1980

March

Savacentre - a joint enterprise between Sainsbury's & British Home Stores opens together with phase one of the Eastgate indoor shopping centre.

1981

20 February

Depeche Mode release their first single 'Dreaming of Me' which charts at number 57. This Basildon band, formed in 1980 as a 4-piece with a distinctive synth-pop sound. They went on to achieve worldwide success, and over twenty years later with over 226 weeks spent on the British charts and more than 34 hits, they are still going strong.

5 April

Population Census statistics for Basildon district; 94,232.

August

Pitsea Leisure Centre opens in Rectory Park Drive. It was later renamed Pitsea Welcome Centre but has since reverted to its original name.

1982

Festival Hall opens. Seating 1,500, the hall, one of the largest in South East Essex opened on the site of the former Aquatels Basildon Zoo. A wide variety of events from pop concerts to boxing contests took place there. The hall was demolished in the 1990s to make way for the new Festival Leisure Park.

17 April

Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet achieve success as the pop duo 'Yazoo' with their first release 'Only You', which made number 2 in the national charts. The song was written by Vince Clarke, who until his departure, had been principal songwriter and member of Depeche Mode.

1983

24 January

A new second hand 'flea' market begins every Monday at the Basildon Council run site in Basildon. 60 of the available 88 stalls were rented out at £5 a time. In summer 2006 the Monday market was closed with some stallholders now transferring to Tuesday's market.

12 March

Basildon Sports Centre at Nether Mayne opens. Run by Basildon Council and sited close to Basildon College, the new centre offers a wide range of indoor sporting activities and privately hired functions.

9 June

David Amess (17,516) elected Conservative MP for the Basildon constituency. Majority 1,379. Conservative's win General Election.

1 November

Unemployed Workers Centre in The Gore, Basildon opened. The strange looking triangular building was built on a previously unused piece of land. It is now known as the Basildon Community Resource Centre. Carrying out the opening duties was the Rt. Hon. General Secretary of the T.U.C. Len (later Lord) Murray.

1984

14 April

Wat Tyler Country Park in Pitsea opened by the Rt. Hon. General Secretary of the T.U.C. Len Murray. The 125 acre park was named after the 1381 Peasants' Revolt leader Walter "Wat" Tyler. It was later renamed Pitsea Hall country park but has since reverted to its original name. It had previously been part of the Pitsea Hall estate and used as farmland until the late 1800s. In 1895 it fell into the ownership of an explosives company who manufactured and stored their products there. The Nobel Explosive Company then took over the area in 1920 and in 1928 the War Department became the new owners. Various new buildings were built including pill boxes during the Second World War, which still exist today. Following a period of industrial use the land became derelict and was then transformed by the local council during the early 1980s.

May

A plotland museum is established at Dunton in a property saved from demolition by the Basildon Development Corporation. The house, known as The Haven and built in the 1930s, was the only property spared demolition in a former residential area re-designated as 'open space' and now part of a nature trail. Their chairman, Dame Elizabeth Coker, carried out the opening ceremony.

May

The Liberty Shopping Hall in Great Oaks, Basildon town centre officially opened. The 32,000 sq ft indoor arcade, housed in the former Tesco supermarket, had around 70 shops offering a wide range of retail goods. It closed in the 1990s and is now a QD store. T.V. celebrity Henry Kelly, from London Weekend Television's "Game for a laugh" show, performed the opening duties. The name Liberty Hall originates from a former residential property, long since demolished, that stood in Hotwater Lane, which once ran on or near the Great Oaks location.

June

The final dwellings built by the Basildon Development Corporation in Felmores completed. Over 34 years the development corporation were responsible for the construction of 24,839 dwellings of various types.

1985

13 May

Basildon Bowl in Southernhay, Basildon closes. Opened in 1962, the 26 lane alley was reduced to 10 lanes around 1975 when the local council took over from former operators Ambassador Bowling. The former area was then converted to a bingo hall which expanded following the closure, and continues today under the name Gala Bingo.

