THE RIVER STORT NAVIAGTION - END TO END - 18 MILES

RIVER STORT NAVIGATION
- END TO END - 18 MILES

- Allow - 7 to 8 hours.

Basic route - Bishop’s Stortford - End of Navigation (Riverside) -
Locks 1 to 15 via Sawbridgeworth, Harlow - Roydon - River Lee
Navigation (Fieldes Weir Lock) - River Lee Navigation - Dobbs Weir
- New River - Hoddesdon.

Maps - O. S. 1:25,000 Explorer Series Nos.,

 - No. 194 - Hertford & Bishop’s Stortford.
- No. 174 - Epping Forest & Lee Valley.

Start - Bishop’s Stortford. - Train or Bus.
 End - Hoddesdon.- Bus.
Aternatives - Rye House & Broxbourne Rail Stations.

Inns - Off the route in Sawbridgeworth, and Harlow. Both Bishop’s
Stortford and Hoddesdon have all facilities.
Fish & Eels, Dobb’s Weir.

'Cafe’s -Bishop’s Stortford and Harlow, off the route.

ABOUT THE WALK - This is one of my favourite long walks following the navigation which also acts as the county boundary of both Essex and Hertfordshire. 1 walk it at least once a year in either direction, to Bishop’s Stortford or to the River Lee and onto Hoddesdon is psychologically easier, as it is all downhill! I walked it again shortly before Christmas in freezing temperatures and mist. I basically saw no one except for one boatman at Roydon lock and helped him to open the lock gates so he could continue. With the short daylight hours, as I left Bishop’s Stortford at 10am., meant I reached the River Lee Navigation in the dark, but as I knew the route
and paths, I pressed on to Hoddesdon and bumped into a bull! All good fun. He shook his head and and continued munching some grass!