Pitsea was already a substantial settlement before 1949, with a railway station dating from 1855, a market from the 1920s and a developed High Road/Broadway shopping district. The New Town incorporated Pitsea rather than creating it from scratch.
Modern Pitsea contains several locally recognised districts including Pitsea Mount, Eversley, Felmores, Chalvedon and Burnt Mills. New housing, schools and road building greatly enlarged the old settlement and linked it more closely to the rest of Basildon.
Vange is another ancient settlement, recorded in the Domesday Book. Before the New Town it developed along the old London Road/A13 corridor. Historic landmarks included All Saints Church and the Five Bells public house.
New Town housing transformed much of Vange while retaining parts of the older road pattern and historic identity. The first Basildon New Town families moved into Development Corporation housing at Redgrave Road, Vange, in 1951, making the area particularly important to the story of the new town's first residents.
Nevendon was an old parish and rural area on the eastern side of the designated New Town. It became strongly associated with employment as well as housing: Basildon's first major industrial development was established in the Nevendon area during the early New Town years.
Old farms and rural features disappeared as roads, factories and housing expanded. Cranes Farm, whose history was traced back to the medieval period, was demolished in 1959 as the area changed.
Chalvedon became a major residential area in eastern Basildon and developed schools, local facilities and recreation alongside housing. Chalvedon School opened in 1965 and was Basildon district's first comprehensive school. Mill Green later hosted one of the council's permanent children's play centres.
These names identify further parts of the wider Pitsea/eastern Basildon urban area. Felmores became particularly associated with large-scale post-war housing; Eversley lies around the northern Pitsea area; and Burnt Mills combines residential land with employment and road connections toward the north-east of the town. Together they show how “Pitsea” expanded far beyond its historic Mount, High Road and railway centre.