In the 1930s Boreham House and its surrounding land of 3,000 acres (12 km2) was bought by car magnate Henry Ford.

In addition to using the house as a school for training Ford tractor mechanics, the company's British chairman, Lord Perry, established Fordson Estates Limited there, and founded the Henry Ford Institute of Agricultural Engineering, an agricultural college.

Boreham remained relatively small until the mid-1970s when a programme of house and shop building increased its size significantly.

The surrounding countryside is slightly hilly and is used to grow crops such as wheat, sugar beet and peas.

The Great Eastern Main Line from Chelmsford to Colchester runs past the village.

In the 1970s a bypass was built along the northern edge of the village, along the same route as the A12 and the nearby railway line.

[citation needed] Boreham has two designated conservation areas, which include buildings of historic importance.

A forest near the village was felled in 1943 to build a military airfield, and the three one-mile (1,600 m) runways of RAF Boreham opened in 1944.