This book scratches the surface of the walking routes in the county. Epping Forest features in only one walk, but there are plenty more paths and tracks to discover. Other areas worth exploring are Thorndon Country Park near Brentwood, Danbury Common and village near Chelmsford, and Dedham Vale along the River Stour on the border with Suffolk.

Colchester’s proud boast is that it is the oldest town in England. The settlement was founded towards the end of the Iron Age, not long before the arrival of the Romans in AD 43. Later the town became Camulodunum, a colonia or centre for retired soldiers, bringing Roman culture to the area. After the death of the Emperor Claudius in AD 54 he was deified and a magnificent temple was built in the town to worship him; its centrepiece was a lifesize bronze statue.

The Roman fort of Caesaromagus was at the confluence of the rivers Can and Chelmer. The settlement’s name became Ceolmaer’s Ford in Saxon times and Celmeresfort in the Domesday Book. By the end of the twelfth century, after the building of a bridge and the granting of a Royal Charter giving permission to hold a market, the town had become Chelmsford. The church of St Mary’s became a cathedral, the second smallest in England. Chelmsford had to wait until the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations of 2012 before it was granted city status.

The complacency of the Roman settlers was shattered in AD 61 when King Prasutagus of the Iceni died and left his widow and their two daughters in the care of the Roman Empire. Historically Rome had little regard for the rights of women; the daughters were raped and Queen Boudicca beaten. Boudicca and the Iceni led a popular revolt against Rome, destroying Colchester and burning the survivors alive in Claudius’s temple. The bronze statue was smashed, but amazingly the severed head was found in 1907 by a boy swimming in the River Alde in Suffolk; it can still be seen in the British Museum. Boudicca and her army went on to destroy London and St Albans before being massacred by a Roman army.

Every village in the county seems to have its own derelict World War II airfield, and the county is also well provided with Local Nature Reserves (LNRs) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). The Essex Wildlife Trust looks after nine visitor centres, two nature parks and eighty-seven local nature reserves.