Beadwan is thought to be a Celtic word of uncertain meaning,[3] possibly birch stream or a reference to the goddess Badb.

[2] In the Saxon period, the manor of Great Baddow was held by the Earls of Mercia and in the 13th century by Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale whose widow launched a legal challenge over its ownership on his death in March 1295.

According to information in the local Church of St Mary, the rebel leader Jack Straw led an ill-fated crowd (the men of Essex) from the churchyard to London, in one of the risings in the 1381 Peasants' Revolt.

[8] The last remaining example of a Chain Home tower maintaining its platforms, it was made a listed building by Historic England in October 2019 and given a Grade II status.

She had previously admitted murdering her parents, between 17 and 20 June 2019, at their home in Pump Hill in the village, and then concealing their bodies in the bedroom wardrobes, while continuing to live at the address for four years.

[16] Great Baddow expanded considerably in the 1950s with the construction of Rothmans Estate, which provided housing for workers at Marconi's and English Electric Valve Company in Chelmsford.

[citation needed] Marrable House, a six-storey office block was described at the time of its construction in 1968 as "one of the worst examples of town and country planning in the country"[20] and subsequently once voted as one of England's ugliest buildings,[19][21] was demolished in the Spring of 2016,[22] and was replaced with a 53-flat development, made up of one to two bedrooms in two buildings, named Heron Gate; the development was completed in spring 2018.

[25] Great Baddow lies to the south east to central Chelmsford, on higher ground that is thought to mark the edge of the main ice mass during the Anglian glaciation.