RAF Birch

Smythe's Green is a hamlet on the B1022 road, in the Colchester district, in the county of Essex, England. It is located in between the villages of Tiptree and Birch.

Easthorpe is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Copford, in the Colchester district, in the county of Essex, England. Easthorpe is on an old Roman road. Nearby settlements include the large town of Colchester and the villages of Marks Tey, Copford and Copford Green. The main A12 road and Marks Tey railway station are nearby. In 1931 the parish had a population of 113. On 26 March 1949 the parish was abolished and merged with Copford, part also went to Marks Tey and Messing cum Inworth.

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.

Layer Marney Tower is an incomplete early Tudor country house, with gardens and parkland, dating from about 1523, in Layer Marney, Essex, England, between Colchester and Maldon. The building was designated Grade I listed in 1952. The large gatehouse tower is much the most striking element to be completed and to survive. Constructed in the first half of the reign of Henry VIII, Layer Marney Tower is in many ways the apotheosis of the Tudor gatehouse, and is the tallest example in Britain. It is contemporaneous with East Barsham Manor in Norfolk and Sutton Place, Surrey, with which latter building it shares the rare combination of brick and terracotta construction. The building is principally the creation of Henry 1st Lord Marney, who died in 1523, and his son John, who continued the building work but died just two years later, leaving no male heirs to continue the family line or the construction. What was completed was the main range measuring some three hundred feet long, the principal gatehouse that is about eighty feet tall, an array of outbuildings, and a new church.

Messing is a village and former civil parish, 14 miles (23 km) north east of Chelmsford, now in the parish of Messing-cum-Inworth, in the Colchester district, in the county of Essex, England. The village has a population of around 300. In 1931 the parish had a population of 929.

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.

Layer Marney is a village and civil parish in the City of Colchester district of Essex, England, near Tiptree. Layer Marney has a Tudor palace called Layer Marney Tower and a church called Church of St Mary the Virgin.

Marks Tey is a large village and electoral ward in Essex, England; it is located six miles west of Colchester.

Marks Tey railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line (GEML) in the East of England, serving the large village of Marks Tey, Essex. It is 46 miles 49 chains (75.02 km) down the line from London Liverpool Street and on the GEML is situated between Kelvedon to the west and Colchester to the east. Marks Tey is also the southern terminus of the Gainsborough Line to Sudbury. Its three-letter station code is MKT. The "up" (London-bound) platform 1 has an operational length for nine-coach trains, the "down" (Colchester-bound) platform 2 can accommodate 11-coach trains and platform 3 (for the Sudbury branch) has an operational length for two-coach trains.The station was opened in 1843 by the Eastern Counties Railway. It is located on Station Road, just off the A120 road that runs through the village, parallel to the railway. The station is currently operated by Greater Anglia, who also operate all trains serving it, as part of the East Anglia franchise.

St Andrew's Church is a Church of England parish church in the Essex village of Marks Tey. It was Grade I listed in 1965.Its nave was built around 1100, using coursed walls of mixed rubble, puddingstone and Roman bricks, possibly from an undiscovered villa in the area. Its chancel was rebuilt around 1330, with a sedilla, a piscina, a mid or late 14th century chancel arch and a blocked-up doorway to a former rood screen. The current west tower and small spire are 16th century but may represent a rebuild of one from the later 14th century. Its base is of brick and rubble and the upper two-thirds of timber. The south porch is also 16th century, whilst the font cover is early 17th century. The whole building was restored in the 19th century.

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.

Thurstable School is a mixed (ages 11–18) secondary academy school, sports college and sixth form situated in the village of Tiptree, Essex, England. The school is about 8 miles south of Colchester.