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Great Baddow

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Great Baddow
Population14,000 
OS grid referenceTL731052
District
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townChelmsford
Postcode districtCM2
Dialling code01245
PoliceEssex
FireEssex
AmbulanceEast of England
List of places
UK
England
Essex
The former Chain Home radar transmitter tower in Great Baddow, a prominent local landmark

Great Baddow is an urban village in the Chelmsford borough of Essex, England. It is close to the county town, Chelmsford and, with a population of over 13,000,[1] is one of the largest villages in the country.

Great Baddow (Baddow meaning 'bad water'[1]) was named after the River Baddow (now known as the River Chelmer)[citation needed] which runs a mile or so east of the village. The centre of Great Baddow is now a Conservation Area and contains over 30 listed buildings.

Development

During the early part of the 20th Century Great Baddow grew through ribbon development towards Chelmsford and Galleywood. In 1936 Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company opened the Marconi Research Laboratory in Great Baddow (now BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre), bringing together their various radio, television and telephony research teams in a single location.[2] As the electronics industry developed the campus expanded during the 1940s and 1950s to include research into radar, general physics, high voltage, vacuum physics and semiconductors.[2] Great Baddow expanded considerably in the 1950s with the construction of Rothmans Estate, which provided housing for workers at Marconi's and English Electric Valve Company in Chelmsford. The village has continued to expand over subsequent years.

The Vinyards, located in the centre of the old village, was once a fine Georgian house set in attractive wooded grounds[3] which later became a hotel[citation needed]. It was demolished prior to the advent of conservation legislation[3] and, during the 1960s, the land was redeveloped with the construction of the Vinyards shopping centre and the Marrable House office block, both constructed with a 'scale, form, layout and architecture' that Chelmsford Council considers to 'jar with its historic surroundings'.[3] Despite this the shopping centre continues to thrive[3] and, since refurbishment in the 2000s, the flats above are highly regarded and sought after properties[citation needed]. It is expected that Marrable House will be demolished and replaced with a more sympathetic mixed use development.[3]

Great Baddow has five pubs – The White Horse, The Blue Lion, The Kings Head, The Beehive and The Star. Great Baddow is also home to the Pontlands Park Country Hotel and the Baddow Antique Centre.

Geology

Great Baddow lies to the south east to central Chelmsford, on higher ground that is thought to mark the edge of the main ice mass during the Anglian glaciation.[4] An outcrop of glacial sand and gravel 3km long and 0.8km wide is located beneath the village, which used to be extracted from several pits in the area, including Beehive Pit (now beneath Harbeard Tye), Baddow Hall Pit (now beneath Baden-Powell Close), to the south of the A1114 Princes Road (now in the grounds of Moulsham High School) and on what is now an area of open land off Waterson Vale.[4] Smaller pits were also located off the Galleywood Road (near what is now Hollywood Close)[4] and off Pitt Chase. The area is overlain with head, while the lower levels of the sand and gravel are mixed with London Clay.[4] A Sarsen stone from the Beehive Pit used to stand outside The Beehive pub.[4]

History

The manor was once a possession of Robert the Bruce[5][6]

According to information in the local church of St Mary, the rebel leader Jack Straw led an ill-fated crowd (the "men of Essex") from the churchyard to London, in one of the risings in the 1381 Peasants' Revolt.

The Great Baddow Mast – a former Chain Home radar transmitter tower, originally sited at RAF Canewdon – was moved to the outskirts of Great Baddow around 1954 and is used by BAE Systems for equipment testing.[7]

Schools

The village is also home to Great Baddow High School, situated on Duffield Road. The school is a sports college and shows exceptional performances in this field. As well as the high school it is also home to Baddow Hall Infant and Junior Schools, Beehive Lane County Primary School, Larkrise Primary School, (formerly Rothmans Primary School), and Meadgate County Primary Schools.

Nearby villages include

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Baddow.

References

  1. ^ a b Great Baddow Parish Council, published 2005, accessed 2011-10-13
  2. ^ a b Birthplace of Radio, Invest Essex, accessed 2011-10-13
  3. ^ a b c d e Planning Brief, The Vinyards Chelmsford Borough Council Town Planning Services, June 2004, accessed 2011-10-13
  4. ^ a b c d e Geology of the county around Chelmsford, British Geological Survey, CR Bristow, published HMSO 1985, ISBN 0118843354
  5. ^ [1] Scripta Diversa, By George Osborne Sayles, 1982
  6. ^ [2] Magna Carta Ancestry, By Douglas Richardson , Kimball G. Everingham, 2005
  7. ^ The Great Baddow Mast, Chelmsford Borough Council Planning and Building Control Services, published May 2009, accessed 2011-10-13


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