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Guithavon Valley
This part runs parallel with the railway line and was partly formed from an old council refuse tip. It has woodland alongside the railway embankment and some commemorative trees around an open recreational area. There are a number of areas for wildlife, mainly with nestles, and a path loops around the river bank.
The water gauging station is here with the associated buildings decorated with a First World War theme by The New Rickstones Academy. There is also a duck pond, excavated as a balancing pond in 1972 and now surrounded by willows. The Walk runs by the Old Mill House at this point, once known as Newlands Manor Mill, it was later owned by Blyth, millers, who also owned a shop in Newland Street. It is listed Grade II and described as a large 18th century brick house with 19th century alterations, although the timber mill is a modern reproduction. The main footpath from Chipping Hill (Moat Farm Chase) to the town centre (Lockram Lane) once passed the door to the mill house but was re-routed a little further downstream to its existing location in the 1960s.
The footpath starts by the railway viaduct in Armond Road where it soon divides for the loop by the river bank. The main path and cycleway goes down to the duck pond where it crosses a path leading south to Mill Lane and Guithavon Street for the town centre, and north under the railway to Highfields Road and Chelmer Road. The main path then continues west, on to Guithavon Road between a meadow and the river.
Sources: Janet Gyford; Witham & Countryside Society; Ruth and Ron Fosker; Janet Gyford.
