This circular trail is all on public footpaths. It is not necessary
to leave the footpaths.
Start by picking up the co-ordinates for cache A from the Church
Micro GC1KFNC. Follow the footpath from the church.
Cache A - The Woods: You are looking for a small camoflaged
cache box in a beautiful woody setting, this will also contain the
co-ordinates for Cache B.
Cache B - The Wilderness: Here you will find a magnetic micro
containing the co-ordinates for the final cache.
Final Cache - The Old: The final cache is in an area of ancient
history. Here had stood the Old Church of St Michael close to the
Hall. Sadly the manor house no longer stands but in its time it was
a grand building surrounded by a deer park.
In the middle of the 16th Century the church had become ruined
and in an inconvenient location to the parishioners. It was pulled
down and replaced by the one you have seen today.
The old church is thought to have been West of the Hall inside
the Moat. The Hall or Manor House was, for several hundred years,
the seat of the powerful noble family of Fitzwalter from whom the
parish takes the latter part of its name.
At the death of Henry 8th there was much intrigue. The
Fitzwalter family were loyal to Mary Tudor. During this period Mary
was under house arrest at New Hall, Chelmsford but whilst New Hall
was being redecorated she was moved to The Manor for some time.
Plans were hatched to use the Manor as a staging post in an
escape to Holland via a small boat berthed at Maldon which would
take Mary to Harwich where a ship waited.
Although Mary packed her belongings into hop bags ready for the
grain boat she never left - leaving would give up the right to the
throne!
Upon the death of her brother Edward, Mary succeeded the throne
and the Fitzwalter family received favoured treatment from the
Queen. Ever pragmatic, the family became a supporter of Queen
Elizabeth after the demise of Mary and the family fortunes
continued to rise and they lived by then in New Hall.
By 1700, the manor house was in such poor repair that it
collapsed. The manorship of Woodham Walter continued to exist
although the main building was Warren House. After the excitement
of the Fitzwalter's life at Woodham Walter, the area returned to
that of a rural village with the majority of the villagers working
on the land.
Once you have found the cache please stay with the footpath
which will bring you out to the road a couple of hundred yards from
where you started. There is no pavement on the first short stretch
of road so please take care.
The other building in the village built in the 1600's and
playing an important part in village life even today is The Bell
Public House. Well worth a stop just a few yards from the 'new'
church.