Colchester Zoo

Heckfordbridge or Heckford is a hamlet in the civil parish of Birch, in the county of Essex, England. The settlement is on the B1022 road, between Colchester and Tiptree. near to Colchester Zoo.

Birch is a village and civil parish in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. It is located approximately 5 miles (8 km) south-west of Colchester and 17 miles (27 km) north-east of the county town of Chelmsford. The village is in the parliamentary constituency of North Essex. There is a parish council.The parish incorporates the hamlet of Heckfordbridge. It is only 2.5 miles (4 km) from Abberton Reservoir. The parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul is a Grade II listed building, but has been derelict since it closed in the late 20th century. In 2023 it is threatened with demolition as the Church of England cannot afford to repair it. According to the 2001 census, Birch had a population of 817, increasing to 873 at the 2011 Census.

Stanway Pegasus Football Club is a football club based in Stanway, England. They are currently members of the Eastern Counties League Division One North and play at Stanway School, Stanway, Colchester, Essex.

The Stanway School is a mixed secondary school located in Stanway in the English county of Essex.The school was converted to academy status in May 2013, and used to be a community school under the direct control of Essex County Council. The school continues to coordinate with Essex County Council for admissions. The Stanway School offers the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSEs), Business and Technology Education Council (BTECs) and OCR Nationals as programmes of study for pupils. The school has a Humanities, Maths & Computing specialism, and offers additional courses in these subjects. The school is part of the Stanway Federation Academy Trust with the Thomas Lord Audley School and is also part of the Sigma Trust.

Beacon End is a village in Essex, England.

Stanway is a village and civil parish in Essex, England near Colchester and within Colchester Borough. 'Stanway' is an Anglo-Saxon name for the 'stone way' of the Roman road, now the A12. Stanway is about 3 miles (5 km) west of Colchester city centre on the B1408 (former A12), near the junction of the A12 and the A1124 at Eight Ash Green. Colchester Zoo, The Stanway School, Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn, founder members of Blur, met at the local school, The Stanway School. Stanway is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.The £4.3m A12 bypass opened in 1970. Local pubs include the Princess Charlotte (the first pub in the UK to be named after Princess Charlotte of Wales) and the Swan on London Road, and Live and Let Live on Millers Lane. There are five schools – three primary schools,Lexden Springs School and The Stanway School which has academy status, and describes itself as a "Humanities and Maths & Computing College". Four of the five schools are close together, on adjacent roads with the third primary behind the Tollgate shopping centre. An ever-expanding shopping district comprising The Tollgate Centre and Stane Park occupies an area close to the A12, these centres are home to national retailers such as B&Q, Sainsbury's, Homebase, Next and Marks and Spencer (having closed its city centre store in 2022). Further shops and businesses such as the Co-op, Halfords and Hatfields occupy the Peartree road area,

Copford Hall is a manorial seat and Grade II listed country house, with gardens by Capability Brown, in the village of Copford, Essex, England, 46 miles (74 km) from London. The building was at one time owned by the bishops of London, and its grounds are described in Pevsner as "almost the beau idéal of what to the foreigner is an English landscape scene".The present house is a large, square red-brick building with stone dressing and ornamentation, the façade the result of alterations in the early 1800s. However, the majority of the structure dates back to 1720, and parts of the inside to the early 1600s. The extensive grounds include canals, fishponds and water features. On the lowest pool is a classical boathouse. Part of the possessions of the bishopric See of London before the Norman conquest of England, it came into the possession of the Crown and was sold by King James I of England to the Mountjoy family. It was purchased from them by John Haynes in 1626, who later went to North America where he served as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and then as the first governor of the Connecticut Colony. His son, Cromwell's Major General Hezekiah Haynes, took it over in 1657. It passed to a cousin by marriage, Major John Haynes Harrison of the Essex Militia, who married the heiress daughter of Reverend John Fiske and his wife Sarah in 1783. Their children included Fiske Goodeve Fiske-Harrison. It was later owned by his descendant A. B. C. Harrison, Lord of the Manor of Copford, former High Sheriff and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Essex and, former MP for Maldon in Essex.

Stanway Rovers Football Club is a football club based in Stanway, near Colchester, in Essex, England. They are currently members of the Essex Senior League and play at the Hawthorns.

Layer de la Haye (often spelled Layer-de-la-Haye; locally known just as Layer) is a village and civil parish in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England. In the 2011 census it had a recorded population of 1,767.

Hardy's Green is a hamlet in civil parish of Birch in the Colchester district, in the county of Essex, England. Nearby settlements include the large town of Colchester.

Copford Green is a hamlet within the civil parish of Copford and the district of Colchester in Essex, England. It is near the A12 and A120 roads, and is 3 kilometres (2 mi) south west of Colchester. The parish church of St Michael's & All Angels, with sections dating back as far as 1130, is adjacent to Copford Green, as is the manorial house of Copford Hall.

Roman River Valley is a 17.8-hectare (44-acre) nature reserve north of Layer de la Haye in Essex. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust.This wetland site along the Roman River has ancient woodland and marshes. Aquatic plants include the uncommon small teasel, and there are flowering plants such as yellow archangel and moschatel.There is access from the B1026 road north of Layer de la Haye.