Boreham is a village and civil parish, in Essex, England. The parish is in the City of Chelmsford and Chelmsford Parliament constituency. The village is approximately northeast from the county town of Chelmsford. History Boreham is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Borham, thought to mean 'village on a hill'. Local legend holds that highwayman Dick Turpin rode down the route than now forms part of the A12 on his famous ride from London to York, although historians now believe the ride never occurred. In the 1930s Boreham House and its surrounding land of was bought by car magnate Henry Ford. In addition to using the house as a school for training Ford tractor mechanics, the company's British chairman, Lord Perry, established Fordson Estates Limited there, and founded the Henry Ford Institute of Agricultural Engineering, an agricultural college. The house also served as the temporary home for the National College of Agricultural Engineering in 1962. This moved to Silsoe, Bedfordshire as Silsoe College later joining with Cranfield University. The Silsoe campus closed at the end of 2007. In 1952 a Ham class minesweeper, HMS Boreham, was named after the village. Boreham remained relatively small until the mid-1970s when a programme of house and shop building increased its size significantly. Boreham contains one of England's few remaining independent family-run gunsmiths, which was established in 1795. Geography and administration In addition to being a village, Boreham is a civil parish which has a parish council The parish is bounded at its south by the River Chelmer. The village, which lies on a Roman road (now a modern trunk road, the A12), has a Norman church, and a public house (The Cock Inn) that dates from the 15th century. The surrounding countryside is slightly hilly and is used to grow crops such as wheat, sugar beet and peas. The Great Eastern Main Line from Chelmsford to Colchester runs past the village. In the 1970s a bypass was built along the northern edge of the village, along the same route as the A12 and the nearby railway line. The parish includes the hamlet of Russell Green at the north. Boreham parish has a population of approximately 4,000 people, and covers about of land. Landmarks Boreham has two designated conservation areas, which include buildings of historic importance. The Roman Road/Plantation Road Conservation Area contains, among others, a 16th-century timber-framed clockhouse. The Church Road