Back in the late 1990s when the internet was just getting established there appeared to be few website's around the 'net' where you could read any information of substance about Basildon's past. Wikipedia had yet to launch, and even when it did in 2000 there was barely anything worth reading. The local council's own site had a brief history with a few photographs but little else. The one exception was Peter Jackson's excellent site focused on the area known as 'Dunton Plotlands', which launched sometime around late 2000/early 2001.

There did appear to be a growing interest in this subject with local history books appearing fairly frequently since Jessie Payne's Basildon - A Pictorial History was published in 1981, and the local libraries had always done their best to help with whatever source material they had being accessible to the public. Out of this situation the idea of a website dedicated to provide historical information accompanied with photographs, purely relating to the Essex 'New Town' of Basildon, was born.

After registering a domain name, 'basildon.info' and 20mb of free webspace hosted on Angelfire.Com, the website first appeared on the internet under the working title Basildon - A History in Photographs on Saturday, 6th October, 2001. The title, which was unintentionally close to Jessie Payne's book title, was soon changed in February 2002 to simply Basildon History or Basildon History Online, which it remains to this day. It is voluntary run and very much a 'work in progress'.

The website does not seek to give political opinion or become entangled in the ideology of whether the creation of 'Basildon New Town' was a good or a bad thing for all concerned. If it is felt in any way to have had an influence on people, places or events connected with Basildon, and provided those things are considered to be of a positive nature, then the website has been of some good and worth the effort of its existence.

The website has no affiliation with any local authority, or religious organisation, and is not connected in any way with Basildon Borough Council.

Anything off topic, i.e. not history related, cannot be responded to and should therefore be directed to the relevant authority. Whilst it would be nice to be able to answer as many questions as possible, it is not within the scope of this website to comment or advise on anything other than local history. Many questions are left unanswered where the subject matter bears no relevance in relation to the content of this website. Questions regarding Basildon's history will receive a response where possible, but no assurance's can be given.