Hidden Gems – Herongate & Ingrave

7th November 2019

If you're looking for a property location that ticks all the boxes then Herongate and Ingrave needs to be high on your list.

The two villages have no discernible boundary between them and are positioned just to the south of Brentwood offering the best of both worlds.

You definitely get the traditional village feel, surrounded by farmland on one side and Thorndon Country Park on the other. The two pubs, the Green Man and the Boars Head, overlook a green and pond respectively, there's a pretty cricket green plus an open all hours village shop and an M&S Food at the petrol station.

Set back off the main road through the village is Ingrave Johnstone primary school, rated Good by OFSTED in all its inspections, and adjacent to the school are the village playing fields complete with play area and basketball court. St Martin's secondary school, rated good and outstanding in its last two OFSTED inspections, is also close by.

There are various tracks and footpaths into Thorndon Country Park with its mix of woodland, open fields and lake and the Visitor Centre is great for the kids.

There are golf courses either side of the villages and one right in the middle, the highly regarded Thorndon Park Golf Club.

The country park and golf club were originally the landscaped Capability Brown grounds to the spectacular Thorndon Hall, a Palladian mansion built in 1764 which is now home to luxury apartments and mews style houses.

If you thought that this archetypal village lifestyle comes at the price of convenience and commutability you couldn’t be more wrong.

Brentwood's High Street is only around 2.5 miles away and the station a little further. Most would probably use Shenfield station though. It's still close at just 3.5 miles and has a journey time into London Liverpool Street of just 23 minutes. It's also the Eastern Hub for the shortly to commence Crossrail service or Elizabeth Line to give it it's correct title.

If your journey to London takes you into a different part of the City or your usual Liverpool Street service is disrupted, West Horndon station is only 3.3 miles away where you will get you into London’s Fenchurch Street station in as little as 29 minutes.

If road travel is important to you, then again Herongate and Ingrave won't leave you disappointed. Positioned between the A127 to the south and A12 to the north, junctions 28 and 29 of the M25 are both around 5 miles away. So whether you want to travel east to the coast, west to London, north towards Suffolk, Norfolk and beyond or to the south coast and channel ports (if we'll still be allowed to drive in Europe!) it couldn't be easier!