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Great Baddow is a major village and civil parish in the Chelmsford borough of Essex, England. It is close to the city of Chelmsford and, with a population of over 13,000, Great Baddow Parish Council, published 2005, accessed 2011-10-13 is one of the largest villages in the country.
In the Anglo-Saxons period, the Manorialism of Great Baddow was held by the Earls of Mercia and in the 13th century by Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale whose widow launched a legal challenge over its ownership on his death in March 1295. After passing to the Crown, Henry VIII later granted it to Catherine of Aragon. During the reign of Edward VI, it was held by the Paschals, before being sold to J.A. Houblon in 1736.
According to information in the local Church of St Mary, the rebel leader Jack Straw led an ill-fated crowd (the men of Essex) from the churchyard to London, in one of the risings in the 1381 Peasants' Revolt.
In 1731, Jasper Jeffrey founded Great Baddow Free School and, in 1830, two National Schools were built. By 1933, there were 7 daily schools, 2 daily and Sunday schools, and a further 2 boarding schools.
Great Baddow is recorded as having had a population of 1,445 in 1801, a figure that had risen to 2,022 in 1841. 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.
William Calcraft, the hangman and a Shoemaking by trade, was born at Baddow in 1800.Griffiths, Arthur George Frederick (1884), The Chronicles of Newgate vol. 2, pp. 411-415
Following the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, responsibility for the poor of Great Baddow was removed from the parish and transferred to the Chelmsford Union on 10 August 1835. Seax – Catalogue: G/Ch Chelmsford Union Essex Record Soffice, accessed 2011-10-13
The Post Office Directory of Essex 1851, which lists the principal residents and trade persons of the parish of Great Baddow, includes 24 , 8 beer retailers, 4 shoemakers, 3 blacksmith, 2 and notes that the vicar is residing in the Vineyards.
The Great Baddow Mast – a former Chain Home radar transmitter tower, originally sited at RAF Canewdon – was moved to the outskirts of Great Baddow at around 1954 and is used by BAE Systems for equipment testing. The Great Baddow Mast , Chelmsford Borough Council Planning and Building Control Services, published May 2009, accessed 2011-10-13 The last remaining example of a Chain Home tower maintaining its platforms, it was made a listed building by Historic England in October 2019 and given a Grade II status.
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 17 and 20 June 2019, at their home in Pump Hill in the village, and then concealing their bodies in the bedroom wardrobes, while continuing to live at the address for four years.
Great Baddow has three pubs: the White Horse, Blue Lion and The Star; The Beehive and King's Head pubs have closed in recent times. There is also a family-run brewery, the Chelmsford Brewing Company. The former Baddow Brewery, previously owned by the Baddow Brewery Co Ltd, Baddow Brewery Co Ltd The National Archives, accessed 2011-10-13 built in 1868 and extended in 1878 by George Scamell, is now a Grade II building and houses local businesses. A Survey of the Brewery Heritage of Essex, Brewery History: 111, pp. 15-34, Tony Crosby, published 2003, accessed 2011-10-13 Great Baddow is also home to the Pontlands Park Country Hotel and the Baddow Antique Centre.
The centre of Great Baddow is now a conservation area and contains over 30 .
The Vineyards, in the centre of the old village, was once a Georgian house set in wooded grounds Planning Brief, The Vineyards Chelmsford Borough Council Town Planning Services, June 2004, accessed 2011-10-13 which later became a hotel. It was demolished in the mid-1960s THE issue on everyone's lips at the moment in Great Baddow – the demolition of Marrable House – was exactly the same this time 50 years ago. This is Essex, published 2011-02-17, accessed 2011-10-13 before the advent of Listed building, to make way for the construction of the Vineyards shopping centre and later the Marrable House office block, both constructed with a 'scale, form, layout and architecture' that Chelmsford Council now considers to 'jar with its historic surroundings'. Despite this, the shopping centre continues to thrive and, since refurbishment in the 2000s, the flats above are highly regarded and sought-after properties. Marrable House, a six-storey office block was described at the time of its construction in 1968 as "one of the worst examples of town and country planning in the country" Protestors triumph as Vineyards plan rejected Chelmsford Weekly News, published 2010-06-25, accessed 2011-10-13 and subsequently once voted as one of England's ugliest buildings, Plans to demolish 'ugliest building' in doubt Essex Chronicle, published 2010-06-24, accessed 2011-10-13 was demolished in the Spring of 2016,http://www.essexlive.news/concrete-muncher...marrable-house/.../story.html and was replaced with a 53-flat development, made up of one to two bedrooms in two buildings, named Heron Gate; the development was completed in spring 2018. A corner of the grounds of the former Vineyards mansion were retained and form a green area to the west of the Vineyards development. A library was also opened on the western edge of the development in September 1981, replacing the former building in Bell Street. Great Baddow Library Celebrates 20 Years published September 2011, accessed 2011-10-13
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