Little Thurrock
| Little Thurrock | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Little Thurrock church | |
| Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 411: Malformed coordinates value. | |
| OS grid reference | TQ625795 |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | GRAYS |
| Postcode district | RM17[1] |
| Dialling code | 01375 |
| Police | Essex |
| Fire | Essex |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| UK Parliament | |
Little Thurrock (<phonos file="Little Thurrock.ogg">pronunciation</phonos>) is an area, ward, former civil parish and Church of England parish in the town of Grays, in the unitary authority of Thurrock, Essex.
Location
[edit | edit source]Little Thurrock is on the north bank of the river Thames, about 25 miles (40 km) east of London. It was originally a separate settlement, but housing and other developments in the 20th century have resulted in a continuous built up area with Grays, of which Little Thurrock is now a part.[2][3]
Hangman's Wood is a small wooded areas in the parish. Hangman's Wood is well known for containing numerous deneholes which were sometimes known as Cunobeline's gold mines.[4] The origin of these deneholes is discussed by Tony Benton who concludes they were the result of chalk extraction.[5] The deneholes are an important roosting site for rare bats.
Geology and ecology
[edit | edit source]The southern part of Little Thurrock was formerly a tidal saltmarsh. The higher, northern area is part of a 100 feet (30 m) terrace extending for some miles east and west – a rich source of both gravel and chalk deposits which have been extracted for centuries.[6] The gravel workings include the Globe Pit which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and the location of many archaeological finds from the Clactonian period. Around Hangman's Wood and Terrel's Heath, there is little trace of the heathland habitat and associated fauna which would once have been characteristic of the area but the adjacent woodland together with the pond and wild life garden in Woodside Primary School attract a number of creatures. These include green and great spotted woodpeckers, a number of different mammals and the rare great crested newt. The trees on Terrel's Heath are mainly oaks with wild bluebells in spring time.
History
[edit | edit source]Thurrock is a Saxon name meaning "the bottom of a ship".[7] Little Thurrock is one of three "Thurrocks", the others being West Thurrock and Grays Thurrock. Historically, Little Thurrock was also called East Thurrock and Grays Thurrock was also called Great Thurrock.[8]
The parish church is dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin. The original building probably dates from 1170.[5] The church was extensively restored in Victorian times.[9]
In 1931 the parish had a population of 4428.[10] On 1 April 1936 the parish was abolished to form Thurrock.[11]
Schools
[edit | edit source]Little Thurrock has a number of schools, including Woodside Academy, a campus of Thurrock Special School and the Thurrock campus of South Essex College. Torrel's School was closed and later re-opened and is now known as The Gateway Academy, with a new site on Marshfoot Road in Chadwell St Mary.[citation needed]
Local politics
[edit | edit source]There are two wards that cover Little Thurrock – Rectory Ward and Blackshots Ward, each with two councillors.
Little Thurrock – Rectory
[edit | edit source]- Rob Gledhill, Conservative (elected 4 May 2006)[12]
- Tom Kelly, Conservative (elected 5 May 2011)[13]
Little Thurrock – Blackshots
[edit | edit source]- Ben Maney, Conservative (elected 6 September 2001)[14]
- Joycelyn Redsell, Conservative (elected 17 June 2004)[15]
Notes
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- ^ a b Tony Benton, Boldly from the marshes (Thurrock Museum, 1991)
- ^ South Essex: landscape and memory
- ^ PH Reaney, The Place-Names of Essex, (CUP, 1969)
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Nikolas Pevsner, The Buildings of Essex (Penguin, 2nd edition reprinted 1996),
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