5. Location and Landscape Setting

5.1 Battlesbridge is a small hamlet that straddles the upper reaches of the River Crouch. It is set just east of the A130, about ten miles south of Chelmsford and four miles north of Rayleigh. The main road through the settlement links with the estuarine coast and other settlements such as Hockley, Ashingdon and Canewdon. Battlesbridge is divided between the parish of Rettendon to the north and Rawreth to the south, the parish boundary largely following the centre of the river channel.

5.2 The upper Crouch estuary provides the landscape setting for Battlesbridge, and comprises a series of gently undulating valley sides. Battlesbridge is set on the flood plain, and the river remains tidal at this point. The river channel is fringed by mud, rough grassland and marsh. The current tidal defences remain largely in the same position as they appeared by the time of the First Edition OS map in 1876. The north side of the river is embanked, largely by earthworks except along the roadside and at the Battlesbridge Antiques Centre where there are concrete walls. Works have recently been carried out to enhance the tidal defences on the north side, including the raising of the embankments and increasing the height of the concrete walls with a new coping. A meander in the river channel west of the conservation area by what is now a caravan park was straightened in the last 40 years, and the parish boundary follows the old river route at this point.

5.3 The river cuts through an area of low hills which developed on London Clay and Claygate beds to the north and London Clay and Bagshot beds to the south, in places masked by head deposits and overlain by a thin layer of estuarine alluvium. Historically the marshlands provided good pasture, particularly for sheep, and the soils were suitable for arable cultivation which continues to contribute to the local economy today. The proximity to the river for transport of farm produce was an added encouragement to agricultural production in the area. There is some evidence of a historic rectilinear field pattern which may be medieval in date or earlier, with a grid structure on a broad north-south axis. However arable fields have suffered from boundary loss which has created prairie fields and eroded the historic landscape pattern.

5.4 The landscape around Battlesbridge includes a number of scattered medieval moated sites that are typical of the dispersed settlement pattern of the area. These include Beeches Farm to the east of Battlesbridge (EHCR 7517). Others are mentioned in the inventory of historic monuments produced by the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments (England).