[Closed] Moving to Essex- where to live/avoid?

Avoid anywhere with burnt out cars lying around, which is most of it 🙂

Rural Essex is quite nice if you can tolerate the accent.

Filling me with confidence 😯

Benfleet is OK and fairly close to Saaaarfend.

Have you chosen your shade of fake tan yet?

Pft, i'll let my girldfriend decide the fake bake..
Some of the houses in rural areas look rather nice.

They say dont go south of the a127. Seems reasonable to me.

Wasnt to keen on the places below the A127 anyway. Seems to be like one large built up area- basildon all the way to Southend.
I'm more of a country boy anyway so ideally I dont want to be in a town. We both have cars so travelling isnt an issue. Up to 45 mins from Southend and 25 mins from Chelmsford.

I live in Brentwood, local woods are easy to get to and a laugh and Epping forest isn't very far away. Good road cycling around too. Brentwood tends to merge with Shenfield but is cheaper because of the train lines.
Chelmsford is 20-30 mins drive away and Southend a bit longer. I have lived in Chelmsford and liked it but not ideal for your girlfiend's commute.
Places to avoid....Basildon, in particular Vange and Pitsea.

South Woodham Ferrers is a great place.

Being from Harlow, I'd say stay well away. Since that's pretty much as far west as you can go, I'm sure it won't be a problem 🙂

Thanks. Good advice. Hadn't even thought of those two locations.
I was under the impression that the closer to London you get the higher the rent?

Ideally I'd pick norf Chelmsford if you can afford it. You're close to the A130 so fairly fast to Sarfend in the mornings, go the other way on it and you're at Stansted/M11 for getting the hell outta Essex purposes.

I would avoid anything south of Chelmsford or in between the two - Benfleet/South Woodham Ferrers/Wickford/Basildon (obviously). Diveish in my opinion.

I went to school in Chelmsford and married a girl from Southend so I'm better qualified than most on this. I now live in North Yorkshire.

I always found SWF to be quite civilised, for Essex! 🙂

South Woodham Ferrers? You'll only get a property there if you're VERY closely related to the existing dwellers 😉

I'm in Chelmsford and it's a fine place to live. Good transport links, lots of countryside on your doorstep and Danbury for local riding. Lots of development going on here too.

Billers/Rayleigh/Wickford/SWF all between (of kinda between) Chelms and SoS

Billers would be my shout... nice bike commute to chelms and not a bad town... got a good BIke Club.... Essex Roads

Don't dismiss south of A127... Leigh-on-sea is nice... but there's no getting away from the built up feel

Do not go near Dagenham.

Billericays nice, south green/Burstead side is best IMO as its on the edge of all the farmland and not built up, with loads of country lanes for road riding and lots of bridal ways and Langden hills and Thorndon Park for mtb, Epping forest is about a half hour drive away too.
And the Waitrose on the high st is superb...

Brilliant. Thanks for all the input guys. Only seen these places on maps so it's good to understand the area.

Definitely worth a day or two exploring down there to get a feel for different towns.

Wivenhoe was a nice place to live

I lived in essex for 25 years, school and worked all over really. I lived in a village called hatfield peverel along the A12 corridor. Quite a nice place and on the edge of some good countryside and riding.

Some pretty good advice already - as a rough rule I would say draw a line north south through chelmsford and then try and head as far east and north that your journey times will allow. With the exception of witham, the further east you go the better essex gets. Beautiful estuaries and coastline, pretty remote too. Off road is suprisingly good although not technical, road biking good too. Perfect xc and cx terrain

I'd think about maldon and the blackwater estuary area, but maybe on the limits of travel times as Essex is a busy place and I think youll find Southend is 45 mins from chelmsford, if not more. Personally I wouldn't contemplate south of the A127. It's truly wretched.

This is all great information, thanks. We've been striking off a fair number of house. I'm the one working in Southend but due to the nature of the job I'll be travelling around various locations so it doesn't really matter how far it is from Southend. We've found a few houses in Braintree? Any feedback on that area? Lots of these flats/houses seem to be next to a train line..

Anywhere but Canvey Island would be my advice. Billericay is nice and has a Waitrose and is the only part south of the A120 I would recommend. (Did several years of site visits in that part of the world).

