Bear Estate Agents in Hadleigh

Your Hadleigh Estate Agent - Bear Estate Agents

Hadleigh in Essex is a small town that lies between Leigh-on-Sea to the east, Benfleet to the west and Thundersley and Daws Heath to the north. Its boundaries are Tattersall Gardens and Woodfield Drive with Leigh, Benfleet Road with Benfleet, Rayleigh Road with Thundersley and Southfield Drive & Southfield Close with Daws Heath.

Hadleigh as an area, has evolved and developed to what it is today from its ancient roots, its natural topography and the uses that its lands have been put to, whether for work or recreation.

A walk around Hadleigh will take you past historic monuments, a grade 1 listed building, an area of significance for its social reform and properties that reflect the changes of passing time as well as all this, there are country walks and bike trails to be explored. 

Hadleigh Castle is probably the most well-known landmark in Hadleigh. It was commissioned in 1230 by Hubert De Burgh but he fell out of favour with the King Henry III, who seized the estates and had the castle refortified in 1239. It stands in a skeletal form, looking out to sea, having had many of its stones taken to be used in housebuilding, many years ago. It is still seen as an attractive and romantic place, and was painted by John Constable and submitted to the Royal Academy, in 1829, after his visit to Hadleigh, when he sketched the Castle in 1814.

The Castle can be reached by a walk down Castle Lane and just before you get there, you will come across Castle Avenue in which stands the tea rooms for the Salvation Army Hadleigh Farm.

These Tea Rooms are open to the public and are used to train people with learning difficulties in the catering trade. Next door there is a ’Rare Breed Centre’ for rare breed farm animals and there is a small charge to view them.  There are also workshops for training in metal and carpentry skills. These facilities are a result of the work done by the Salvation Army. 

The Salvation Army bought this land in Hadleigh in 1886 to set up a working colony to provide rehabilitation for the poor and jobless of that era. This colony expanded and eventually, over 3,000 acres were owned by the Salvation Army including Two Tree Island. Dormitories were built to house these men, which led to the area becoming known as Colony Farm. The founder, William Booth, died in 1912 and by that time over 7,000 men had been trained there and some had started working colonies abroad. This awareness of social conscious came almost half a century before our Welfare State was formed. 

Much of the land bought by the Salvation Army was from farmers. Park farm farmhouse still exists on land attached to Hadleigh Castle that was the Royal Park, in 1234. The farmhouse which stands today, was Built by Lady Olivia Sparrow, whose’ Coat of Arms’ is now used by Belfairs’ Schools in Leigh, for their school Badge. William Booth used the farmhouse for Bed & Breakfast accommodation for Salvation Army Officers and latterly, the Governor of the Colony. Walk past it today and you will find the building transformed and used as part of the Salvation Army’s Training Centre for People with Special Needs. 

Adjoining Hadleigh Castle is Hadleigh Country Park and a walk westwards either past Seaview Terrace, or from the bottom of Castle Lane, will take you to trails used in the 2012 Olympics for Mountain Biking.

Hadleigh Country Park not only offers free mountain bike trails, but also offers swimming, sailing and kayaking in its reservoirs. It covers 500 acres of land with access to it from Chapel Lane, where another of the farms bought by the Salvation Army, still stands. 

Sayers Farm, named after its original owner, thought to be William Sayer, dates back to 1491 although the building there now was built in 1810. The Salvation Army still own it and this timber clad building is an example of the timber cladding used for cottages and farmhouses in Hadleigh. 

Turn northwards up Chapel Lane and once past the fields you will see properties dating from the 1920’s to the present day. At the top of the road, where it joins the London Road you will see the recreation ground. This, and the allotments next door, is what is left of Hadleigh Common that covered 42 acres of land from Rectory road to Victoria House Corner.  Travel down New Road further north and you will find John Burrows Recreation Ground, a part of the Common that was returned for the public to use by J.H Burrows as a cricket ground and then purchased by Benfleet urban District Council for recreation and named John Burrows Recreation Ground. 

Turning South up Rectory Road will take you to the heart of Haleigh’s shopping area where there are supermarkets, bakers, grocers, cafes, boutiques pubs and banks. 

Nestling in the middle of this shopping centre, almost on its own island, is the grade I listed building, the church ‘James the Less’. This church is now thought to be Saxon in origin but modified in later years by the Normans. It is the church’s stunning stained glass windows that aside from its history, mark this church as being very special. 

On the other side of the church’s island is the A13, the ‘Old High Street’. The church is ringed by a one way system that somewhat isolates it, as well as some of the other historic buildings in Hadleigh. Further west on this ‘island’ stands the Crown Pub. It was the village pub run by the Francis family for 125 years. It now stands derelict, but there was hope of regeneration which may now lead to it being demolished. 

Almost opposite the desolate Crown Pub stands the Castle Pub. Built as an Inn in 1651, it was known as the Boars Head and then the Blue Boar and served the people in wagons and carriages, on their way to Southend-on-Sea.

Since 500-400 BC there has been a settlement in Hadleigh. 

There are Roman finds here and Saxon developments. Normans have extended Haleigh’s church and Hadleigh castle was built in the 11th century. Social reform by the Salvation Army based in Hadleigh has kept much of the features and homes of Hadleigh intact and visible today. In fact, Hadleigh is a place full of history and change that comes from a battle to survive in a once farming community, to one that housed people escaping from the poverty the Industrial Revolution left in its wake. 

Hadleigh has also welcomed the changes that increased mechanisation and information technology has given us, and that is more leisure time. This is reflected in its country park and the home of the Olympic Mountain Bike tracks.

If further preservation of its historic buildings can be maintained by its council, and sympathetic development continued, then an evolving Hadleigh with its historic roots kept alive for all to see, will remain for generations to come.