Timberlog County Secondary School opened in Timberlog Lane in 1957. The first headmaster was Vivian Robson, and the school was designed by the architectural practice of Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall. It was one of the early purpose-built secondary schools serving the rapidly growing New Town.
Timberlog existed as an independent school for only eleven years. On 31 August 1968 it closed as part of the comprehensive reorganisation and merged with nearby Barstable Grammar and Technical School. From September the Timberlog site became Barstable Lower School, principally accommodating the younger secondary years.
The old Timberlog buildings were eventually sold and demolished during the 1990s. Housing was built over the site, including streets such as Mopsies Road, Ascot Grove, Chalice Close and Vine Close.
Barstable was another major product of Basildon's early New Town years. Although pupils associated with the new school were initially accommodated at Woodlands, the purpose-built Barstable Grammar and Technical School opened in Timberlog Lane in 1962.
The building was designed by Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall and is an important example of post-war school architecture. Its reinforced-concrete frame, blue-brick infill, flat roofs and strongly expressed structural form reflected the modernist architectural language used for many of Basildon's civic buildings. The principal school building was Grade II listed in 1993.
In 1968 Barstable Grammar and Technical merged with Timberlog County Secondary to create Barstable Comprehensive. The original Barstable buildings became the main school while Timberlog served as the lower school. This arrangement illustrates the scale of the educational reorganisation taking place across Basildon at the end of the 1960s.
Barstable continued through several decades of change. In January 2006 it entered a federation with Chalvedon School and Sixth Form College. Further restructuring followed in September 2009, when Barstable became The Basildon Lower Academy and Chalvedon became The Basildon Upper Academy.
The survival of the listed Barstable building is particularly important because many other schools from Basildon's first decades have disappeared. It remains physical evidence of the ambitious programme of public architecture created for the New Town.
Chalvedon opened in the mid-1960s at Wickford Avenue, Pitsea, and was the first purpose-built comprehensive school in the Basildon district. Its creation reflected the movement towards comprehensive secondary education that would soon reshape other schools across the town.
Chalvedon developed into a large secondary school with sixth-form provision and later became a specialist technology college. In 2006 it federated with Barstable before becoming The Basildon Upper Academy in September 2009.