Basildon

Basildon is a town in Essex, England. It lies east of Central London, south of Chelmsford, and west of Southend-on-Sea. It gives its name to the wider Borough of Basildon which also includes the towns of Billericay and Wickford and surrounding rural areas.
Basildon was a small village until the mid-20th century. In 1949 Basildon was designated a new town to accommodate London overspill, with the designated area for the new town also covering the existing villages of Pitsea, Laindon, and Vange, along with smaller hamlets. The town was then developed with new residential and industrial areas, and a new town centre. At the 2021 census the Basildon built up area had a population of 115,955.
The town is served by three railway stations on the London, Tilbury and Southend line, being Laindon, Basildon, and Pitsea. The main part of the town lies between the A127 road to the north and the A13 road to the south, both of which are dual carriageways linking London to Southend.

History

Before the new town

The name Basildon is Old English and means the hill of someone called Beorhtel. "Beorhtel's dun" evolved over time into Basildon. Variant names historically recorded for the place have included Berdlesdon, Batlesdon and Belesduna.
The Domesday Book of 1086 lists two estates or manors at the vill of Belesduna or Berlesduna in the Barstable Hundred of Essex. Both manors were held by Swein, son of Robert FitzWimarc. Adjoining the two Basildon manors was a third manor called Barstable or Barstable Hall; the name suggests it may have included the meeting place for Barstable Hundred.
Basildon became part of the parish of Laindon. Basildon was served by a chapel of ease dedicated to Holy Cross; the oldest parts of the current building date back to the 14th century. Basildon then formed a chapelry of Laindon, covering the two old Basildon manors, which had become known as Botelers and Battleswick, plus the old manor of Barstable. The chapelry of Basildon took on parish functions under the poor laws from the 17th century onwards. It therefore became a separate civil parish from Laindon in 1866 when the legal definition of 'parish' was changed to be the areas used for administering the poor laws.
The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway built its original main line from London to Southend via Tilbury with a station at Pitsea, which opened in 1855. The company subsequently built a shorter inland route, deviating from the older line at Barking and rejoining it at Pitsea. Laindon station opened with that new route on its completion in 1888.
The Basildon area remained sparsely populated until the early 20th century. The heavy clay soil was poor quality agricultural land. The first half of the 20th century was a period of wider agricultural depression, and many farms in the area were sold for development as plotlands, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. These saw people buy an individual plot to build a house. Little infrastructure was provided to serve the plotlands, and many of the houses built were of poor quality. The population of Basildon parish rose sharply in the early 20th century with the development of the plotlands; the population had been 179 in 1891, and grew to 505 in 1911 and 1,159 in 1931.

The new town

In the 1940s, Billericay Urban District Council and Essex County Council, concerned by lack of amenities in the area and by its development, petitioned the government to create a new town. Basildon was one of eight new towns created in the wider south-east of England after the passing of the New Towns Act 1946. On 4 January 1949 Lewis Silkin, Minister of Town and Country Planning, officially designated Basildon as a new town.
Basildon Development Corporation was formed in February 1949 to transform the designated area into a modern new town. The main villages within the designated area for the new town were Laindon and Pitsea, with other settlements including the smaller Basildon and Vange. There were about 8,700 existing homes in the designated area for the new town, of which 5,500 were deemed substandard. A masterplan was published in 1951, structuring the development around a number of small neighbourhoods. The landscaping was designed by Sylvia Crowe, with open space and playing fields distributed throughout the developed area to preserve the best landscape features. The first house built under the new town programme was completed in June 1951. The first tenants moved into homes in Redgrave Road in Vange.
The masterplan included employment areas along the northern edge of the town along the A127 corridor. A new town centre based around a pedestrian shopping precinct was begun in 1956. A new Basildon railway station on the southern edge of the town centre was opened in 1974.
A large, illuminated town sign "Basildon Town Centre Site" at was erected in 1956 beside the railway and stood until early construction was completed. The Basildon Centre, which incorporates the local council offices, was officially opened by Jack Cunningham on 14 November 1989.
Since March 2010, Basildon has a miniature famous white Hollywood sign, reading "Basildon"; at five feet tall, the new sign is one-ninth of the height of the Hollywood original. part of a plan of landscaping and infrastructure improvements funded by £400,000 from the Prescott-spearheaded Thames Gateway. Opponents from all parties believe spending could have been directed toward social problems.

