Writtle Forest

Near: Chelmsford
Event Type: Local forest
Postcode: CM4 0PR
Google Map: View map
Directions: Jump to directions

On-line entry: Click here to enter (before Sun 20th September)
Pre-entries close: At end of Sun 20th September
Entry on the day: No
Entry fees:

• Juniors (U21)/students: £ 3 (member) / £ 3 (non-member)
• Adults: £ 10 (member) / £ 12 (non-member)
• Timing chip hire: £ 1

Final details now available as PDF (10 Sept).

This event is open to all, and is a local (Level D) colour coded event associated with JIRCs 2026. The JIRCS weekend is organised by EAOA. The Open event will be held on Saturday 26th September, in Writtle Forest. A limited range of colour coded courses are on offer: Orange, Short Green, Green and Blue. PLEASE NOTE THE PERIOD FOR STARTS IS EARLIER THAN NORMAL. Open event starts will run from 9.30 to 11.00am. Courses close 12.30pm.

NO vehicle exits before 12:30.

We will not allocate start times but the intention is for the forest to be clear of open course participants prior to the JIRC races. Slower participants running longer courses are encouraged to start early.

The start is approximately 300m from the arena. Care is required as the route crosses the vehicle entrance track. The crossing will be marshalled. The warm up area is in the arena before the track crossing as there is little space in the pre-start area. There is a 100m taped route from the Start grid and Start punch towards the Start Kite. This taped route forms part of the competition time and so competitors should run towards the Start Kite once they have punched at the Start grid.

The finish is in the arena. All Open event competition maps will be collected at the Finish and placed in club bags. They can be reclaimed after the last JIRCs starts from about 2:30pm.

Safety Points

• Your course may include a road crossing. This is timed-out and marshalled. Only cross when instructed to do so, and do not cross or run along this road elsewhere.
• A risk assessment will have been carried out by the Organiser and all reasonable care has been taken by the Organiser and Planner to ensure the safety and well-being of competitors. However participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event.
• Cagoules may be made compulsory if the weather is inclement, please bring one with you just in case. These must have a hood. Windproof jackets are not an acceptable alternative.
• Whistles are compulsory.
• Take care whilst in the car park, be aware of moving vehicles.
• Full leg and torso cover is essential.
• You may meet walkers, dogs, cyclists and horses. Please give plenty of room when passing.
• No dogs are allowed in the forest.
• There are fallow deer in the forest. They normally avoid humans but might run unpredictably if startled so please give them space and take care near them.It is now the rutting season, so if a male deer behaves in an aggressive manner then a slow retreat is your best course of action.
• Competitors are reminded they are required to report to the finish and/or download once they have started a course, whether or not they have completed the course.
• All potential competitors must agree to abide by the British Orienteering Participant Code of Conduct.
• Photographs might be taken to promote the sport. Please let the organiser know if you do not wish to be included.
• There may be ticks in the area. Please check after your run and remove immediately. A leaflet about tick removal can be found by following this link. More details about Lyme Disease can be found by following this link.

Dogs

No dogs are allowed in the forest.

Entries

There will be no facility to accept entry on the day, so all entries must be made online in advance, via Racesignup up to the entry closing date of 20th September. See above for entry fees. Helpers on the day can enter at half price if paying the adult rate. Please contact entries@waoc.org.uk BEFORE you enter to obtain the discount code.

Results

Presupposing enough mobile signal, live results will be available at the following link: https://www.stragglers.info/latest-results. Otherwise live results will be presented on screens at or near download. Results and routegadget will be uploaded to the SOS website.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the landowner, Lord Petre, for allowing use of the forest and to the owner of Monks and Barrows Farm for allowing use of the farm as the event centre.

A limited range of Colour coded courses from Orange to Blue.

There will be a punching start. SIAC (non-contact) punching will be enabled for all course controls. Start and Finish controls will NOT be in beacon mode and must be contact-punched by all competitors.

All controls will have a backup pin punch. If you think the SI unit has failed at a control, then pin punch your map to prove you visited the control and report your actions at download.

Details shown below are subject to final controlling.

Course	Distance	No. Controls	Climb	Technical Difficulty
Orange	3.4 km	15	45 m	Moderate
Short Green	3.7 km	19	35 m	Hard
Green	5.2 km	19	65 m	Hard
Blue	7.2 km	30	90 m	Hard

Blue course maps will be double sided with part 1 on one side and the continuation to the second part of the course on the reverse.
The Blue course includes a road crossing into and out of the Northern wood that is timed out and marshalled. This crossing point will have control sites located each side of the road. Competitors will have up to 2 minutes to cross safely, and this is ample time to walk between the control sites and cross when it is safe to do so. Do not cross or run along this road elsewhere. All other roads that surround the competition area are out of bounds and should not be crossed or run along.
The Northern wood visited by the Blue course includes two very large depressions which are used for archery practice and so they contain targets which are not mapped. These large depressions do not contain any control sites. They are not marked as out-of-bounds. There will be no archery taking place there on the competition day but please be aware of posts in the ground and other associated architecture.

