To provide you with the best experience, cookies are used on this site.  Learn more

Allow cookies
Gunpowder Park entrance from car park. Waltham Abbey.

Book Tickets Online

About

Gunpowder Park, Waltham Abbey

Another reminder of Waltham Abbey’s ‘explosive’ past, Gunpowder Park was formerly a Royal Ordnance site concerned with munitions testing. Now given over to wildlife, features of the original landscape have been retained and the entrance and graphics evoke its former life and the area’s connection with the manufacture of gunpowder and explosives. The park has been given a Green Flag Award.

As well as open space for recreation, outdoor pursuits, arts and entertainment, the park has fields, meadow and marsh to be enjoyed by walkers and cyclists throughout the year and horse riders  on the permissive bridleway in the summer.

The dynamic landscape of the park has been shaped into four bioregions:

Cob Fields (The Shock-Wave Galleries)

The Shock Wave Galleries rise between wildflower meadows that constantly change colour throughout the seasons. Bands of native trees and shrubs dissect the meadows mimicking shock waves which fan out from the centre of the ‘explosion’ near the park centre.

Cob Meadow (Blast Mound Plateau)

The Blast Mound Plateau is a popular nesting place for skylarks and their spiralling songs fill the air in the spring and summer.

Osier Marsh (The Salix)

Osier Marsh is a mysterious wet woodland and important wildlife refuge. Boardwalks and paths guide you through a tangled jungle of birch and willow carpeted with lichens and mosses.

Cob Fields (The Energy Fields)

Follow the signs to the Cob Fields viewpoint on the Meriden Line at the top of the hill and enjoy the views. For a more rural ramble continue on the grassy field margins along the public footpath between the arable fields.

Facilities

Accessibility

  • All Areas Accessible to Disabled Visitors
  • Parking Areas for Disabled Visitors

Children & Infants

  • Baby changing

Establishment Features

  • Dogs Accepted
  • Open all year round
  • Toilets

Parking & Transport

  • Coach parking
  • Parking (charge)

Provider Preferences

  • Outdoor Attraction

Tours and Demonstrations

  • Educational Visits Accepted

Map & Directions

Road Directions

Gunpowder park is on the southern edge of Waltham Abbey close to the Sainsbury's Distribution Centre.

The entrance is off the A112 Sewardstone Road just south of the roundabout junction of the A112 and A121 Dowding Way.

Public Transport Directions

Gunpowder Park is 2 miles from Waltham Cross Railway Station. There are bus stops at and near the entrance.

Gunpowder Park

Type:Countryside, Parks & Gardens

Sewardstone Road, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 3GP

Tel: 03000 030 610

What's Nearby

  1. Telling the story of the Epping Forest district through a collection of over 50,000…

    0.76 miles away
  2. Tech Tips for hosting your own digital events: What we’ve learnt from the Festival of…

    0.75 miles away
  3. Caroline Jones shares some of her tranquil pictures of Epping Forest taken in a troubled…

    0.76 miles away
  1. Felicitas Chamber Choir - 3 videos for you to enjoy

    0.76 miles away
  2. During his first stay in Epping between 1893 – 1895 Lucien produced some 23 oil paintings…

    0.76 miles away
  3. Explore the wild life of the Lee Valley Park wetlands on this trail around the river,…

    0.77 miles away
  4. A 3 mile walk through flooded grassland, ponds, rivers, across areas designated as a site…

    0.77 miles away
  5. The Epping Forest Creative Network have put together a fun quiz and creative challenge…

    0.77 miles away
  6. Waltham Abbey Church and its grounds are steeped in history and Royal connections.…

    0.86 miles away
  7. Find your place at Ongar Leisure Centre

    1.08 miles away
  8. Find your place at Waltham Abbey Leisure Centre

    1.08 miles away
  9. Two of the Royal Gunpowder Mills most popular exhibits - the Armoury and the Rocket Vault

    1.14 miles away
  10. From London 2012 venues to campsites, heritage sites, cycling, walking, white water…

    1.16 miles away
  11. Welcome to High Beech Riding School - for everything horse riding in Epping Forest.…

    1.22 miles away
  12. You’ll find gallons of fun at Lee Valley White Water Centre, from white water rafting on…

    1.22 miles away
Previous Next

Don't Miss

Don't Miss