If you are lucky enough to live in close proximity to either Hilly Fields or Cymbeline Meadows on the north-west side of town, you may like to enrich your daily walk with the help of this guide to the local ecology, flora and fauna native to these special locations.
Please note, in the context of the current coronavirus crisis, we explicitly do not encourage anybody to travel to these sites to do this walk. But if they are local to you anyway, we hope the information here will add additional interest to your daily walk, and an incentive to stay connected to our beautiful green world, which, on account of it being spring, and the fact that it has had a bit of a break from us en masse, may be seen at its best...
This is a walk first put together almost 10 years ago by natural historian Ted Benton, to mark the establishment of Walk Colchester. Happily its content remains valid today, not least on account of the protection and good management afforded these important sites and their complex ecosystems. Note, for those with limited mobility, this walk connects with two easier access trails: the first, a loop marked on the map at the top of Hilly Fields, best accessed from the Sussex Road entrance (see 4-5); the second, which is a short section of the main walk route, leads from The Chase Way (off Spring Lane) where there is designated parking, down to the river and a picnic spot at that point (see 15-16).