June

36 new flats and bungalows for retired people at Bridgecote Lane on the Noak Bridge village development are completed. The new homes were built by Woolwich Homes in partnership with Basildon Development Corporation. The Government Housing Minister, Ian Gow, performed the opening ceremony.

November

Phase two of the Eastgate International Shopping Centre completed. During construction local newspaper Evening Echo deposited a Time Capsule 3.0 metres below the surface close to the main Allders (now Debenhams) entrance on 14/2/1982.

1986

J. Toomey Motors Ltd moves to new purpose built premises on the recently created Southfields development at West Mayne, Laindon. Their headquarters was also named Service House, just as it had been at the former site in the High Road.

The National Motorboat Museum opens at Wat Tyler Country Park in Pitsea. Now known as The Motorboat Museum and run by Basildon Council, the museum dislays boats from the 1800s to the present.

1 April

The Basildon Development Corporation is finally wound up (Transfer of Property and Dissolution Order 1986) after 37 years and replaced by the Commission For The New Towns (CNT).

1987

February

The very first U.K. Travel Inn (Hotel), opened adjacent to The Watermill (Beefeater) at East Mayne, Basildon.

4 March

Basildon boxer Terry Marsh, 29, known as the 'fighting fireman', wins the International Boxing Federation (IBF) World Light-Welterweight title after defeating current American champion Joe 'Louis' Manley. The fight, staged in a 'Supertent' on the Pipps Hill Close original Festival Hall car park, ended with a knockout in round 10.

11 June

David Amess (21,858) re-elected Conservative MP for the Basildon constituency. Majority 2,649. Conservative's win General Election.

1 July

Basildon World Champion boxer Terry Marsh successfully defends his title won in Basildon on 4/3/1987, against Akio Kameda at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The bout ended when his opponent retired on doctors' orders after round 6. This was Marsh's last professional fight before retiring. At the time of retirement he was undefeated having drawn only one of his 26 professional contests. He remains the only English boxer to retire as undefeated World Champion.

September

Eversley Centre in Crest Avenue, Pitsea opened by World Light-Welterweight boxing champion Terry Marsh. The centre was later renamed in his honour, though in 1993 the Basildon Council run facility reverted back to its original name.

1988

Great Berry Primary School in Forest Glade, Langdon Hills opened.

23 April

Gala opening of The Towngate Theatre in Pagel Mead (now St. Martin's Square). The first production 'As you like it' starred T.V. actress Kate O'Mara. The main auditorium design was based on a classic Georgian playhouse with seating for 550.

1989

Essex Wildlife Trust purchase the former Dunton Hills plotland estate. A visitor centre and Warden accommodation is established at Third Avenue.

A new double roundabout and duel carriageway link road to replace Roundacre roundabout becomes fully operational. The original roundabout was opened in 1959 but had become a congestion blackspot despite being gradually reduced in size to allow greater roadspace. All four original subways were replaced with a wider design and the addition of a fifth subway linking Laindon Link with Nethermayne. The former roundabouts name was preserved when the short link road was named Roundacre. To the centre of the new Nethermayne roundabout is an Armillary Sundial. Unveiled in February 1989 by Sir Gordon Roberts CBE. J.P. Commission For The New Towns, it is made from Stainless Steel and designed by notable artist Wendy Taylor, CBE. She was also responsible for the Animal Frieze in concrete that adorns the two inner walls of the link to Gloucester Park subway.

7 January

Markhams Chase Leisure Centre in Markhams Chase, Laindon opens.

14 November

The Basildon Centre in Pagel Mead (now St. Martin's Square) is officially opened.

5 December

The new Basildon Library is opened by the Chairman of Essex County Council Councillor Paul White. Now permanently housed within the new Basildon Centre, having previously had two former homes in Basildon Council's temporary buildings in Fodderwick.