Purfleet Archives - Remote London https://www.remotelondon.com/tag/purfleet/ Wild spaces & solitude on the edges of London Tue, 03 Oct 2023 17:40:21 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.1 https://www.remotelondon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Greater-London-outline-favicon.png Purfleet Archives - Remote London https://www.remotelondon.com/tag/purfleet/ 32 32 179982959 Walking the Mardyke and the lost fens of Essex https://www.remotelondon.com/walking-the-mardyke-and-lost-fens-of-essex/ Mon, 13 Sep 2021 14:10:35 +0000 https://www.remotelondon.com/?p=7623 The Mardyke is a small tributary of the Thames, draining the lowlands of southern Brentwood & Thurrock before joining the river at Purfleet.

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The Mardyke is a small tributary of the Thames, draining the lowlands of southern Brentwood and Thurrock before joining the river at Purfleet. An enigmatic watercourse, I’ve only previously seen it at Purfleet, and from snatched glimpses while driving across the M25 / A13 interchange, my eye drawn to the floodplains below.

Purfleet

At the mouth of the Mardyke, a small, abandoned harbour leads to a set of sluice gates, which prevent the tides from pushing upstream. There has been a sluice here since at least 1760, to facilitate the draining and reclamation of the inland fens. Previously navigable, the Mardyke is now sealed to traffic. 

The Mardyke meets the Thames
Mardyke sluice

A footpath follows the canalised Mardyke inland, as far as a recreation and play area. A footbridge across the river still carries narrow tramway tracks, a remnant of Purfleet’s military history. The tramline ran from a large cordite magazine to the wharf and a lost pier. The echo of the storage magazine can still be seen when walking around Rainham Marshes nature reserve, where its earthen blast walls still stand.

Military tramline over Mardyke footbridge

Beyond the park, a quick detour to a trio of bridges gives a last glimpse of the Mardyke, before it heads into inaccessible territory. Note the WD logo on the older bridge, the letters separated by a stylised arrow. The WD stands for War Department, a government department with a long history in Purfleet, even if little now remains.

Blue War Department bridge in Purlfeet
Pipe over Mardyke

Tank Hill Road leads south, to Tank Lane, a narrow path which traces the high cliff top of an old chalk quarry. The gouged hillside now shelters a large housing development. Truck depots then lead to Botany Way, and the welcoming delights of Purfleet’s Arterial Road. A large ‘gentlemen’s club’ stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Purfleet Car Wash.

Watt’s Wood

The road traces Watt’s Wood, the slopes littered with dumped mattresses, children’s toys and even a mobility scooter. The vibe isn’t great, but it’s the way to the river. Eventually, a footpath takes us into the woods. Lined on one side by tall, dark conifers, the littered path seems foreboding, yet it’s also well-trodden.

We leave the woods, and the path branches in three directions. Ignore the open, beckoning fields and pylons and push north along a narrow, overgrown path, towards the river.

A path goes under a pylon towards fields
Not this way
An open gate leads to a field with another pylon in it
Or this way
a path disappears into trees and bushes
But this way, through the bushes and towards the river.

On reaching the Mardyke the path opens up. As I arrived, a marsh harrier rose and wheeled away on strong, lazy wingbeats. Across the river, ponies grazed on rough pasture and grey smoke rose from a fire beside a Traveller site.

The river here is verdant, slow and clear. At Ship Lane, the path joins the road, and one has to walk a little way north to join the Mardyke Way, opposite the lane which leads to the Traveller site.

The Mardyke near Ship Lane

Floodplains and motorways

Along the next stretch, views of the Mardyke are largely lost, the river guarded by marsh and wet grazing land, hidden within its own, wide floodplain. In the background, the M25 sweeps towards its interchange with the A13, flanked by two slip roads.

The river near Ship Lane
The M25 crossing the Mardyke Valley

The path takes us under the rumbling traffic, held overhead on pillars of steel and concrete.

