The Deanes

Little Haven is a 37.2-hectare (92-acre) nature reserve in Thundersley in Essex. It is owned by the Little Haven Children's Hospice, and leased to the Essex Wildlife Trust (EWT).This site has diverse habitats of woodland, meadows, scrub and hedges. The main trees are sessile oaks, hornbeams and sweet chestnut, and plants such as wood sorrel and are indicators of ancient woodland. The reserve is one of only 25 in the courty where the rare heath fritillary is well established. The hedges provide nesting sites for migrating birds such as whitethroats.There is access to the site by a footpath from St Michael's Road through Tile Wood, a neighbouring EWT nature reserve.

Rayleigh Weir Stadium was a speedway, greyhound racing and stock car stadium in Weir between Rayleigh and Thundersley in England. It is not to be confused with the Rayleigh Greyhound Sports Stadium that existed in O’Tooles Meadow on Down Hall Road.

Thundersley is a town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Benfleet, in the Castle Point borough, in southeast Essex, England. It sits on a clay ridge shared with Basildon and Hadleigh, 31 miles (50 km) east of Charing Cross, London. In 1951 the parish had a population of 6482.Its main parish takes in Daws Heath to the east which is also part of the current Victoria local government electoral ward. The two areas have Anglican churches. A third Anglican church is in the secular ward of St John's, which is commonly conflated on maps with South Benfleet which it adjoins and it is separated from Thundersley by a narrow green buffer. Between the two wards is the main ward of St Peter's, which loosely resembles the very longstanding church parish. One ward is partially in Thundersley, Boyce which includes Thundersley Green and various short streets next to the town itself.

Thundersley Great Common or Thundersley Common is an 8.9-hectare (22-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Thundersley in Essex. It is managed as public open space by Castle Point Borough Council.The site is in two separate areas, and has a variety of grass and heath habitats. There wet and dry heathland, both unusual in Essex, and have locally uncommon plants. Heather and gorse are dominant in areas which are not mown, and ponds which dry up in the summer provide an additional habitat.There is access from Common Approach and Kingsley Lane.

Daws Heath contains a large area of woodland in eastern Thundersley, part of Castle Point near Southend-on-Sea in Essex, England. It is traversed by the Daws Heath Road and St Michael's Road. Daws Heath provides a semi-rural escape for local towns and villages and their residents as they walk, cycle or drive out of Castle Point, as Daws Heath Road has fields and woodland on both sides of the road with a small scattering of houses. Going down Daws Heath Road it is not uncommon to see rare-breed cattle, sheep and horses. Daws Heath is surrounded by Greenbelt and Woodland which are a buffer to stop the local villages merging by development. West Woods, nearly 80 acres (320,000 m2) of mixed woodland, was purchased from the Church of England in 2009, securing continued public access to these woods; public support in the Daws Heath area is very strong especially on green belt and woodland preservation. The area has established neighbourhood watch schemes, Church Groups and Greenbelt Protection Groups. Daws Heath contains The Deanes, (a secondary School), and is linked to a local Sixth Form College in Thundersley (SEEVIC), now part of USP College. Daws Heath extends from the north side of Hadleigh towards the A127 London-Southend arterial road, and from where it adjoins Thundersley proper at the west end of Daws Heath Road eastwards to Belfairs Park, Leigh-on-Sea in Southend borough. Ann's Mini Market is the heart of Daws Heath which brings the local community together. The Glazebrook Family is well known in Daws Heath and they are viewed as key members of the community. Although new to Daws Heath, the Merrison's have also played a large role within the community. In fact the two eldest sons from each family could be seen horse riding along Fairmead, Morfcroft and Daws Heath Road. Some even called them the four musketeers. Daws Heath was described in books as a "wild and lawless place: both travellers and local inhabitants had to endure thieves and highwaymen," (Thundersley - A Pictorial History by Terry Babbington) and "a hotbed of lawlessness right down to living memory." (Southend-on-Sea & District by J.W.Burrows, dated 1909). Burrows continued......"The settlement of this...district is attributed to some discharged soldiers who served in the Peninsular War. Upon the heath land they built themselves small huts, and by some means or another managed to obtain a precarious livelihood. Here possibly smuggled goods were concealed until a favourable opportunity enabled the owners to dispatch them to London or through the bye roads into the centre of England." Charcoal burning was an important industry here in the 16th century, supplying gunpowder factories. This probably included the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills which produced gunpowder from 1660. More recently the Essex Wildlife Trust has revived charcoal burning in Pound Wood. The Wildlife Trust has done much work in Pound Wood and Tile Wood/Starvelarks Wood (next to Little Haven Children's Hospice), making them more accessible to visitors. The nearest public house is The Woodman's Arms on the Rayleigh Road (A129) junction with Daws Heath Road. The artist Alan Sorrell was a resident of Daws Heath.

The King John School, often abbreviated to King John, is a secondary academy school with a sixth form in South Benfleet, Essex, England. It is named after King John of England (1166–1216). The main school building was opened in 1949. As of November 2023, the school has an enrolment of 2052 students, operating over its recommended capacity of 2000 students.

Unified Seevic Palmer's College, trading as USP College (previously known as Seevic and Palmer's Colleges Group), is a large general further education college in Essex, England. It was established in August 2017 from the merger of Palmer's College in Grays, Thurrock, and Seevic College in Thundersley, Benfleet, and traces its history back to the establishment of Palmer's as a charity school in 1706. Seevic College was established as a sixth form college in 1972, with Seevic originally being an acronym for South East Essex Sixth (VI) Form College. Seevic and Palmer's now make up two of the college's three campuses, with the XTEND Digital Campus in Canvey Island forming its third campus. There were 3,588 students enrolled to the college as of November 2021.The Seevic Campus offers adult education courses for learners of any age. Both campuses offer a special needs department for anyone with a learning disability. The Palmer's campus opened its special needs department in September 2018, following the success of the Seevic Campus one which has been running for several years and has over 94 students in the department. In 2018 Seevic merged with Palmer's College as part of a government initiative. From September 2018 the colleges were renamed USP College with a new logo. It was announced in March 2019 that USP had purchased local apprenticeship provider ITEC Learning Technologies which would increase the number of apprenticeship training options USP could offer.

Hadleigh is a town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Benfleet, in southeast Essex, England, on the A13 between Thundersley, Benfleet and Leigh-on-Sea with a population of 18,300. In 1951 the parish had a population of 5,209. It has a squared bypass to the north (the A127 'Southend Arterial Road').

The Church of St James the Less, is a grade I listed church in Hadleigh, Essex.The church is of predominantly Norman construction with the chancel and nave dating to the 12th century.

The Rayleigh Town Museum is a small local museum on the top floor at 91 High Street, Rayleigh. It is run by a registered charity. The building is a Grade II listed building which is a former timber-framed house dating from at least the 16th century. The museum received funding of £89,800 in March 2015 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for its "inception, development and sustainability." It was officially opened by the local MP, Mark Francois, on 9 April 2016.

Rayleigh is a market town and civil parish in the Rochford District in Essex, England; it is located between Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea, 32 miles (51 km) east of central London. It had a population of 32,150 at the census in 2011.

The Dutch Cottage is an octagonal-shaped cottage located in Rayleigh, Essex, England. It is a Grade II listed building. It is both the smallest and the oldest council house in the United Kingdom.