Where

Basildon is the largest town in the borough of Basildon in the county of Essex, England. It lies 26 miles (42 km) east of Central London, 11 miles (18 km) south of the city of Chelmsford and 10 miles (16 km) west of Southend-on-Sea. Nearby smaller towns include Billericay to the northwest, Wickford northeast and South Benfleet to the southeast. It was created as a new town after World War II in 1948 to accommodate the London population overspill,[3] from the conglomeration of four small villages, namely Pitsea, Laindon, Basildon (the most central of the four) and Vange.

History

The first historical reference to Basildon is in records from 1086. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as ‘Belesduna’. The name ‘Basildon’ may be derived from the Anglo-Saxon personal name ‘Boerthal’ and the Anglo-Saxon word ‘dun’, meaning hill. In historical documents, this name had various forms over the centuries, including Berdlesdon, Batlesdon and Belesduna.
Railway service started in the 19th century to Pitsea (1856) and Laindon (1888) but it was only later that proposals to provide service to the new town of Basildon, shelved for many years because of concerns that it would simply become a commuter suburb of London, were eventually forced through. A significant number of modern-day residents do commute to London.
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 homes and with amenities such as water, gas, electricity and hard-surfaced roads lacking.
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 Development Corporation was formed in February 1949 to transform the designated area into a modern new town. The New Town incorporated Laindon and Pitsea and was laid out around small neighbourhoods with the first house being completed in June 1951. A large, illuminated town sign “Basildon Town Centre Site” at 3.5 feet (1.1 m) was erected in 1956 by the railway and stood until early construction was completed.

Politics

The constituency of Basildon was considered a barometer of public opinion in general elections. The results of the constituency elections have been the same as the overall result of general elections since 1983. 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. The current MP is Conservative politician John Baron. Due to boundary changes, in the 2010 General Election the Basildon and Billericay constituency elected 1 MP and South Basildon and East Thurrock elected another MP. In terms of local politics Basildon District elects five Councillors to Essex County Council. Following the 2017 election the seats were split 2 to the Conservatives, 2 to Labour and 1 Independent. Noak Bridge has a parish council.

Billericay

Chelmsford

South Benfleet

Southend