Ramsden Heath

Ramsden Bellhouse is a village and civil parish in Essex in the east of England. It is in the Borough of Basildon and in the parliamentary constituency of Billericay. The River Crouch flows through Ramsden Bellhouse, flowing under Church Road.During the Middle Ages, Roger fitzReinfrid, a royal justice, held land at Ramsden Bellhouse, and later granted the church to Lesnes Abbey in north Kent. Its full Domesday Book entry from 1086 reads (in modern translation):Ramesdana / -duna: William from Bishop of London; 2 men-at-arms from Bishop of Bayeux; Osbern from Hugh de Montfort; Robert Gernon and Ansketel from him; Humphrey from Ranulf, brother of Ilger. Mill, 4 beehives

Downham is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of South Hanningfield, in Essex, England. It is located approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the borough of Chelmsford and in the parliamentary constituency of Rayleigh. However, the closest two towns are Billericay, 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) west-southwest, and Wickford, 2+1⁄4 miles (3.6 km) southeast. In 1931 the parish had a population of 833.

Crowsheath Wood (or Thrift Wood) is an 8.1-hectare (20-acre) nature reserve in Downham, between Billericay and South Woodham Ferrers in Essex. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust.The wood has many mature oak trees, with coppiced areas mainly of hornbeam, together with other trees such as ash and field maple. There are ponds in the centre of the site where lesser spearwort grows. Flowers include bluebell and wood anemone, and there are birds typical of broadleaved woodland.There is access from Crowsheath Lane and by a footpath from School Road.

Stock Windmill is a grade II* listed tower mill at Stock, Essex, which has been restored.

Crays Hill is a village in the Basildon borough of Essex, England. The River Crouch passes under Church Lane.The village was listed in Domesday Book of 1086 when the Lord of the manor and tenant-in-chief was Sasselin of Layer.Crays Hill was part of the civil parish of Ramsden Crays until 1934 when it was abolished to enlarge South Hanningfield.

Norsey Wood is a 67.2-hectare (166-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Billericay, Essex. It is also a Local Nature Reserve and a Scheduled Monument.The site is ancient oak woodland on acid soil which has been converted to mixed sweet chestnut coppice. Bluebell, bracken and bramble are dominant on the ground layer, but there are sphagnum mosses (sphagnum palustre and Sphagnum cuspidatum) in acidic flushes, and the rare water violet in one of the four ponds. There are nine species of dragonfly. Archaeolocal features include a Bronze Age bowl barrow, Iron Age and Roman cemeteries, and a medieval deer bank.Norsey Wood is the likely site of the Battle of Billericay during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, a battle the peasants lost. There is a Forest nursery school based on the outside of the woods with access to the woods for the children, toilets, a car park and a trail. There is access from Outwood Common Road, Break Egg Hill, Norsey Close, Deerbank and Norsey Road.

Stock is a village and civil parish in south Essex, England. It is about 6 miles (10 km) south of Chelmsford, the county town. The village is in the borough of Chelmsford and in the parliamentary constituency of Maldon.

Ramsden Crays is a civil parish in the Basildon district of Essex, England. It lies north of Basildon and west of Wickford. The parish includes the village of Crays Hill and is located north of the A127. The River Crouch runs through the parish. The 2011 census records that there were 862 males and 976 females living in the parish.

Hanningfield Reservoir is a large 25,500-million-litre (900,000,000 cu ft) pumped storage reservoir located between Billericay and Chelmsford in Essex. It has a surface area of 352 hectares (870 acres) and is owned and operated by Essex and Suffolk Water.The reservoir is part of a 402.9 ha (996 acres) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest. The site is also owned by Essex and Suffolk Water and is run by them in conjunction with the Essex Wildlife Trust. The reservoir is covered by a Bird Sanctuary Order.

Mayflower High School, founded in 1965, and named after the Mayflower ship, is a coeducational, secondary school located in Billericay, Essex in the East of England in the United Kingdom. The school has a mixed intake of pupils aged 11–18 (School years 7 to 13) and is an academy. As of June 2006 the number of enrolled pupils was 1,418. Mayflower has specialisms in science and mathematics as well as languages.

West Hanningfield is a small village and civil parish in south Essex, England. It is located approximately 8 km (5.0 mi) south-southeast of the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the borough of Chelmsford and in the parliamentary constituency of Rayleigh. It is located to the north of Hanningfield Reservoir. Surrounding villages include South Hanningfield, Stock, Rettendon and East Hanningfield. It is also close to the Chelmsford suburbs of Galleywood and Great Baddow. The local public house is known as the Three Compasses. The village also contains a primary school, a village hall and a hairdresser. It is the home of Lord Hanningfield the disgraced Tory Peer and former Conservative leader of Essex County Council.The Church of St Mary and St Edward is Grade II* listed church in the east end of the village. It is of twelfth-century origin, with considerable alterations made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It has a weather boarded timber-framed tower, thought to date from the early thirteenth century, with timbers recently dated as being felled between AD 1382–1414. The bells were cast in 1676, and are a rare example of a complete seventeenth-century ring, although not operable for some time. The Church Buildings Council consider them of historic significance. A Whitechapel Bell Foundry report noted that the bellframe was cut to install the bells.

Dale Farm is a plot of land situated on Oak Lane in Crays Hill, Essex, United Kingdom. Until October 2011, it was the site of one of the largest Traveller concentrations in the UK, at its height housing over 1,000 people, along with the adjacent Oak Land site. Although Basildon District Council had granted permission for the site to be used by a small number of Traveller families, no planning permission was given for the expansion of the site into land located within the Green Belt.The establishment of the illegal plots led to Basildon District Council conducting a ten-year legal battle in the High Court to gain a clearance order to evict the Travellers from Dale Farm. The decision to bring in police officers to remove some activists and residents from the site and give safe access to the contracted bailiffs gained international press coverage, with the overall eviction costing the council £4.8 million.