Definitely avoid Basvegas and any associated parts. The arterial corridor is pretty built up for obvious reasons. Parts of it, like Old Leigh are reasonable but it's all pretty congested. My dad lives in Rayleigh and I grew up in thundersley so I know those parts are ok but nothing special. Places like Stock are nice but probably out of budget and only have 6 bed houses 😉

Not sure about "fairly fast to Sarfend" during rush hour from Chelmsford tbh, which is why somewhere between the two looks about right to me. Maldon would be a nice commute for your gf but not for you. Hullbridge?

braintree is ok, and it's connected well when you want to get away by road although the train line is a bit pants as it's at the end of a branch from the liverpool street line. It is well serviced though with an easy train commute to chelmsford. Reasonable town with a market square and older centre, like a lot of places it is surrounded by retail park nonesense but hey, you could do worse. There is a good mountaineering club (or used to be) and an excellent kayak club. Bikewise not so great off road as it is more an arable/farm type area. Not sure what houses prices are like now - it is an easy commute to the city by train or car.....

Braintree is miles from Southend though! Been to Halstead a few times, it's nice around there.

I'd like to help, but I've only lived in the places you've been told to avoid... 😳

Hi 5, fellow scum 😉

Chelmsford and Maldon are ok. I grew up in a village near there called Mayland. Wouldn't want to live there now though, bit too small!

I live in Billericay and work at ford dunton (import from oop north). Billericay station is on the southend line so you could train it in. Plenty of people drive from chelmsford to dunton (literally hundreds) and Billericay is on the way so thats very doable. Driving to southend involves the A127 which sucks.

Tiptree... For the jam 🙂

Joking aside its quite nice around there.

Essix born n' bred here...

Lived in numerous places including SWF, went to school there, married there, divorced there, bit predudice to there 😉

Lived in Chelmsford and Billericay, both nice places but now live in Rayleigh and love it here and from where I live chelmo and sarfend are equi-distant.

Aviod SOS itself as a nightmare getting in and out for the C/Ford commuter. BTW if you look at Chelmsford Gt Baddow is lovely and Galleywood great for easy access trails!

Essex, beautiful villages with generally shite towns (well the newer ones anyhow). Avoid Harlow New Town like the plague, utter hole (lived there for a year and worked there for seven years).

[b]@Khani[/b] - Just been thinking about some of the trails I used to ride out Galleywood/Margaretting way when I lived there years ago, totally forgot about them until this thread! Well worth a re-visit 😀

My outlaws live in East Hanningfield which seems pleasant enough.

EDIT Which is quite near Chelmsford.

Good to hear there are a few other Essex locals. Weird hearing about Galleywood on here!

Advice above is pretty good, but like everywhere there are good and bad bits. Avoid [s]Bas Vegas[/s] [s]Basra[/s] Basildon. Horrible roads (A127) and some nasty people. That said, a colleague lives in Vange and it sounds like she has a nice enough street.

I'm living in Great Baddow at the moment (on the edge of Chelmsford). Not a bad little village, not much excitement but it's decent for road access to the m25 etc, close enough to Danbury, Little Baddow etc for some reasonable riding.

Worked as a student in Fords - lived around the whole area, only one place I'd recommend, Maldon.

Stay away from Basildon
If you want to get near Southend then best area would be Westcliffe

I work in Laindon, behind the Ford plant in Dunton - I'd avoid Basildon/Laindon and surrounding area - it is pretty horrid - and riddled with thieving Gypsies - they have even nicked the Earth cable off our 11KVa transformer twice (must have a death wish)

Stay North of the A127 - there are some nice little spots south of the A127 - but you need to know the area, and what you are looking at.

I'd look at the villages off the A130 - if you base yourselves in that area one of you can go north to Chelmsford, and the other head South to Southend.
You could look at Chelmer Village - have a mate at work who lives there, and it is pretty OK.
Woodham is alright aswell.

Thanks to all for the great info!! Really glad I started this thread. Wasn't sure if I was going to get a response. Scratched about 6 houses off the list from Basildon area.

grew up in Grays (shit hole), went to school in Stanford-le-(no?)hope and lived in Chelmsford for 7 years. mum is originally from Chelmsford, old man from Dagenham.

C-ford is nice as are many of the surrounding villages. as above, look for somewhere along/near the A130. Galleywood, East or West Hanningfield, Stock (nice pub, The Hoop), Danbury would be my choice. can ride mtb straight from the door.

nice Indian in Hatfield Peveral.... can't remember the name of it, but it's opposite the tyre place. oh, and the Blue Strawberry is there, too.

If you want to get near Southend then best area would be Westcliffe

Do you know this area? 95% of Westcliff is a total shithole, the remaining 5% falls well outside of the OPs stated budget.

