Before Basildon became a New Town, the district was a landscape of old villages, lanes, farms, smallholdings and scattered cottages. These buildings are among the clearest surviving reminders of the countryside that existed before the huge expansion of the twentieth century.
Pound Lane – Grade II
Doves Farmhouse is an eighteenth-century timber-framed and weatherboarded farmhouse. Its older north front was originally the principal face of the house, with three window bays, sash windows and a central doorway. A later addition was built on the south side. It survives as a strong reminder of Laindon's agricultural landscape before New Town development.
Paynters Hill – Grade II
These two early nineteenth-century timber-framed and weatherboarded cottages stand at the eastern end of Paynters Hill. The official listing records a tradition that they were built using old timbers from Vange's former rectory when it was demolished in 1836. Their modest two-storey form preserves something of the character of old Vange.
Great Chalvedon Hall is one of the area's major surviving early houses. Dating principally from the early sixteenth century, it is timber framed and preserves the character of a substantial Tudor-period rural residence. Its gables, framing and prominent chimney stack distinguish it from the smaller cottages occupied by ordinary rural families.
Cromwell Manor, historically known as Pitsea Hall, is a timber-framed house dating from the sixteenth or seventeenth century with later alterations. Its long history shows how substantial country houses were adapted over generations rather than simply replaced.