Nestled between Chelmsford city to the northeast and the affluent town of Brentwood to the south, lies the village and civil parish of Ingatestone. Historied and historic, Ingatestone has served as a vital crossing-junction for travellers since the Saxon times, and even today is a crucial commuter area for both Chelmsford and London. Nowadays Ingatestone boasts an affluent populous that benefits from the swathes of greenland that flank east and west, and the metropolitan hubs accesible by the rail station that runs directly to London Liverpool Street. Owing to this affluence, residences and dwellings in Ingatestone are often very expensive - with the market offering large country estates with significant acerages at prices ranging up to £5.9 million!

Ingatestone’s long history can first be seen with its name. The name is attributed to the Saxon era, where ‘Ing’ referred to groups of people or settlements. Therefore, the name can roughly be understood as ‘people or settlement at the stones’. It is first formally recorded in 1283 as ‘Gynges atte Ston’, and then in 1433 as ‘Inge atte Stone’. This name is unusual for many reasons, the main one being that the area’s soil is, for the most part, largely stone-less. The name seems to have come from the presence of sarsen stones - stones that are supposedly thought to have been deposits from post-glacial sediments after the collapse of the Ice Age, roughly 11,000 years ago! Three of these sarsen stones are still seen today in the village, notably on the village high street, and in St Edmund and St Mary’s Church. This church is over 900 years old, and was built in the 11th century when Ingatestone was owned by the Barking Abbey (which itself was constructed in the 7th century by Saint Erkenwald). Barking Abbey owned the land until Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in the 1539.

When the land was taken from the abbey, it was then purchased by Sir William Petre - a close royal advisor to Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I! He built Ingatestone Hall in 1541, which stands as a historical artefact to the design and architecture of Tudor England, and is open to this day!

Ingatestone, whilst retaining its village status, has a population of around 5,000 people. Owing to its proximity to London, when the railway station was opened in 1843, the village boomed. Although the population has grown steadily over the 20th and 21st century, there is generally resistance from locals residents for further expansion, especially developments that disrupt the vernacular architecture of the area. Houses are typically expensive, and therefore developments in the area are often solely catered to expensive builds. However, in Brentwood’s adopted local plan, the council has allocated provisions for the development of over 150 new homes to the land south of Ingatestone - which includes mixed-size and mixed-type, as well as affordable housing!