This area of Essex, nestled in between the towns of Epping, Harlow, and Waltham Abbey, is a rural landscape in amongst the urbanised swathes of West Essex. Whilst predominantly ruralised, this area also includes the village of North Weald Bassett, the Thornwood Common hamlet and the village of Epping Upland. Due to this rural identity and long-standing history, a lot of the housing stock in this area are of great size, with great amount of land, and are frequently Grade II listed!

As the name suggests, North Weald Bassett (or just North Weald) in the medieval period, used to be a densely and thickly covered woodland area, sparsely populated by large country manor homes and privately owned land. This history maps on to the contemporary landscape of North Weald, Thornwood Common, and Epping Upland. However, the history of this area is not just the history of England’s idllyic rural landscape. On September 8th 1944 at the height of WWII, the German V-2 rockets first launched onto England, and the first missile landed just north of Epping Upland! This left a 23 x 6 crater in the Parndon Wood, and luckily that’s all, as nobody suffered any injuries or casualties from this landing.

Despite being a rural town sandwiched between larger municipalities, North Weald is often used as a filming location by British production companies; including being a featured in Michaela Coel’s Chewing Gum!

Due to its heritage status, proportion of listed homes, and rural identity, infrastructural development in the area is often slow. However, the Epping Forest District Council has put forward a North Weald Bassett Strategic Masterplan, which includes the construction of 1,000 new homes including social housing, new community and healthcare facilities, public open spaces, and new commercial rental units!