Brightlingsea

What is it like to live in Brightlingsea?

Homes sold for a typical £270,000 in the 12 months to September 2026. At 72 of the 227 postcodes Ofcom reports on, every home and business can get gigabit broadband. The Environment Agency counts 513 homes and businesses at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, at 46 of its 234 postcodes. It has 1 primary school and 1 secondary school at its postcodes. One GP practice is at its postcodes. The nearest railway station is Alresford (Essex), 4.9 km from the middle of its postcodes in a straight line.

We don't rate places; here are the figures so you can judge.

Sources: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data; Ofcom Connected Nations; Environment Agency flood risk; Get Information about Schools; NHS GP practices; NaPTAN. Each figure is from a section of this page, which gives its date.

What do homes cost in Brightlingsea?

Homes in Brightlingsea sold for a typical £270,000 in the 12 months to September 2026, across 118 sales, HM Land Registry's figures show. The 12 months before gave £268,000 from 143 sales: not a change larger than chance would explain, given which homes happened to sell.

• Detached £386,250 24 sales
• Semi-detached £266,500 58 sales
• Terraced £238,000 26 sales
• Flat or maisonette £153,500 10 sales

Each bar is that kind's typical price, against the most expensive kind here.

Across the whole CO7 district, Brightlingsea's main postcode district: a typical £330,000.

Sales at the postcodes ONS places in Brightlingsea: standard sales of homes at market value. A typical price is the median, the middle sale. Sales take weeks to be registered, so the last month or two are incomplete. Each postcode page gives the figure for its own postcode sector.

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, files dated 28 October 2026.

Are new homes being built in Brightlingsea?

11 of the 234 postcodes now in use in Brightlingsea came into use in January 2020 or later, ONS says. In the 12 months to September 2025, 0 of the 143 homes sold in Brightlingsea were newly built (0%), HM Land Registry's records show; across the CO7 district, 28%.

The newest postcodes

A new postcode is often a new street or estate, but Royal Mail also makes new postcodes when it reorganises old ones, so not every one means new homes. Only postcodes still in use are counted.

New homes among the homes sold

Standard sales of homes at market value that HM Land Registry marks as newly built. New homes take longer to be registered than other sales, so the latest 12 months count fewer of them than were sold. A share is given from 5 sales or more.

Sources: ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026; HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, files dated 28 October 2026.

What broadband can you get in Brightlingsea?

Ofcom reports on 227 of the 234 postcodes in Brightlingsea. At 72 of them every home and business can get gigabit broadband.

Ofcom gives each postcode's share of homes and businesses, not how many there are, so these count postcodes. Each postcode page has its own figures. A provider's checker answers for one address.

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations, Connected Nations, Spring 2026, data for January 2026.

Is Brightlingsea at risk of flooding?

46 of the 234 postcodes in Brightlingsea have a home or business in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, the Environment Agency says. At those, it puts 513 homes and businesses in an area at high or medium risk.

High: 3.3% or more a year (1 in 30). Medium: 1% to 3.3% a year. Low: 0.1% to 1% a year. Very low: under 0.1% a year (1 in 1,000). Each band is the chance of flooding in any one year.

Homes and businesses in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, as the Environment Agency counts them, added up over the postcodes. It is for the land, not each building, and leaves out surface water, groundwater and sewers. Each postcode page has its own figures and its flood warning areas.

Source: Environment Agency flood risk, published 6 July 2026.

Which schools are in Brightlingsea?

The open schools at the postcodes in Brightlingsea. A school for ages 4 to 18 is listed under both. Distances are straight lines from the middle of its postcodes. Distance is not a catchment: each council sets its own admission rules. Special schools and alternative provision, which children join by referral, are not listed.

An orange bar: the school has as many pupils as places, or more (Department for Education's figures).

Source: Get Information about Schools, read 17 October 2026. Each school opens its own record there.

How far is the station from Brightlingsea?

The nearest railway station to the centre point of the postcodes in Brightlingsea is Alresford (Essex) Rail Station, 4.9 km away in a straight line.

• Alresford (Essex) Rail Station Railway station 4.9 kmCycle
• Great Bentley Rail Station Railway station 5.1 kmDrive
• Wivenhoe Rail Station Railway station 6.8 kmDrive

Straight-line distances from the centre point, not routes. Walk: under 1.2 km. Cycle: 1.2 to 5 km. Drive: further.

Straight-line distances from the middle of the postcodes, not routes. Each postcode page lists its own nearest stations and bus stops. The Department for Transport's register does not say how often services run.

Source: NaPTAN, read 17 October 2026.

Which GP surgeries are in Brightlingsea?

The GP practices at the postcodes in Brightlingsea. Each practice sets the area it takes patients from, so check with it before registering.

• Colne Medical Centre Phone 01206 302522 500 mWalk

Source: NHS GP practices, read 17 October 2026.

Is Brightlingsea safe? Crime recorded around it

Police.uk records 455 crimes and reports of anti-social behaviour within a mile of the middle of the postcodes in Brightlingsea over the 12 months from September 2025 to August 2026. August 2026 is the latest month it has published. These are counts, not a rate: we hold no count of the people who live, work or pass through, so we do not say whether a place is safe.

Each month, September 2025 to August 2026

By kind, over the 12 months

Also: drugs 11, other crime 8, robbery 4, possession of weapons 4, theft from the person 3.

Police.uk says its locations "always represent the approximate location of a crime". Each crime is moved to the nearest of a fixed list of map points, each over a street centre, a public place or a commercial premises, chosen so that every point covers at least eight addresses or none. A mile is a wide circle: in a town it takes in the centre and its shops, where much crime is recorded.

Source: police.uk, data to August 2026, from its download of 30 September 2026.

Who runs Brightlingsea?

District, borough or city council

Tendring

County council

Essex

Parliamentary constituency

Harwich and North Essex

Police force area

Essex

Region

East of England

Country

England

MP

Sir Bernard Jenkin (Conservative)

All 234 postcodes here share these. Wards differ: check a postcode for yours. What council am I in?

Sources: ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026; UK Parliament, read 14 October 2026.