Mardyke Way and the M25
below m25 slip road
M25 slip road over Mardyke Valley

The bridleway continues with rising woodland on one side, floodplain on the other, then passes under the A13. At Low Well Wood, a path leads up to and along one of the slip roads, but the landscape beyond is sadly off-limits. I could see two men fishing in a lake, so there must be a way in, somewhere.

Low Well Wood slopes down to the Mardyke, criss-crossed by myriad, well-worn paths. In late summer, the woodland was empty and silent, but seems well used, a place I’d have loved as a child.

Below the A13
Vandalised information marker at Low Well Wood

Stifford Viaduct

Returning to the path, and approaching Stifford Viaduct, I found the track becoming more popular. This low but imposing viaduct opened in 1892 and makes a good place to stop. A footbridge, adorned with an eye-catching fish emblem, leads to Davy Down meadows, and there is finally a small riverside spot to rest beside the water. Along this walk I found access to the water difficult, with the riverbanks thickly vegetated. 

Fish bridge over the Mardyke
Stifford Viaduct

A nearby information board claims the Mardyke has been running on its current course for over 30 million years, a far-fetched claim for what is essentially a large drainage ditch. I’ve also read claims that the Mardyke once joined with Kent’s River Darent as one river, now cut in two by the River Thames, shifted in its own bed by glacial ice sheets.

Leaving the viaduct, a good footpath leads along the southern edge of the river, with a cycle path on the north side. 

A pipe crosses the Mardyke

The paths reunite and lead to a small roundabout, which one has to cross to take the path back down to the river.

The dyke stretches ahead like an old, disused canal, choked with sediment and growth, but rich in nature and lined by floodplain meadows. I suspect this landscape changes dramatically during winter flood.

A long, straight stretch of the Mardyke

A narrow bridge crosses the river, carrying a footpath which crosses the bridleway we’re following. We pass stables and then under Mederbridge Road, the Mardyke’s course shifting towards the north.

Footbridge over Mardyke

The lost fens

On maps, the river’s course now flows through landscapes described as fens, but in truth, the fens were drained and lost long ago. The river flows past endless acres of intensive arable farming, a desolate, scalped landscape of harvested wheat. At some stage, even the trees along this side of the Mardyke have been removed, although there is now some recovery.

The river enters arable farmland

“Until the late 19th century the Mardyke and its tributaries were wider than today and often navigable by boat. 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.”

Land of the Fanns signage for the Mardyke Way

The river itself remains verdant, but there is a hard boundary between the channel and the heavily worked fields. With little shade next to the river, I walked out across the fields to sit beneath a single, stunted oak, a sole survivor of an ancient hedgerow.

Oak tree surrounded by wheat stubble

Lower Thames Crossing

Moving on, at Orsett Fen, it seems even the fields of wheat may soon be lost. Carefully excavated pits have been sliced through the recently harvested land, preliminary work for the construction of the Lower Thames Crossing. If it goes ahead, this controversial, six lane trunk road will curve across the landscape, meeting with the M25 at North Ockendon.

Lower Thames Crossing excavations at Orsett Fen

As we walk on, the river is now little more than a reed-choked drainage ditch, a narrow ribbon of green, cutting through the dry, empty fields. However, even this slim slice of water attracts birdlife and dragonflies dance in the warm air. 

Mardyke approaching Bulphan

After another footbridge, the channel splits, and the path turns east, towards a blocky, grey and white building. The path splits, both tracks following thin watercourses. The true path is the one to the left, heading towards a brick bridge, where another interpretation panel marks the ‘start’ of the Mardyke Way.

The start of the Mardyke Way

Detox centres and lost paths

Nearby, the Glass House Retreat is protected behind high, grey walls, a ‘detox and wellness’ centre which seems out of place in this old, low-lying landscape. A footpath continues behind the centre, but I found the way unclear. A wooden footbridge leads to a path, but the route was soon engulfed in thick nettles. A nearby gate also promised a path, but paddocks of electric fencing suggested no clear route.

With the path lost, I walked east along Fen Lane to pick up my next footpath. The lane makes for uneasy walking, the rough grass verges forcing one to tread the road, stepping up and aside when vehicles approach.

