Interesting Places
Here are some random sample locations of interest in Essex. Also take a look at sites shown on our sites map, geology site map and brownfield site map, with the site account and locate site facility.
locate East Tilbury Fort and silt lagoons
A complex of habitats around the fort, including old silt lagoons.
locate Hatfield Forest
The Last Forest (Oliver Rackham, 1989), with all the elements of a medieval Forest, an early acquisition by the National Trust.
locate Thorndon Country Park
A country park important for wildlife. It is managed by Essex. It is usually thought of in two parts: northern part has car parks, visitor centre (run by EWT), and is mainly wooded; southern part has one parking area and is more open with grassland slopes and a large lake, with woodland to the north. The two parts are linked by footpaths that run through restored farmland.
locate Wanstead Flats
An area with acid grassland amd relic heather in the southern part of Epping Forest, which remains an important site in London and south-west Essex.
locate Chafford Gorges Nature Park
Chafford Gorges Nature Park is situated in Chafford Hundred in Essex. The area was formerly chalk quarries but now is an excellent site for wildlife.
locate East Tilbury Silt Lagoons
Silt lagoons dating from the late 1970s/early 1980s (still too wet to walk on in 1985), now mostly dry sandy and gravelly grassland with areas of lichen heath and a certain amount of scrub invasion, adjacent to saltmarsh by River Thames.
locate Layer Wood
A mainly deciduous wood consisting of Birch, Beech, Hornbeam, Oak, Aspen and a few Sweet Chestnut, Larch and pine's.
locate Broom Hill, West Tilbury
Shallow sand/gravel pit at top into Thames Terrace and unimproved grassland scarp grazed by horses and rabbits