An Essex Day Out to Thaxted

Even though I’ve been living in the UK for almost 10 years, I definitely haven’t explored enough of the country. There are so many beautiful places to see and discover. Last year July we spent a weekend visiting a very pretty town called Rye and the seaside town Camber. After this I was incredibly inspired to search for other charming must visit English villages. The opportunity arose in October over the same weekend as my 10km Halloween run in Richmond Park. Using public transport to get to Richmond Park is long winded so we decided to hire a car for the weekend. Since we only had Saturday to spend the day out somewhere I wanted to find a town that wasn’t too far or difficult to get to. After much research and deliberating over the distance and time I decided on a picturesque village called Thaxted. Google estimated it would take about an hour or so to drive there – sold! 😉

Early that Saturday morning the day started off rather cloudy, grey and drizzly – sigh typical! Initially we were undecided about whether to continue with our planned day out. As we already had the rental car we agreed we had to make use of it. I remember the start of the drive being dreary… Then the sun started to come out as we continued to head deeper into the country. I was soon mesmerized by the immense beauty in front of me. We passed rows and rows of overhanging trees full of glorious autumnal colour with rays of sunshine filtering through. I would’ve loved to stop and take photos.

Thaxted – the jewel in the crown of Essex

Whilst researching villages to visit I was concerned about parking and how easy it would be to find parking in the towns. When we arrived in Thaxted, we found the Margaret Street Car Park conveniently located near all the sights. (Yay! Thumbs up to Natalie for finding the car park in advance 😉 )

Thaxted is a small historic town with a population of around 2000 people in the county of Essex in the east of England. Although it’s a small town there are many famous landmarks I was looking forward to checking out. These include the Thaxted Parish Church, John Webb’s Windmill and The Guildhall.

When we arrived it was just in time for lunch. So of course our first stop was The Star pub where we both thoroughly enjoyed our food.

Once our tummies were full and satisfied, we were to ready to start walking and taking photos of this charming medieval town.

Doors with character

The Church was our last stop close to the parking area. Conveniently the parking area also has public toilets available to use before you hit the road.

Even though the town is not very big you can spend at least half a day there. I was delighted to find that the town wasn’t packed with tourists so taking photos was enjoyable. If you’re looking for something different to do I would definitely recommend this Essex day out to Thaxted.

Have you heard of Thaxted? What are your favourite English towns to visit for a day trip? Please do share with me in the comments.