Hi there, welcome to my blog! Today I cycled the Flitch Way, a former railway line that is now a beautiful country park in Essex. If you love nature, history and cycling, this is the place for you!
The Flitch Way runs for 15 miles from Braintree to Bishop’s Stortford, following the track of the old railway that was decommissioned in 1972. Along the way, you can see some of the original Victorian bridges and stations, as well as enjoy the wildlife and scenery of rural Essex. One of the highlights is Rayne Station, which has been converted into a café and visitor centre where you can learn more about the history of the line and the Flitch Way Country Park.
But what does “flitch” mean, you may ask? Well, it’s an old word for a side of bacon, and it’s related to a curious tradition that originated in nearby Little Dunmow. The Dunmow Flitch Trials are held every four years, and they involve a married couple who have to prove that they have been faithful and loving to each other for a year and a day. If they succeed, they are awarded a flitch of bacon as a prize. How cool is that?
The Flitch Way is a great place to go for a walk, a bike ride or a horse ride. It’s part of the National Cycle Network Route 16, so you can easily connect it with other routes in the area. It’s also flat and well-surfaced, so it’s suitable for all ages and abilities.
today I’m cycling the flit way a 15m country Park that follows the route of an old wway line from brain tree to Bishop stford it is a popular Scenic destination for cyclists of all levels as it offers a traffic free flat and well surfaced path through the countryside you can enjoy the wildlife history and views along the way so that sign behind me there is actually very significant to today’s ride so I’m going to ride the flit way um got a circular route to get to the other side to start the ride um I did try to do this ride um back in I think it was February and for some reason I went to the completely wrong starting place or what I thought was a side space which is completely wrong cycled Which Way ended up here only to realize I was 2 hours away from where my car was anyway that is a whole other story so here we go time to get on the flit way today and let’s [Music] go so left the flit way behind uh doing a nice circular route going to well the start of my ride anyway my start of my FL way um could be the end could be the start who knows but anyway going to one in now hopefully down look quite like this uh it is very windy there few B here um but yeah coming back wind be behind me and also it’s also quite shelter as as well so looking forward to this TR a lot okay let’s go and it’s a good job I brought my C bike TR away we go to a little bit of an Offroad section oh have fun interesting uh it’s quite fortuitous that the route does go across a wheat field ready for Harvest because today is lunasa the traditional celebrate of grain Harvest so there we go so this is a public footpath but uh pretty much not um turned it to so I think I’m going to take a sa option and do a biker hike along it oh well think it’s going to take me a little bit longer than what I thought it would right just had to back trck quite a bit because I thought my got it went straight on but it doesn’t it goes down here so okay let’s get going again but on a positive note this at least looks to be well ridable for the last 0.4 miles I’ve about to go well goodness knows where I go now this is just yet another adventure so where do I Mar that was the way I came my route wanted me to go right which I did but that was blocked um the only route other that way was back the way I came so I guess we just try and go left and head off down here and see where we come out to oh well it’s all fun of the ride at least this one’s not too bad another good reason why to check your rout in detail before you go on it don’t rely on descriptions cuz I just did not realize that this was basically a Riv ride oh well let’s get going again right let’s get heading off down here and try and make some time up so hopefully um we’re back on Country Lan again uh gin sort of says this goes on for three mils in back onto normal road so yeah this is Adventure I didn’t know I was going to have but I W up for it now okay let’s [Music] go okay so finally I’m at the flitch way which you can see is part of the national cycle Route 16 and this used to be the S um quite obviously no no longer in use now I need to go that way but I’m going to explore more this way to see if I can get to find out where the flitch way actually starts so I can truly cycle end to end um way so far way behind time it it just doesn’t matter anymore so yeah let’s let’s be out for the journey and new adventure okay let’s go on with it right well I don’t think I can get any further down there so let’s now head back and do the flit way end to end [Music] okay so here’s the map we did actually start there although I came on to fway there went back to the start now we come back and we’re around about here across late East and when we get to DMO we’ve got to come off um just just to go through this Central dumo and then we’ll carry on all the way down to brain tree okay looking good okay so pass through ammo and back on the flit way and 8 miles to go feeling good and bits I recognize really well now okay let’s go on with [Music] it [Music] so here I am at the T room or the station that’s going room and it’s closed oh well better luck next time [Music] maybe