Galleywood is a village surrounded by countryside in Essex; it is situated on the outskirts of the city of Chelmsford, about 30 miles from London.

Galleywood Common is approximately 400 yards in width and one mile in length, consisting of open fields and woodland.

From all approaches Galleywood is separated either by open farmland, wooded slopes or green areas, free from ribbon development, giving a true rural feel to visitors and residents alike.

Within the village outskirts there are several surviving long established working farms, some with buildings dating back to the 14th century.

The Common has a very strong character and has always been an important feature of the hamlet around which the village grew, providing grazing land, furze and wood for gathering and gravel for building and road making.

There was a siding for the racecourse at the railway nearby on New Road adjacent to Hylands, where horses and important visitors would arrive.

The racecourse was renowned for its beauty and it was popular but the fact that it crossed main roads four times caused difficulties by the late 1930s.

It was played with a gutta-percha ball and clubs with hickory shafts hence the seemingly generous “Par” score allocations for each hole.

Cyril Yorker who caddied in 1910 described the course as no Gleneagles or Wentworth, just a great expanse of gorse and heather where more time was spent hunting for the balls than actually playing.

There was a rifle range, training grounds with many types of terrain, scrubland, gorse bushes, ferns, hills, dense woodland and farmland.

In that year, the track's main event was granted the title of the "Queen's Plate" by King George III.

Galleywood is home to Chelmer Park, which has facilities for hockey, football, netball, tennis, cricket and rounders.