St Nicholas, Little Braxted - Sanctuary wall painting (geograph 2912627) St Nicholas, Little Braxted - Sanctuary wall painting (geograph 2912627). Photo: John Salmon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Open the interactive map → Map of NCN 16 - The Flitch Way

Official route · Sustrans

NCN 16 - The Flitch Way

52.5 km 411 m climbing A day 41% off road Road cycling East of England

The route runs west from Wickham Bishops through the Blackwater valley to Witham before turning north-west across open Essex farmland toward Braintree and Bocking.

The line then follows the trackbed of the old Flitch Way railway, a mostly level, largely off-road corridor through Rayne and a string of small greens toward Little Dunmow and Great Dunmow. Beyond Great Dunmow the route crosses to Takeley and Birchanger, where the road becomes busier.

The figures

Distance52.5 km
Climbing411 m
Off road21 km, about 41% of the route
Riding timeabout 4 hours, a long day
RegionEast of England
Route fromSustrans

Worth knowing before you go

Braintree is the main resupply point; the villages either side of it are small and have little provision. The middle section along the railway path is straightforward to navigate, but the approaches at each end require more attention to signing. The route is tagged as road throughout, so the off-road sections are not sealed.

Put your own dates on this and TourTrax splits it into days at your pace, finds somewhere to sleep at the end of each one, estimates what it will cost and gets you to the start without flying.

Plan this route → Download the GPX

Other route guides

NCN 16 - The Flitch Way is an official route from Sustrans (their website).