Coastal Essex is full of subtle magic. Last night I’d stood out in the moated garden of Wicks Hall farmhouse at midnight, listening to a nightingale fluting from a nearby thicket.

This morning it was the turn of the chaffinches . The lime trees around the village lock-up in Tollesbury’s square were loud with the birds’ short, explosive proclamations of spring. I ducked into St Mary’s Church to admire the famous “swearing font” with its inscription: “Good people all I pray take Care That in ye Church you doe not Sware As this man Did.”

After levying a £5 fine on John Norman in 1718 for drunkenly shouting and cursing during a service, the Tollesbury churchwardens used the money to buy a new font and deliver a sermon in stone at the same time — a nice touch of rustic pragmatism.

In the village cocks crowed from backyards. A whiff of sawdust and resin floated from Adrian Wombwell’s boatbuilding shed. “Out exploring?” inquired a dog walker. “Enjoy the day, mate!” Down on the edge of Tollesbury saltings, a fine row of wooden sail lofts stood sentinel.

Britain's best posh pubs with rooms

New style of pub: cosier than a hotel, cheaper than a guesthouse

• Britain's 10 best pubs with gardens

Related Internet Links

• The best walks in the British Isles

Britain's ten best urban walks

History, beauty and architecture are waiting to be discovered by those who enjoy a city stroll - here are 10 of the best

• 20 great British rural walks

Related Internet Links

• Walk London: 27 walks in the capital

Related Links

• A good walk: Hallaton and Medbourne, Leicestershire

• A good walk: Barlaston, Staffordshire

Once they held the drying sails of huge Jumbo-class racing yachts; now small businesses fill their resonant interiors. Beyond them a dash of scarlet in the drab marsh carpet showed where the old Porthcawl lightship lay in retirement.

Halyards chinked, black-headed gulls swore like John Norman in their screechy voices, and a breath of salt came up Woodrolfe Creek on the wind.

I walked the sea wall all morning and never saw a soul. Hares bounded across the level grazing marshes. The reed beds along the dykes were alive with bunting chatter, and lapwings creaked and tumbled over the fields. At Shinglehead Point the ribs of an ancient wooden vessel lay in the mudbank like fish bones.

Across the Blackwater Estuary the square box shape of Bradwell nuclear power station sat squat on the flat horizon, the least significant item in all this open landscape.

Out at The Wick I found the remains of Tollesbury Pier, a few old wooden piles with their feet in the Blackwater. There were great hopes of establishing a resort here when the pier opened in 1907; trippers from Clacton, yachts from London, a packet steamer to the Hook of Holland . . . Nothing came of it.

Grass and thistles smother the track bed of the Kelvedon, Tiptree & Tollesbury Pier Light Railway.

Where could you find a more peaceful walk on a bright spring morning? Yet Piccadilly Circus is less than an hour away. Start & finish Tollesbury village square, CM9 8RG (OS ref TM 956104).

Getting there

Bus (www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk) — plenty of services, eg, 91 from Witham, 92 from Colchester Road. By car: A12 to Kelvedon, B1023 to Tollesbury.

Walk (Seven miles, easy grade, OS Explorer 176): with your back to the church, turn right out of square along B1023. Ahead at bend along Woodrolfe Road to sail lofts (966107). Detour: gravel path behind leads to lightship. Opposite Tollesbury Sailing Club, right up steps (fingerpost) along bank. Pass marina; at three-way fingerpost (969103), left along sea wall path for 4½ miles. Pass Left Decoy (961084); in another quarter-mile, bear right inland (958083) along farm track past Bohuns Hall (956099) to Tollesbury.

For online map, more walks www.christophersomerville.co.uk

Lunch King’s Head PH (01621 869203) or Hope Inn (01621 868317), Tollesbury Accommodation Wicks Manor, Witham Road, Tolleshunt Major, CM9 8JU (01621 860629; www.wicksmanor.co.uk).

More information Maldon TIC (01621 856503; www.visitessex.com