Tourism

Imagine a golf course but with more trees and no golfers.
Thurrock viewed from the air is an amazingly green and spacious part of the country, indeed the town's concrete that seems to define it at ground level all but shrink into micro communities and leave vast green space to admire. But from the ground it can feel cluttered and spoiled in many regards. This is what makes the value of places such as Belhus Woods so very special.
It has the feel; as you walk around; of a large forest broken up by a succession of parks and lakes that brings to mind a golf course given how well manicured and looked after the whole place would seem to be. It doesn't stop at that either as the administrators have clearly taken a good look at this expanse of land and carefully considered what to allow inside to make it feel developed, interesting and interactive, and what to just leave alone. So they encouraged and grew a remote control boat club which meets on Sundays and allows men; of a certain age; to show off their latest technological battery powered break through - but is a source of some diversion to watch. No less diverting is the model railway club which show much the same kind of thrills, particularly for small children (though you need to be a little lucky to catch this in action) and then there's the archery club as well; though we'd concede the thrill of watching people fire arrows at and generally missing targets set up not all that far away from their starting positions is not overly watchable. But the point here is that to the un-initiated this experience continues to throw up any number of surprises. In an area that has the essence of such clutter and commercial squalor expances of land like Belhus need to be embarrassed and utilised if it is to avoid being turned at some point into another Chafford Hundred.

Postcode: RM15 4XJ
Parking £2.50