The Essex village with 'scattered farms and neat houses' among the most handsome in the county

Great Baddow's village sign
-Credit:Reach Publishing Services Limited


Some Essex villages are known for being community hubs and incredibly peaceful. One such village is Great Baddow, which has a vast and interesting history, but became a centre of national news last year.

It is close to the city of Chelmsford and, with a population of over 13,000, is one of the largest villages in the country. Great Baddow is recorded as having had a population of 1,445 in 1801, a figure that had risen to 2,022 in 1841 - which is pretty high for the time period!

White's Directory of Essex 1848 reports Great Baddow as being "one of the handsomest villages in Essex" having "many scattered farms and neat houses", also noting that it had an annual pleasure fair on 14 May. It is still loved by residents and visitors today. There are a number of amenities including great pubs, fantastic schools, St Mary’s Church and the Vineyards shopping centre.

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The popular Russells Restaurant is situated in a magnificent timbered Grade II-listed tithe barn in the village. The barn has been dated by experts as being originally built in 1372, making it one of the oldest surviving buildings in the Chelmsford area.

There is also a community centre, parks and various sports facilities like football pitches, tennis and basketball courts. The Baddow Antiques Centre has been trading for over 40 years and just over the road, Chelmsford’s very own brewery opened in 2017 at Brewery Fields, the site of the original brewery in Great Baddow in the 1800s.

In most villages in Essex, the most easily visible landmark is the church spire – but not in Great Baddow. For miles all around, the defining sight of Baddow is the Great Baddow Mast, the remains of Britain’s early warning defence network from WW2.

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A series of masts formed a line along the British coast in what was called the “Chain Home” and these detected enemy aircraft as they approached across the North Sea and English Channel. This village is a stunning home to many, but was recently plunged into the limelight for a much less positive reason.

In October 2024 Virginia McCullough was sentenced, at Chelmsford Crown Court, to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 36 years. She had previously admitted murdering her parents, between June 17 and 20 2019, at their home in Pump Hill in Great Baddow, and then concealing their bodies in the bedroom wardrobes, while continuing to live at the address for four years.