This is Walton-on-the-Naze's second pier; the first, built in 1830 for £1,000, was 300 feet (91 metres) long and used by London-to-Ipswich steam packet boats until it was washed away in an 1880 storm. The current pier was built in the 1870s and extended in 1898 to 2,610 feet (796 metres) — the second longest in the country — and provided with three steamer berths.
Beyond the pier, the route climbs gently alongside the shore to give good views out to sea. Ahead of you is the Naze and a tall, octagonal brick construction: the Naze Tower, built in 1720 on the highest point of the headland by Trinity House as a landmark for shipping.
In the 19th century, the Naze Tower was used by the Coastguard and the Navy as a semaphore signalling station to ships on manoeuvres, and during World War II the RAF fitted a radar scanner on top of it.
From the Naze Tower, you follow the edge of a crumbling cliff. On the beach below are two concrete pillboxes — World War II defences built well back on the cliffs that today provide alarming evidence of the rate of erosion on the Naze (whose name is a variant of "ness").
As the cliffs peel away, an abundance of fossils is revealed. In an area of cliff near the tower known as Red Crag, 148 different species of fossilised molluscs have been found, the most common being a whelk identical to the modern form except that the shell is coiled the opposite way (prospecting palaeontologists are a common sight on the beach).
As you walk the springy turf of the cliff top, you skirt a thicket of elder trees and vivid yellow gorse. A variety of butterflies — including red admirals, Essex skippers, common blues, painted ladies, meadow browns, and peacocks — float by on the sea breezes, and on a clear day there are views up the coast as far as Harwich and Felixstowe.
The route slopes gently down to a beach that merits close inspection: Neolithic tools and pots are washed up here with a regularity pointing to factory-like production. A 4,000-year-old body was found in a pit nearby with its stomach contents so well preserved that orache seeds, blackberries, and rosehips could be distinguished, though the Beaker folk settlement has long since been given up to the waves.
You follow a sea wall past a fenced-off section of the John Weston Nature Reserve (named after a leading Essex naturalist), which covers nine acres and is run by the Essex Wildlife Trust.
The marshes and beaches to the right are also fenced off during the breeding season of the ringed plover, oystercatcher, and little tern. The terns, which winter in Africa, have been in decline on Britain's coasts due to the intrusion of holidaymakers, and Natural England is currently making every effort to rectify this.
The sea wall bends round the headland back towards Walton-on-the-Naze. On your right is the marshy estuary of Walton Channel with boats bobbing at their moorings, while on your left is a pleasant bucolic landscape.
Ahead in the distance, the flat round bulk of a Martello tower is just discernible. Built against the threat of a Napoleonic invasion and assigned letters (the original two at Walton were 'J' and 'K'), each contained a 24-pounder cannon and a howitzer aligned in overlapping arcs of fire. Tower 'J' was sold in 1836 for its bricks (used to construct cottages in the town), while 'K' was used for many years by the Coast Guard.
The path reaches Foundry Dock. In the 19th century, the foundry employed 300 men, and barges transported pumping machinery, steam engines, turbines, and equipment for rubber plantations before closing in 1921.
As you head away from the water along a hedgerow path, you pass a pond used for releasing rescued wildfowl back into the wild. After a short stretch of road, you turn down an alleyway to return to the seafront by the Old Lifeboat House, open in season with an exhibition of lifeboats and coastguards.
Beyond Walton Station is Frinton-on-Sea, an altogether more genteel, sophisticated resort with huge Victorian and Edwardian villas. The sea wall and promenade were created in 1903 with 32 breakwaters to trap the beach and sun and temper the ozone-rich breeze.
A stroll along the Greensward leads to old St Mary's Church. Church records go back to 1129, and parts of the nave are Norman in origin; after storms severely reduced the useful part of the church in 1703, it claimed for a while to be the smallest church in the world (it is still the smallest in Essex). From here, you amble up Main Street to Frinton-on-Sea railway station and catch a train back to the start at Walton-on-the-Naze railway station.