Writtle Forest is made up of ancient woodland with some areas of complex contour.
There are relatively few distinct footpaths but the streams, gullies and earthwalls provide linear handrails for navigating. The two main blocks are private woodland with little public access, so apart from a large footpath across each, are rarely walked and the limited paths need care in locating and following.
The forest is very runnable. The map scale is 1:10000, 5m contours. Map scale 1:10000, 5m contours, A4 landscape size, updated for the event. There is no legend on the map but normal ISOM mapping symbols have been used.
Obvious large hides are marked by a black X on the map. Shooting seats attached to trees are marked by a black T on the map.

A previous map of Writtle Forest can be found on the SOS routegadget: https://www.sos.routegadget.co.uk/rg2/#96

Planners Notes

The rolling woodland offers good visibility and runnability with scope for fast orienteering for those who can maintain map contact at speed. Some patches of tall bracken (1.5m or taller) existing in the semi-open and open areas are mapped with the green undergrowth screen to indicate that they impede visibility and runnability. Elsewhere there is some low, sparse bracken under woodland which does not impede visibility or runnability and so it is not mapped.

Mapped rootstocks are at least 1.2m tall and some are 2m or taller. Mapped hides are large and obvious; other smaller ones are not mapped. Mapped prominent small trees are single holly trees in otherwise deciduous woodland. Some prominent large dead trees which are used as control sites are described in the control description symbols as being ruined.

The area is divided into 3 blocks. The Southern wood has a dense pattern of earthwalls, gullies and other earth features. It is linked to the Middle wood by a short run along a field margin. The Middle wood has a more rolling character with fewer features including a stream, ditch and gully network and some larger patches of open and semi-open land. The Northern wood beyond a compulsory road crossing is flat and fast but also includes a complex pitted area.

Two large depressions in this wood are used for archery practice. These depressions are not marked as out of bounds and there will be no archery taking place during the orienteering event.

Enquiries, dibber collection, portable toilets, and download all adjacent to parking.

Qualified first aiders will be on duty near download/enquiries.

The farmers providing the parking will sell tea, coffee, home-produced milk-shakes and possibly ice-cream. The arena has been grazed by cattle recently. You are advised to use hand sanitiser before eating. No water will be provided so please bring your own.

Arena Layout

Parking, download, enquiries and portable toilets will be situated at Monks and Barrows Farm. Access is along a single track road which is navigable by cars and minibuses. There will be ample space for parking.

The farm is situated on Maple Tree Lane, off Mill Green Road, Mill Green. Access is from near Ingatestone CM4 0PR.

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O signs from Mill Green Road. Access from J15 of the Southbound A12 via Margaretting, J12 of the Northbound A12 via Mountnessing and Fryerning or at the Fox and Goose from the A414 via Highwood Road and Ingatestone Road. Parking on grass. No vehicle departures before 12.30 due to single track access road.

A £3 parking charge is payable per vehicle. This will be included in the entry fee when you enter online.

Organiser: Will Harrison (SUFFOC)
Planner: Paul Beckett (HAVOC)
Controller: Peter Woods (WAOC)
Welfare: Helen Hague, WAOC

Safety and Risk: A risk assessment is carried out by the organiser in advance of each event, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event.

Insurance: Our events and activities are registered with British Orienteering, and have been risk-assessed. Our event officials have appropriate training for the level of event involved. This means our events are covered by British Orienteering's public liability insurance. For insurance purposes, we ask that when you register for an event that you provide full names of anyone who goes out on a course, even if just accompanying a junior or part of a group (these additional names won't be recorded in the results - for example they can just be noted on the back of your registration slip).

Please note: By entering an event, you acknowledge that you are taking part at your own risk. From 1st January 2026 onwards, participants who are not members of British Orienteering are not covered by British Orienteering’s public liability insurance. If you are not a member of British Orienteering and were to, for example, accidentally injure a member of the public or damage property during the event, you would not be covered.

Privacy:

WAOC process entrant information on the basis of legitimate interest to produce competition results, to provide participation and results information to British Orienteering, and we retain details for a period to meet our insurance requirements. Published results may include (but not limited to) name, any club affiliation, race times and age group. Read our data protection page for further information about how we look after your personal information.

Welfare and Safeguarding:

We want everyone to feel safe and welcome at our events.

If you would like special assistance, such as a quiet start or other request, please do let us know. Ideally by contacting the organiser in advance, otherwise ask on the day and we will help if we can.

As a club, we support and follow British Orienteering’s safeguarding policies,which can be found via the links below:

• Child Safeguarding Policy
• Safeguarding Adults at Risk Policy

We also have our own child welfare policy. See also our Safeguarding and Welfare page.

Taking Photographs

In line with the policies of British Orienteering, the organisers of this event request that any person wishing to take photos or videos showing children should register their details with event volunteers before taking any such photos or videos. The event organisers reserve the right to ask people to refrain from taking photos or videos and may, if such warnings are ignored, refer the matter to the police.

Club's use of Images

We may sometimes publish photographs of event participants in news items or publicity. At events where we have arranged for photography we will advertise this at the event and in advance in the event details.

We aim always to obtain the permissions of parent or responsible adult before we publish any picture showing a junior participant as the main focus. Although we cannot guarantee that an event photographer will not take photographs of any given individual, we will do our best to avoid publishing images of individuals who have told us they do not wish to be photographed and will remove images that we are notified about.

Read our data protection page for further information about our policy on photography and use of images.