Chelmsford City Walk

1 From Bond Street car park, join the High Street to Shire Hall, site of the assizes and quarter sessions where, 350 years ago, Nonconformists and witches were tried in open court beneath a timber-framed canopy. Today the 18th-century building is used as the Magistrates Court. Turn left at Shire Hall and take the first turning on the right to England's smallest cathedral. Walk clockwise around the cathedral passing old sunken gravestones and leave the grounds the same way you came in.

2 Cross Tindal Square passing the statue of 19th-century judge, Chief Justice Nicholas Tindal, who was born and bred in Chelmsford. Walk along Tindal Street passing Judge Tindal's Tavern on the left, to the traffic lights at New London Road. Here, turn right and cross the bridge over the River Cam to Parkway. Just around the corner, beside the subway, an information panel describes the site of a 13th-century Dominican friary. Take the subway and follow the signs for the C & E Hospital. As you emerge you see the yellow brick Infirmary and Dispensary on your right.

3 Continue past the hospital to where a pathway to the right leads to a statue of Graham Gooch, captain of Essex and England cricket teams. Just past the statue, and along a pathway parallel with New London Road, are two Victorian villas, Thornwood and Bellefield. The first mayor of Chelmsford, Frederick Chancellor lived at Bellefield until his death in 1918.

4 Continue along New London Road for more examples of fine Victorian-style houses and attractive terraced cottages, many of which have been converted into offices. A little further up on the left is the delightful Melford Villas, now given over to bed and breakfast accomodation. Immediately next door is the street's oldest business, Lucking & Sons, funeral directors, which is adjacent to the overgrown Nonconformists' cemetery. Here is the grave of an escaped slave who made it all the way to Chelmsford from New Orleans.

5 Turn left into Elm Road and left again into Moulsham Street. At the end, cross Parkway via the subway to reach the High Street. Just after Baddow Street, on the right, is the former Regent Playhouse Theatre, now a trendy café. On Springfield Road, the next turning on the right, is the site of the Black Boy Inn, immortalised by Charles Dickens in The Pickwick Papers.

6 Back in the High Street, on the right, is the Royal Bank of Scotland, the former Mansion House and lodgings of the judge when he came to sit at the assizes. Shire Hall is straight ahead and from here you return to the car park.