Hadleigh Park — Attraction in Castle Point

The Olympic Mountain Bike course (known locally as "The Hub" ) from 2012 up on the countryside over looking the Thames Estuary.

Free to ride the courses (there are 3 courses of varying difficulty I believe).

Parking available for plenty of cars but that is not free. But charges payable by card which makes it easier if not carrying cash, who does!

Site used to have the availability of bike hire, but unfortunately this has closed and the bike shop / bike repair place is currently closed too.

There are public toilets available to use and there is a coffee shop available which is run by the Salvation Army and it is very good. Serve hot and cold food and drinks. The selection of hot food is a limited choice, but excellent quality and price. There is plenty of indoor and outdoor seating available. The coffee shop is glass walled which allows you to keep an eye on the nippers as there are two play areas for little ones, free to use, outside of the coffee shop.

There is a small flat course for little ones to learn to ride on their first bikes/ balance bikes as well as a small pump track. All beside the play area and outside of the coffee shop.

There is one other pump track for experienced riders and other cycle areas as well as a free running course (though quite small). I believe they also provide free running courses too, at a cost.

There are also foot paths that link the The Hub to the Rare Breed Farm and Tea Rooms at Hadleigh Castle as well as other local public footpaths which can take you along the river to Leigh-on-Sea and up to Benfleet.

A good day...

This was a lovely surprise! We expected a basic walk to the castle and found the loveliest of places with so much going on. The children's play area is great with lots of quirky little climbing areas and balance beams for bigger and smaller kids. The walking and bike tracks are well maintained and offer gorgeous views. We went on a sunny, blustery day and it felt quite wild and open. We were walking but the mountain bike trails look fun with options for different abilities, and there is a bike shop with a fixing place too. There are information boards posted along the routes with info about local wildlife and ideas to get active like the animals. The cafe is such an asset. We were expecting the usual overpriced average options and instead they have reasonably priced, carefully prepared fresh food. Halloumi and avocado salad boxes, maze boxes, pasties (incl. Vegan), pastries, cakes and great kids lunch bags (sandwich, babybel, crisps, fruit, juice) for £4. Good tea and alternative milks. The loos needed a clean and were a bit smelly with toilet roll on the floor but there were lots of them with no queuing. There was a baby changing area. All in all a really nice easy few hours spent being outside and active...

The park used to be good. The views are nice and there used to be a few difficult trails to ride that would get your adrenaline going. Unfortunately now most of the difficulty has been taken out and on top of that alot of trails have been closed long term now, I used to ride regularly but they closed 3 of the best features of the limited selection. So now it's mostly meh down hill with blue rated trails and then massive uphills very much not worth going anymore unless you are very new to mountain biking and or like to pedal up very steep hills for fun. The trails have been closed for way over a year now with no attempt at fixing or doing anything to them, I would t mind if they where actually improving the trails but literally nothing has been done just closed to stop people having fun as I have actually looked down. The closed trails and nothing is wrong with them I even jumped the fences with my bike and rode them all perfectly fine. And it's not like they don't have the budget, the food prices are very high, and the parking is crazy expensive, which I would t mind if the trails where maintained and improved but instead the money has vanished and the park is heading...