^^ there's a lot of crap been said... Halstead? that's almost Suffolk! Harlow?

I'm really keen on seeing Canvey Island to follow in the footsteps of Dr Feelgood and pay homage to them. Apparently there is an annual guided walk around there taking in the pubs where they first played.

Loved the documentary that was on a while back, what a unique place that was responsible for one of the greatest ever bands whom I've had the privilege of seeing twice in the 70's.

Sorry, as you were. 😀

^^ there's a lot of crap been said...

This is STW, what else did you expect?

cinnamon girl, you have it right - Canvey is really rather an appealingly bonkers place, and in its own little time/culture warp.

Lots of generalisations in what people have posted, and many of them generally true (but always expect the unexpected, Essex can have charm where you least expect it).

My generalisation would be that Essex is best on its eastern and northern borders - ie where it's almost Suffolk (Halstead, Castle Hedingham, Mistley, Wrabness, even Colchester) or almost Cambs (Saffron Walden, Great Dunmow, or that place that Jamie Oliver comes from) - but then I live in Suffolk so I would say that.

Sadly all this will be of limited help if one of you has to work in Southend - so how about Shoeburyness, beloved of Ian Dury and Billy Bragg?

Have you looked at what you can get for £700PCM in Southend area that's probably a very nice and / or nice location 1 bed or an OK two bed. Houses rent for upwards of £800 and around £1000 up for something decent.

Agree with the comments about traffic. It can take as long to get out of Southend towards London as it does to get in morning or evening. Town centres a bit grim but in the burbs you will come across lots of independently owned stores.

There are plenty of trails around the area though and Hadleigh Farm is on the doorstep. Southend council is pretty enlightened about cycling in general and the Cycling Southend website is a good place to connect with other riders. You don't have to ride too far to get out into the countryside either.

Personally speaking have lived here for 4 years after 5 years in Kent and 15 in London beforehand. It's no better or worse than anywhere else where you're looking to spend £700PCM on rent.

And Cinnamon Girl is right to point out the area is the home of the mighty Dr Feelgood. Reason enough to move here!

Alpin. Indian in Hatfield Peveral would be Omars. Tiny place, no drinks licence (bring your own), but ace food

I'm really keen on seeing Canvey Island to follow in the footsteps of Dr Feelgood and pay homage to them.

Once they were popular, they played in Southend 😉

there's a lot of crap been said... Halstead? that's almost Suffolk!

Did you read the bit about him considering Braintree? And the bit about not wanting to live in a town?

95% of Westcliff is a total shithole, the remaining 5% falls well outside of the OPs stated budget.

FFS, total shithole? It's not that bad in comparison to a lot of other places, and sizeable parts of it are really nice. Then again, I may be thinking of the 5%. Or Chalkwell 😉

Brentwood is a good shout, I used to ride a lot around Warley Gap, I'm not sure how much is left of the old trails though.

Don't underestimate the traffic. I would seriously consider one of you looking for another job a bit closer to the other.

Do you know this area? 95% of Westcliff is a total shithole, the remaining 5% falls well outside of the OPs stated budget.

Probably overstating it a little, but not far from the truth. It really has gone seriously downhill in recent years. When my wife lived there in the early 90s it was OKish, but I wouldn't leave my car unattended in large parts of it now.

Leigh-on-Sea is OK, with nice mud-front and pubs.

@Khani - Just been thinking about some of the trails I used to ride out Galleywood/Margaretting way when I lived there years ago

Sadly all this will be of limited help if one of you has to work in Southend - so how about Shoeburyness, beloved of Ian Dury and Billy Bragg?

Just for you - for the OP, it's pretty much a list of areas to avoid...

95% of Westcliff is a total shithole, the remaining 5% falls well outside of the OPs stated budget.

FFS, total shithole? It's not that bad in comparison to [s]a lot of other places[/s] Afghanistan, [s]and sizeable parts of it are really nice. Then again,[/s] I may be thinking of [s]the 5%.[/s] Chalkwell

FTFY matey 😉

I lived on canvey for years, nice place tbh, theres a sense of community there Ive not encountered for a long time - problem with canvey is that unless youre riding (which is very possible) it would take longer to get into southend than chelmsford, and if theres an accident it can takeup to 2 hours to get off the island depending on where you live there. I used to ride from canvey to southend every day and due to the seawall between canvey and leigh it took about 30-45 minutes depending on wind direction and was mainly off road - obviously in winter it can get a bit boggy.

