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| Ferry landing at Languard Beach |
When I walked around the Naze headland, I climbed the Naze Tower and gazed out across to the distant cranes of Felixstowe Docks. It looked as though the shores of the Stour Estuary, especially the town of Harwich on the South shore in Essex, and the Landguard 'peninsula' on the North shore in Suffolk, might make for an interesting excursion. Hence my outing today, which was more of a potter than a hike. I got the train from Liverpool Street arriving at Harwich Town at about 10:30 (change at Manningtree). Here's a map of my potter.
It was a beautiful 'Indian Summer' day. In order to catch the beach before it was submerged at high tide, I first walked along the promenade to Dovercourt Beach. This is a walk between two pairs of lighthouses, each having a High and a Low lighthouse: by keeping the high and low lights aligned, a ship could steer the navigable channel to the harbour. The channel shifted over time, so the earlier pair nearest the town (built 1818) was mothballed, and replaced by the second pair on Dovercourt Beach (I encountered another such pair of lighthouses on my walk around Spurn Head.)
Dovercourt Bay was a popular resort from Victorian times up until WW2, with a sandy beach and promenade, backed by a grassy slope. I walked back along the Marine Parade road overlooking the grassy slope, with a good view of the old Radar Tower (1941) on Beacon Hill.
From here I walked back through the town to the Ha'penny Pier, from where I got the 12:10 foot ferry for the 15 minute trip across the Stour Estuary to Landguard Point, passing in the shadow of the huge container ships berthed at Felixstowe Docks. I spent two hours on the Peninsula, walking around the Point, and looking around the impressive Landguard Fort, which has evolved from a Tudor gun platform to a Cold War tracking station. I then returned on the ferry back to Harwich, and followed the Harwich Town Maritime Heritage Trail, finishing at the Redoubt Fort, now surrounded by a ring of houses, and sadly not open. (The various historic buildings are staffed by volunteers, with limited opening hours, so best check the web if you particularly want to go inside - summer weekends will be best.)
I walked about 8 miles in all (excluding the ferry journey). (With better planning, I probably could have planned the walk more efficiently.) I got the 16:30 train home. All in all this was a very interesting day out, much more so than one might expect, with loads of history and great views across to massive container ships and ferries making their way up river to the Felixstowe or Parkstone Docks.
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| Harwich Town Station |
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| Treadwheel Crane, used from 1667 to 1927 at the dockyard, moved here in 1932 |
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| Low Lighthouse (1818) |
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| Prom towards Dovercourt |
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| Boy fishing out a covid mask, 2021 Banksy spraycation? Probably not, but protected by perspex just in case |
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