My destination was the railway station at West Horndon. The first footpath north was completely blocked by a field of weed-choked corn, but a more direct route can be found at Church Lane. Where the lane succumbs to rough track, footpath 142 heads west, then north towards the station, following yet another ditch.

On some maps this channel is marked as the Mardyke, but by now the river has split into many tributaries, and this watercourse was little more than a steep-sided trench.

A narrow ditch between fields
Mardyke headwaters

Private lanes and friendly farmers

On reaching a private lane, I found the way ahead erased. A tractor was working this final field, tilling and turning the soil as the light faded. Walking across the broken stubble didn’t appeal, but the farmer took the trouble of stopping his work to ask if I was looking for the footpath. Having just ploughed it up, he said I was welcome to walk the verges of the field, if I didn’t mind the longer route.

Having made my way around the field, I almost missed the narrow stile leading up to St Marys Lane. This is another fast, narrow road, making for a dangerous but quick walk to West Horndon railway station.

As dusk fell across the empty, London-bound platform, a swaying, surly drunk entered the station and began muttering dire but mostly incomprehensible threats from across the dark tracks. He seemed very close to violence, but I figured he was too pissed to cross the footbridge and happily ignored him.

Waiting for the train, I could still hear and see the tractor working the dark field, the comforting lights visible through a broken treeline. A good ending to a long walk.

West Horndon railway station

More information

Rough length of walk: 19km or 12 miles. 

Oyster cards can be used at Purfleet, but not at West Horndon railway station.

Thurrock and Mardyke history: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol8/pp57-74

The Mardyke and Thames barges: http://www.thurrock-history.org.uk/bargesto.htm  

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]]> 7623 Purfleet to Grays, exploring the Thames Path https://www.remotelondon.com/purfleet-to-greys-exploring-the-thames-path/ Wed, 19 Feb 2020 22:22:40 +0000 http://www.remotelondon.com/?p=530 Walking the Thames path from Purfleet to Grays and exploring this wild & ragged edge of London. Nature flourishes along this…

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Walking the Thames path from Purfleet to Grays and exploring this wild & ragged edge of London. Nature flourishes along this riverside corridor, alongside colourful aerosol art, derelict jetties and heavy industry.

Purfleet

Purfleet feels like an end-of-the-line station. The nearby newsagent’s shop and the Tandoori restaurant are boarded shut, as is much of the short terrace that faces the station car park.

The Thames footpath has meandered inland here, skirting an old wharf site, and now dips back towards the river. A tilting signpost points the way past a burnt-out house, shielded by wire mesh fencing and a sign warning of security dogs.

When I visited someone was still holding on here, a few bicycles outside a front door bringing a warm touch of family life. The footpath skirts the battered terrace and heads left towards the river. The path squeezes through an overgrown fence line before opening onto a wide expanse of brownfield, thickly carpeted with small, yellow flowers. (Update: the terrace has now been demolished)

 

Derelict terrace at start of walk in Purfleet

The footpath cuts diagonally across this patch, tracking the ghost of a railway line towards a disused pier. This shoreline saw rapid industrial expansion from the late 19th century onward, the busy wharves served by rail lines which cut across the drained marshes.

The Anglo American Oil Company at Purfleet

Heading downstream, the next pier serves a small, active oil depot. This dates back to 1888, when it was owned by the Anglo American Oil Company. This was the company’s first depot, storing paraffin shipped from New York for use in lamps throughout England. The Anglo American Oil Company eventually became Esso, then ExxonMobil. It all started here! (1)

Thames Path at Purfleet looking west
Thames Path at Purfleet looking west

Every 100 metres or so, steel ladders provide access over the wall and to the river beyond. It’s generally safe to walk on either side, although in places one side may be barred by security fencing or vegetation.

Wildlife and spray art

Nature is happily reclaiming much of this narrow, riverside corridor. On a warm August afternoon the wildflowers were still in bloom, with swathes of wild carrot punctuated by spikes of teasel and yellowing stalks of fennel. The first blackberries were ripening on the brambles and occasional blackthorn bushes bore heavy offerings of sloes.

