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Basildon Leasing

Did You Know?

The RSPB features strongly in Basildon. Their Visitor Centre and Discovery Zone at Wat Tyler Country Park is the gateway to the South Essex Marshes Reserves where the black-tailed godwit, Cetti's warblers, Cuckoos, Curlews and Turtle doves are star species.

Basildon was created primarily as an 'overspill' town to relieve the overpopulated areas of east London, and also to provide essential services and modern accommodation for the existing population of over 22,000, of which many were living in properties below the Housing Act standard.

The new town was established in 1949. It was one of eight established 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) from central London to help alleviate the city's acute post-World War II housing shortage. More than 230 factories have been built and nearly 400 shops, with more than 200 in the town centre.

The name of Basildon is of Saxon origin meaning 'Beorhtels Hill', but the history of the district goes back to the early Stone Age. Thousands of years ago the early inhabitants of the area were roving bands of hunters.

Local government district of Basildon, which was formed in 1974 and received borough status in 2010, encapsulates a larger area than the town itself; the two neighbouring towns of Billericay and Wickford, as well as rural villages and smaller settlements set among the surrounding countryside, fall within its borders.

With one of the most punctual train lines in the country on your doorstep, Basildon is a popular town for commuters working in the capital. Buses can take you across the county meaning it’s a popular base for working people.

The New Holland Tractor site is one of Basildon’s landmarks with rows of gleaming tractors lined up outside. Manufacturing for more than 50 years, it is truly one of the town’s biggest success stories.

Basildon was first mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086 as Berlesduna and being in the Barstable Hundred, but for centuries was little more than a small village before being designated a new town. Its small population was mainly centred around the area of Church Road, close to Holy Cross Church. Variant spellings of Basildon through the years have included: Batlesdon, Basseldon and Bassendon. 

By the beginning of the 1900s, Basildon had evolved with much of the land having been sold in small plots during a period of land speculation and development taking placed haphazardly with building by plot owners ranging from shelters created from recycled materials to brick-built home.

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 South East of England after the passing of the New Towns Act. On 4 January 1949 Lewis Silkin, Minister of Town and Country Planning, officially designated Basildon as a 'New Town'

Basildon has three senior men's football clubs: Basildon United and Bowers & Pitsea F.C., which both play in the Isthmian League North Division; and Basildon Town, who play in the Essex Olympian Football League.

The town's main sporting facility is the Basildon Sporting Village, that opened in 2011 and is based in Gloucester Park. The Village consists of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, 8 court sports hall, a climbing wall, athletics track and is home to the South Essex Gymnastics Club.