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Cheshunt Station to Lee Valley White Water Centre

Difficulty Easy Access

Walking time 49 minutes

Length 3.5km / 2.2mi

Route developer: Dominic Bates

Route checker: Barbara Deason

Start location Cheshunt Station
Route Summary From Cheshunt train station to the Lee Valley White Water Centre, via Seventy Acres Lake, Hooks Marsh and Waltham Town Lock.
*move mouse over graph to see points on route
Getting there

Cheshunt is accessed by national rail services from London Liverpool Street (National Rail services from East Anglia, London Underground Circle, Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City, and Central Lines) and from Tottenham Hale (Victoria Line), and from Cambridge to the north. 

Description

[1] Turn right out of Cheshunt station and walk to the junction with Windmill Lane to the Windmill pub on to your left.  

Outside the Windmill pub (A) is the place to wait for others to arrive before continuing the walk as a group.

Turn right, walk over the railway crossing, and then turn immediately left into the Lee Valley Park car park and go through the metal kissing gate/barrier at the far end and onto the footpath.

[2] Follow the footpath that leads off to the right, which is signed as 'The Waterbird Discovery Trail' and follows a brook on your right.

As you make your way up the path, you'll pass several specially-constructed Crufts-style obstacles to your left for dogs to enjoy scampering around/over/under. To your right, on the other side of the brook, is the YHA London Lee Valley with its six waterside log cabins.

[3] After 500m, you'll reach a junction with the pedestrianised Cadmore Lane. Turn right onto the lane, cross the bridge and continue ahead.

You are now walking along a bank between Cheshunt Lake and North Metropolitan Pit. A look-out point (B) to your left with benches provides a good spot to watch the various waterfowl - including mallards, teal, coots and moorhens - swimming and roosting around the Pit lake.

[4] Keep straight ahead at the bridge, which crosses the Lee Navigation canal. Follow the lane as it winds through green marshes and ponds, and past a private fishery to your right. The route straightens ahead again to cross a terrific and exposed metal-bar footbridge, offering panoramic views of Seventy Acres Lake (C) to your left and Hooks Marsh Lake (D) to your right.

The numbers of geese, ducks, heron and cormorant in the reed beds and marshes surrounding you here is incredible.  This is also one of the best places in Britain to spot the rare and elusive bittern from October to March.

Continue ahead after the bridge until you reach the Hooks Marsh car park.

[5] Keep ahead through the first car park and turn immediately right at the sign for the National Cycle Network 1 to Waltham Abbey. The all-weather track follows a flood relief channel on your left called Horsemill Stream. Keep straight ahead along the bank of the stream.

After 500m, you'll pass the stream's sluice gates (E) on your left, which help maintain a constant water level in the nearby Old River Lea, preventing Waltham Abbey on the opposite side of the stream from flooding. Watch out for herons, cormorants, ducks and even the magnificent crested grebe in the stream's waters as you pass.

Look out on your left for the roofs of the Royal Gunpowder Mills (F) in Waltham Abbey, far off to your left. Gunpowder and explosives were manufactured here for more than 300 years and the site - consisting of 21 buildings among parkland and canal basins - is well worth exploring.

[6] After 200 meters the path forks off to the right (south west). Follow this path as it crosses over Horsemill Stream and continue on it for another 500 meters when the path meets another path. At this point bear right and follow the path as it crosses the bridge.

[7] ?This is the end of the walk. From this point follow 2012 marshall and signs into the venue.

POI information No details available.
Notes No details available.
Acknowledgements No details available.
  • The Windmill Pub, Windmill Lane
    The Windmill Pub, Windmill Lane
    By - Dominic Bates
  • National Cycle Network 1 from Hooks Marsh car park
    National Cycle Network 1 from Hooks Marsh car park
    By - Dominic Bates
  • Entrance to Lee Valley White Water Centre, Station Road. Please note there is no pedestrian entry through this entrance during the Olympic Games
    Entrance to Lee Valley White Water Centre, Station Road. Please note there is no pedestrian entry through this entrance during the Olympic Games
    By - Dominic Bates
  • The modern bridge over Lea Valley Navigation The entrance tor the White Water Centre is up the path to the left just before the bridge
    The modern bridge over Lea Valley Navigation The entrance tor the White Water Centre is up the path to the left just before the bridge
    By - Barbara Deason
  • Bridge over Lea Navigation
    Bridge over Lea Navigation
    By - Dominic Bates
  • The start of the Waterbird Discovery Trail
    The start of the Waterbird Discovery Trail
    By - Dominic Bates
  • Waltham Town Lock
    Waltham Town Lock
    By - Dominic Bates
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