In many places the high concrete river wall is a rolling canvas of spray paint art. The graffiti is colourful and cheerful; cartoon characters and complex tags. Where salt wind and sun have peeled the paint, it lies in drifts of multi-coloured flakes along the edges of the path.

Graffiti along the Thames Path at Purfeet
Graffiti along the Thames Path at Purfeet

The Dartford Bridge and Tunnels

The route passes under the Dartford Bridge, the heavy thump of traffic audible from below. The neighbouring piers and jetties are echoes of the mineral railways which once ran here, arteries joining the Thames to the inland Thurrock Chalk Works. The chalk industry is long gone and the rail lines have been replaced by cement and aggregate works.

Thames Path passes below Dartford Bridge near Purfleet
Thames Path passes below Dartford Bridge near Purfleet

A white, cone-like structure is a ventilation shaft for the eastern section of the Dartford Tunnel, which runs roughly 80 feet below.

Dartford Bridge ventilation shaft from Thames Path
Dartford Bridge ventilation shaft from Thames Path

Stone Ness and WWII pillboxes

Beyond a series of oil depots the river path skirts what is left of the West Thurrock Marshes. The river curves sharply around Stone Ness, where a metal framed lighthouse (established 1885) guides night-time river traffic. Two WWII pillboxes gaze out at the river here, one on either side of the Ness.

WWII pillbox on Thames Path near Purfleet
WWII pillbox on Thames Path near Purfleet
WWII pillbox overlooking the Thames near Stone Ness
WWII pillbox overlooking the Thames near Stone Ness

A low, graffitied square of concrete above a drainage sluice roughly marks the route of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, as it tunnels below the Thames.

The massive pylon which rises ahead carries power lines to a similar pylon on the south bank at Swanscombe. With a height of 190 metres these are believed to be the tallest electricity pylons in the UK.

The jetty here, with its distinctive bulk uploader, was built to serve West Thurrock Power Station. Built between 1957 and 1965 on unspoilt marshland, the station was decommissioned in 1993 and had been completely demolished by 1999. The jetty now serves a chemical works supporting the nearby Procter & Gamble works.

Chemical works jetty Thames Path
Thames Path and bulk uploader in distance

West Thurrock Marshes

Pulverised Fuel Ash from the station had been stored in lagoons on West Thurrock Marshes and this, surprisingly, led to their survival as a wildlife habitat. As the ponds dried up, the grey sandy ash was colonised by a wide range of species, including many of the rare and endangered species which live locally.

The conservation charity Buglife fought a long, hard and eventually successful battle to save the marshes, which are now protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and are home to more than 1,300 different species of invertebrates, bird and reptiles.

St Clement’s Church

Before passing the astonishing Procter & Gamble factory it is worth a short detour inland to check out St Clement’s Church. This pretty church dates back (in places) to the early thirteenth century, and makes an incongruous neighbour to the huge chemical factory which towers over it. If you watched the film Four Weddings and a Funeral you may remember this church from the funeral scenes. The church owes its survival to Procter & Gamble, the company funding the church’s renovation in the late 80s.

Grays and the Tilbury Grain Terminal

As the river path enters Grays, modern housing replaces the cement and engineering works which once lined the river. The Wharf pub dates back to at least 1780, when it was known as the Sailor’s Return.

The decaying wooden wreck next to Thurrock Yacht Club is The Gull, a lightship built in 1860. The ship’s mast and lantern were saved and still stand in the club, but the boat was lost to decay, vandalism and arson.

The river path finishes next to the Riverside Park, but it is possible, with care, to follow the river wall down towards the towering silos of Tilbury Grain Terminal. The path is very overgrown and the shore becomes very muddy, before a security fence bars progress.

Grays railway station is only a short walk away and will whisk you back to Purfleet in just five minutes, a quick finish to a long walk.

Sunset over the River Thames at Grays
Sunset over the River Thames at Grays
  1. https://www.exxonmobil.co.uk/en-gb/company/about-us/uk-history/esso

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