Here's an Essex jewel - not quite inland, not quite on the coast, but very much water-focused. Wivenhoe clings to the Colne, the river that Colchester's named after, but three miles downstream where the river widens to an estuary. It's historic and twisty near the waterfront and more of a dormitory further back, with a cultural gravity all of its own. A clickbait portal might describe it as "The pretty commuter town on a river just 75 minutes from London that's you've almost certainly never heard of and homes are so much cheaper", indeed MyLondon did just that, but Wivenhoe deserves much better. [20 photos]
Let's start by the river and work back. What kind of Wivenhoe you get to experience depends very much on what the tide's doing. I arrived midway and the river was broad but shallow with squidgy mud rising up to the banks. Closer to high tide the channel was brim full and abuzz with boats with even some of the grass overtopped. What I never saw was low tide when the Colne retreats to a shrunken ribbon and everything's ends up beached, which I assume is when everyone of a maritime bent heads off down the pub. Wivenhoe has a lot of pubs for a population of 7500, most prominently the Rose and Crown whose tables sprawl out onto the quayside and are a convivial place to wait for the ferry. Sunday roasts for dogs are a speciality. Nearby is The Black Buoy, a former smugglers haunt which used to be The Black Boy until a very forward-looking change of name in 1912. It's now painted pastel blue and has red and green lamps out front, but looked more like somewhere locals gather than that an all-out customer magnet.
For historical background best explore the Nottage Institute, which used to be where sailors were trained in the intricacies of estuarine navigation, hence its location at a particularly good vantagepoint along the river. The reflective stuff is upstairs, including a grand selection of half-models, all the gossip on the secret submarine and a lot of glass cases where you should not put Hot, Hard or Scratchy objects. Downstairs is darker but more uplifting because it contains a number of upturned wooden hulls in various states of completion which are being constructed by townsfolk in their spare time. Wivenhoe was once a thriving port because seagoing vessels couldn't get upriver to Colchester, I learned, but the last dockyard closed in the 1980s and now all the messing about on the water is generally for fun.
TheQuay is lined with higgledy weatherboarded cottages where fisherfolk, dockers and shipwrights might have lived, some with their own moorings. But walk a bit further (in either direction) and the properties become more symmetrical and more balconied, these the waterside apartments and executive townhouses built across the footprints of the former dockyards. To give the architects their due they've created a sympathetic silhouette when viewed from the river, but a truly authentic skyline would incorporate multiple masts and cranes, all of which have since been economically sanitised. In 2011 a broad decked jetty was added off Pearl Walk, this the sole opportunity to step offshore without a boat, and was perhaps designed to be just long enough that the parish church comes into view from the very tip.
Keep walking seaward and you reach the Colne Barrier, a brutalist structure protecting Wivenhoe and Colchester whose gap has had to be filled 16 times since the start of the year, just in case. Beyond that is the clubhouse for Wivenhoe Sailing Club, the chief hub for waterborne activity hereabouts. I watched members haul sailing dinghies down the slipway as water levels permitted and puff by in canoes and rowing boats designed for collegiate exercise, getting the unmistakeable feeling that here in Wivenhoe watersports are for everyone not just the privileged few. And beyond that Essex suburbia stops dead and the marshes open out alongside a raised path heading downstream between grazing land and the estuary. I suspect it's a lot more direct to sail to Brightlingsea than to walk there following creeky inlets but I didn't have time to check.
Back in the centre of Wivenhoe, the dense web of lanes that spreads back from The Quay is properly characterful. You can tell that it evolved rather than being planned and that motor vehicles had nothing to do with it, so narrow and twisty are the streets. Rose Lane is perhaps the most famous because Miss Marple actress Joan Hickson lived in the top cottage for 40 years, right opposite a particularly impressive house with Jacobean pargetting. St Mary's church is much older, indeed it's said to be built on Roman foundations, although it only opens to visitors on Thursday afternoons so I had to pass on the interior. The land is slightly raised here, indeed the 'hoe' in Wivenhoe originally meant a promontory or spur, so there's no danger of the oldest buildings being flooded if the barrier fails.
The High Street climbs from picture postcard to bog standard, and at its lower end includes an impressive range of eateries and other independent stores including a deli, a record shop and two bookshops, as befits a cultured commuter hub. Not many towns of this size can support open air Shakespeare, a comedy night, a net zero meeting and "gospel music with a distinctly Jewish flavour", and that's all in the next week. But keep walking past the railway and the council offices and things get much more ordinarily residential, even quite bungalowy, which is far less worthy of a wander. How strange then to find the town's museum in a tiny chapel in the middle of a peripheral cemetery where no visitor would ever stumble upon it, and closed by the time I got there, indeed the one thing Wivenhoe is never going to win a prize for is tourist information. And I suspect its residents prefer it that way.
Estuary Essex - Rowhedge
Across the river but half a mile upstream is the village of Rowhedge, another former dockside outpost. The Colne's lowest bridging point is an hour's walk away so your only reasonable chance of getting there from Wivenhoe is an annoying drive or via the foot ferry... which only runs in summer, only runs at weekends and only runs at high tide, so probably isn't running. I timed my visit carefully so it was. For my £1.50 I got to ride solo and watch the waterfront go by, first on one side and then the other, in a craft adeptly captained by an expert showing a newbie the ropes. The highlight of the crossing was passing a trio of paddleboarders, one with a carefully balanced dog, while a group of gentlemen in stripy shirts sang a sea shanty on the decking behind. Economists amongst you will be relieved to hear that the ferry was a lot busier in the opposite direction.
Rowhedge's high street runs parallel to the shore rather than perpendicular, and still has hints that it used to be much busier. The church is topped by an unusual low spike rather than a full-on spire. Pubs comfortably outnumber shops. Community events are commonplace, from the aforementioned shanty festival to this week's village lunch to next weekend's regatta. Someone's painted The Beatles' yellow submarine on the wall of an otherwise-pink cottage and it looks fabulous. A metal observation tower proves that in flat country you can get brilliantviews by climbing just 20 steps. And once again the former docks have been replaced by commuter boltholes, New England style, beyond which a footpath spins off to somewhere I've always wanted to go.
Estuary Essex - Fingringhoe
The village of Fingringhoe isn't so dubiously named if you note it sits on a low hill and remember that 'hoe' still means spur or promontory. To reach it I followed the creekside path along the Roman River, giving thanks that the ground was cracked and dry and not the mudbath all the evidence suggested it often is. The 'John Brunning Walk' crosses the river at the 16th century timber-framed Tide Mill, sympathetically converted to housing 25 years ago because it was doing nobody any favours clad in corrugated iron and asbestos. St Andrew's church takes pride of place at the summit, another ecclesiastical treasure with a 12th century nave and flint-banded 14th century tower, but alas only open on the 1st and 4th weekends of the month because you can only synchronise so much on a single trip.
The local pub is The Whalebone and looks perfectly rustic until you spot the actual whalebone - I think a slice of spine - attached to the innsign. Other than that there's not much to do here other than admire the lilies in the village pond, hike an extra mile to the nature reserve or go round trying to take photos of signs with Fingringhoe on because you're childish like that. I did once go out of my way to visit Wetwang, this at least 30 years before most newspaper editors woke up to the popularity of geographically spicy clickbait, so I claim past form there. But you really don't need to walk this far, and if you do then make sure the ferry is still running else the joke may well fall flat.
n.b. Greater Anglia are currently offering £15 off-peak returns to Wivenhoe (and cheap fares to other stations across their network) if purchased this week and used before the start of August.
