn left on a gravelly track, passing paddocks on the left, and then right through a clearly marked gate to take a path between a wooden fence on the right and ditch on the left. This soon turns sharp right at an earth bank still with the wooden fence on the right and then go through another gate and a pair of wooden gates (normally open) to join a field edge path, passing under high-tension power lines.
At the corner of the field, turn sharp left and right over a footbridge then sharp left to continue on another field edge path with Penny's Brook (again!) on the left. The path curves right and at the corner of the field, close to a shooting hide, continues straight ahead into a path between trees. Sections of the path here can be wet.
(10) The path turns sharp right next to an old shipping container in the hedgerow. The peacocks of Little Totham Hall can often be heard here. Keep straight ahead on the farm track at a marker post and where another farm track joins from the left keep straight ahead on a wide cross-field track passing to the left of a large oak. The track leaves the field to meet a lane and the entrance gates to Sheepcoate's Farm (usually closed).
(11) Go straight across the lane to take the track towards the farm. There are views on the left towards Maldon in the distance. Passing an electricity pylon, at a corrugated Agricon barn, turn left (there is a waymark on the barn) and pass the building on the left. At the end of the building turn right and then go left to take the path between wattle fencing and through the cart lodge.
(12) Turn right in front of the farmhouse to follow the farm drive, passing paddocks on the right. The drive ends at a pair of metal gates. Go through the kissing gate at the side and go virtually directly across the lane to take a clear, marked field edge path, with Great Totham church visible ahead with a hedge and brook on the right.
(13) At the top corner of the field, where it meets a fence and lane, turn left on the lane walking towards St. Peter's Church and the Grade 2 Listed Old Vicarage. At the church, go through the lychgate and at a crossroad of gravelly paths, turn sharp right toward a wooden kissing gate. Go through the gate and keep ahead on the path between fences then passing paddocks. Where a Private Fishing footpath joins from the left, keep ahead past iron railings and the fishermen's car park. Ignore any paths into the scrub on the right staying on the main path. At Radbourne House (No. 11) bear right and go straight ahead along St Peter's Walk. At a T-junction, No. 4 Beadle Place opposite, turn right then at the end of the road bear left to return to the parking space. (S/E)
Walker
Easy 