Governance

There are two main tiers of local government covering Basildon, at district and county level: Basildon Borough Council and Essex County Council. Most of the built up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics is unparished, although the northern part forms part of the parish of Noak Bridge, which forms an extra layer of local government for that area. The borough council is based at the Basildon Centre in St Martin's Square.
The former constituency of Basildon was considered a barometer of public opinion in general elections. The results of the constituency elections were the same as the overall result of general elections from 1983 to its abolition in 2010. Basildon was said to epitomise the working class conversion to Thatcherism during the 1980s, though the town did not vote Conservative in 1979; nor did the Conservative Party ever hold an absolute majority in the town – its success was due to the split between the SDP and the Labour Party. "Basildon Man" or "Essex Man" was coined to describe an aspirational working class voter.
Boundary changes, which came into force from the 2010 general election, mean that the area is politically represented by two MPs, from the constituencies of Basildon and Billericay and South Basildon and East Thurrock. The current MPs are Richard Holden and James McMurdock.
In January 2026 the Labour leader of Basildon Borough, Gavin Callaghan instigated a vote to cancel the local May elections, based on the soon to happen local government changes which would see Basildon Council replaced. The vote was successful and the request was passed to the government to decide. Opposition groups criticised Callaghan, with Andy Barnes, the Conservative leader, stating the decision was a "dark day for democracy".

Administrative history

Basildon was historically a chapelry of the ancient parish of Laindon, and became a separate civil parish in 1866. When elected parish and district councils were created in 1894, Basildon was included in the Billericay Rural District. Most of the rural district, including Basildon, was converted into the Billericay Urban District in 1934, and the parishes within the urban district were united into a single parish called Billericay in 1937. At the 1931 census, Basildon had a population of 1,159.
Following the designation of the new town in 1949, it was decided in 1955 to rename the urban district from Billericay to Basildon. In 1974 the urban district was replaced by a non-metropolitan district called Basildon, which covered the area of the old urban district plus a small area ceded from neighbouring Thurrock which lay within the designated area for the new town.
The Basildon district was awarded borough status in 2010, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor.

Communities

Basildon was built like many new towns with each area being a planned community. These communities are now the local areas of the town:

Pitsea - one of the original four villages that were incorporated into the new town. Pitsea itself is split into 7 distinct communities - Pitsea, Pitsea Mount, Eversley, Chalvedon, Northlands, Burnt Mills and Nevendon.
Laindon - one of the original four villages that were incorporated into the new town.
Vange - one of the original four villages that were incorporated into the new town.
Fryerns - an area of Basildon which is located along Whitmore Way. The name came from a nearby farm and was formerly the home of Fryerns Comprehensive School.
Craylands - an area between Fryerns and Pitsea, and was named after the former Craylands County Secondary School. The area is under redevelopment by Swan Housing and has been renamed by them as Beechwood Village.
Barstable - an area situated along Timberlog Lane. The area is named after the former Barstable Hundred and known for its local shopping parade Stacey's Corner. It was formerly home to both Barstable School and Timberlog Secondary School with the former being now part of the Basildon Academies.
Kingswood - an area situated at the west end of Clay Hill Road.
Ghyllgrove - an area situated between the Town centre and Fryerns.
Lee Chapel South - an area situated between the Town centre and Basildon University Hospital.
Lee Chapel North - an area situated between Gloucester Park, Lee Chapel South and Laindon
Langdon Hills - an area situated south of Laindon.
Dry Street - a small hamlet situated just south of Laindon and west of Vange.
Great Berry - declared a village by Essex County Council in 2015, the area is situated west of Laindon.
Noak Bridge - an area just north of Pipps Hill and east of Steeple View.
Steeple View - an area just north of Laindon and West of Noak Bridge. It is so named because the steeples of Great Burstead Church, St. Mary the Virgin Church and St Nicholas Church, Basildon are visible from the area.
Pipps Hill - an industrial area just north of Gloucester Park and west of Cranes.
Cranes - an industrial area east of Pipps Hill. The name comes from the former Cranes Farm which stood on the site.