Little Thurrock
| Little Thurrock | |
| Essex | |
|---|---|
 St Mary's Church, Little Thurrock | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ625795 |
| Location: | 51°29’28"N, -0°20’21"E |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Grays |
| Postcode: | RM |
| Dialling code: | 01375 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Thurrock |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Thurrock |
Little Thurrock is a village in Essex, which has been largely subsumed by the growth of its neighbours, West Thurrock and Grays Thurrock into a single 'Thurrock' area.
Little Thurrock stands on the north bank of the River Thames. It was originally a separate village, but housing and other developments in the 20th century have resulted in a continuous built up area with Grays.
Name
Thurrock is an Old English name meaning "the bottom of a ship".[1] Little Thurrock is one of three "Thurrocks", the others being West Thurrock and Grays Thurrock.
About the village
Hangman's Wood is a small wooded area in the parish. Hangman's Wood is well known for containing numerous deneholes which were sometimes known as Cunobeline's gold mines.[2] The origin of these deneholes is discussed by Tony Benton who concludes they were the result of chalk extraction.[3] The deneholes are an important roosting site for rare bats.
The southern part of Little Thurrock was formerly a tidal saltmarsh. The higher, northern area is part of a 100-foot terrace extending for some miles east and west – a rich source of both gravel and chalk deposits which have been extracted for centuries.[4]
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.
Parish Church
The parish church is dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin. The original building probably dates from 1170.[3] The church was extensively "restored" in Victorian times.[5]
Outside links
References
- ↑ PH Reaney, The Place-Names of Essex, (CUP, 1969)
- ↑ Thomas Wright, The picturesque beauties of Great Britain, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OrosAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA12
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Tony Benton: 'Boldly from the Marshes' (Thurrock Museum, 1991)
- ↑ South Essex: landscape and memory
- ↑ Nikolas Pevsner, The Buildings of Essex (Penguin, 2nd edition reprinted 1996),