Petts Wood

The name appeared first in 1577 as "the wood of the Pett family", who were shipbuilders and leased the wood as a source of timber. (A pub, The Sovereign of the Seas, is named after a ship built at Woolwich to a design by Phineas Pett.) The area remained rural right up until the late 19th century; in 1872 just one house ('Ladywood') stood here. Most of the modern suburb of Petts Wood was built in the late 1920s by the Harlow-based developer Basil Scruby together with architect Leonard Culliford who designed the layout of the roads.]] The generally higher quality of large homes built to the east of the railway line, as compared to smaller and more densely packed development to the west, was…

The eponymous wood itself survives and is managed by the National Trust. Originally just 88 acres (36 hectares) were bought by public subscription and donated to the Trust in 1927, after it became clear that the area would be developed for housing. This asset expanded when the neighbouring Hawkwood Estate and Edlmann Wood, comprising a further 250 acres (100 hectares), were donated to the Trust by landowners Robert and Francesca Hall in 1957. The woodland features oak, birch, rowan, alder, ash, hornbeam and sweet chestnut.

Birchwood Road, Kingsway, and other surrounding roads, were used as a location for the 1978 feature film, Give Us Tomorrow, with Sylvia Syms.