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Photo of Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome, a visitor attraction near Maldon, Essex, eastern England.

Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome© Chris / Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0

Places to explore near Chelmsford

Essex's county town stands where the Chelmer and Can rivers meet, a Roman staging post that later became the world's first purpose-built radio factory under Marconi. The Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation runs from the centre down towards the coast. Wooded commons sit close at Danbury, on a gravel ridge east of town, and Hanningfield Reservoir draws wildfowl to its bordering woods in the south. Follow the navigation and the estuary widens into the Blackwater Estuary, a place of saltmarsh, oysters and the tidal island of Northey.

82 places within 25 km — the standouts first, nearest first within each group.

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Worth the tripnational icons and local highlights within reach

Photo of Hylands Estate, a Grade II* registered house & garden near Chelmsford, Essex, eastern England.Highlight

Hylands Estate

House & garden near Chelmsford

A white neo-classical mansion in parkland shaped by a Humphry Repton Red Book.

3.9 km SW

Photo of Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome, a visitor attraction near Maldon, Essex, eastern England.Highlight

Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome

Attraction near Maldon

The most complete surviving First World War aerodrome in Europe, its grass field ringed by original 1916 buildings near Maldon.

12.6 km SE

Photo of Cressing Temple Barns, a visitor attraction near Coggeshall, Essex, eastern England.Highlight

Cressing Temple Barns

Attraction near Coggeshall

Two vast medieval timber barns built by the Knights Templar near Braintree, among the oldest in Europe, with a walled Tudor garden.

14.5 km NE

Photo of Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, a visitor attraction near Shenfield, Essex, eastern England.Highlight

Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker

Attraction near Shenfield

A vast Cold War government bunker hidden beneath an ordinary Essex bungalow, reached down a long tunnel and now a museum.

16.8 km SW

Photo of Thorndon Country Park, a country park near West Horndon, Essex, eastern England.Highlight

Thorndon Country Park

Country park near West Horndon

A deer park reworked by Capability Brown around James Paine's Palladian hall.

18.4 km SW

Photo of Coggeshall, a village in Essex, eastern England.Highlight

Coggeshall

Village

A Blackwater wool town thick with timber-framed houses, from the Tudor merchant's Paycocke's to a medieval tithe barn beside the abbey ruins.

21 km NE · Essex

Photo of Layer Marney Tower, a Grade II registered house & garden near Tollesbury, Essex, eastern England.Highlight

Layer Marney Tower

House & garden near Tollesbury

England's tallest Tudor gatehouse in brick.

23.9 km NE

Also nearbygood places nearby, nearest first

Photo of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation, a 14-mile river navigation running from Chelmsford to Heybridge Basin, eastern England.

Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation

River navigation

Essex's own navigation of 1797, dropping through quiet farmland from Chelmsford to the tidal estuary at Heybridge Basin.

0.5 km S · Essex

Photo of Blake's Wood & Lingwood Common, a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Chelmsford, Essex, eastern England.

Blake's Wood & Lingwood Common

SSSI near Chelmsford

A Site of Special Scientific Interest in Essex.

5.2 km E

Photo of Danbury Country Park, a country park near Chelmsford, Essex, eastern England.

Danbury Country Park

Country park near Chelmsford

A country park in Essex.

5.7 km SE

Photo of Danbury Common, a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Chelmsford, Essex, eastern England.

Danbury Common

SSSI near Chelmsford

A Site of Special Scientific Interest in Essex.

6.4 km SE

Photo along the Essex Way, an 81-mile long-distance path running from Epping to Harwich, eastern England.

Essex Way

Long-distance path

Across rural Essex from Epping to the port of Harwich, through Constable's Dedham Vale and a string of medieval villages.

6.8 km N · Essex

Stock Windmill

Windmill near Stock

A Grade II* tower mill of about 1804 at Stock, several floors of machinery intact and explained by guides on open days.

8.2 km S

Pleshey

Village

A quiet village encircled by the vast earthworks and moat of a vanished Norman castle, its brick bridge among the oldest in England.

9.8 km NW · Essex

Photo of RHS Garden Hyde Hall, a garden near Rettendon, Essex, eastern England.

RHS Garden Hyde Hall

Garden near Rettendon

A 360-acre RHS hilltop garden near Chelmsford, famous for its drought-tolerant Dry Garden, roses and sweeping herbaceous borders.

10 km SE

Queen's Park

Country park near Chelmsford

A country park in Essex.

10.8 km S

Everything else within 25 km (66) — reserves, earthworks & places to check before travelling

Ordered by how far each place is worth travelling for, then by distance. Distances are straight-line to the nearest edge of each place — paths wind, of course.