The garrison in shoebury is really nice - obviously good for getting to southend (again very easy to ride into every day) and may take up to an hour to get into chelmsford. I ride from shoebury to southend every day can take between 20 to 45 minutes depending on route.

Its going to depend where in chelmsford and where in southend you are going to be working really.

As getting across each of them in rush hour will add a minumum of 45 minutes (And more like an hour) to the journey itself

I lived in both Chelmsford and Westcliff-on-Sea, and FWIW Living in Westcliff (Rather than just driving through and turning your nose up) was superb ;o)
Cracking houses as when it was built it was for the very affluent Jewish community.
A lot of the big houses were turned into flats, but have been now been converted back into FAmily homes.

The flip side is, that its one of the few places around there that you can still buy a nice property to renovate for sensible money and increase its value significantly.

Back on topic, from down by the seafront in westcliff, to chelmsford is a good hour in rush hour on a good day, you can double that if theres an accident / hold up as traffic density is horrific.

I have lived in Chelmsford all my life, other than when i was on the road but have always returned back here. I currently live in Bicknacre and have worked in Billericay for 17 years. Billericay is not a bad place to live though I've never seen the attraction as i find it a very confused town. As for cycling, MTB rides in Danbury are very accesable from Chelmsford via, bridleways and cycle paths and the road riding round the lanes are great. Danbury, Bicknacre and surrounding area's arereally a mecca for cycling.
Essex Roads are a good group and Chelmer Cycling club are ok, though a little quirky. I have a part time, part time job in Chelmer Cycles which means i get to see the whole cycling scene and there isn't many weekends when there isn't something going on locally, whether it be Mud, Sweat & Gears MTB race, Thetford MTB races, Beastway, Gorrick Series MTB races and a multitude of charity and club events.
On the whole, not a bad place to live with the North downs only and hour a way by car and pretty safe crime wise.
Springfield in Chelmsford is not a bad place, with easy access to A12, i lived her for a while though I'm not keen on living in estates myself.

Brentwood gains extra points for being where Field and Trek started. Used to travel there, to buy outdoor gear, when that was their only shop.

Your £700 quid rent limit could be the most critical decider! The faster the rail line to London and closer to the major A roads the more you will pay. If the property is close to these and still cheap then it will be one of the areas that previous posters have told you to steer away from. As you don’t need to commute to London you should be able to find somewhere nice. For beautiful morning walks, environment and great country pubs then any of the rural areas west and north will easily take on anything you can find in Kent. Now after saying that I’m going to contradict myself, as follows;

I only know South Essex from my experience for mountain biking I would choose Danbury, Brentwood or Leigh-on-Sea side of Southend as there is very technical hilly stuff straight from your front door. Don’t forget the Olympic Course which will be open next year.

For an easy commute into Southend coming from the M25 towards Southend is a pretty nice run compared to trying to get there from Chelmsford. As always aiming to get into work for 7:30-8:30am is much easier than leaving it later. There are usually lots of rat runs once you get to know the place. Coming from Oxford you are probably used to the traffic.

Getting into Chelmsford is always a pain but A12 is normally clear up until you get close, approaching from the north may be worse than from the south but I only do both a few times a year.

If you want to commute to both places by train then you want to be on the Liverpool Street to Shenfield line but from talking to a mate who commutes north from time to time it’s not cheaper than using your car. If you’ve not got any parking spaces at your office then you could be in for some fun and expense!

I missed the £700 a month bit, we rent out a two bed bungalow in willibikki and get £900 a month for that,
Bazzers for you then..

Somewhere convenient for Southend and Chelmsford would be about...Basildon. Although the centre is not great there are some nice suburbs like Langdon Hills which has some MTB trails to boot. I don't know the trails, but a search on Google will tell you they exist and have been used for XC events so should be OK.

Just a follow up- moving into Colchester in two weeks. Managed to get a lovely 2 bed flat.

Where can I find some riding locally 😆 ?!

(My job fell through. It's not a good time to be a graduate! So still hunting.)

jaywick supposed to be nice.

used to live in Halstead.

almost Suffolk.
almost hilly.

Ha ha, one day Jaywick will be up & coming, until then though maybe not so good.

I dont know the riding in Colchester but Danbury is worth the drive but you need a local.

If you like a bit of racing try here & meet people to show you the riding.

[url] http://www.mudsweatgears.co.uk/ [/url]

Oh & missing out on the job in Southend isnt so bad, the driving would have sent you potty, I live in Leigh on Sea, its great, unless your in a hurry to get anywhere.