West Thurrock
| West Thurrock | |
| Essex | |
|---|---|
 St Clements Church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ585785 |
| Location: | 51°29’1"N, 0°16’55"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 7,795 (2001) |
| Post town: | Grays |
| Postcode: | RM20 |
| Dialling code: | 01708 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Thurrock |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Thurrock |
West Thurrock is a town and Church of England parish in Essex, one of the towns ansd villages gathered by the north bank of the River Thames in a small conurbation with Grays; West Thurrock is west of Chafford Hundred; Little Thurrock is further east than the latter.
The Queen Elizabeth Bridge and the Dartford Tunnel cross over and under the River Thames at West Thurrock, completing the ring of the M25 motorway. The vast Lakeside Shopping Centre is here.
Nearby places include:
Name
Thurrock is from an Old English word, þurruc meaning a small ship of the bottom of a ship.[1] (Ye shall understande that there ys a place in the bottome of a shyppe, wherin ys gathered all the fylthe that cometh into the shyppe, and it is called in some contre of thys londe a thorrocke ... Some calle yt the bulcke of the shyppe.)
West Thurrock is one of three "Thurrocks", the others being Little Thurrock and Grays Thurrock.
Industry
Industry along the Thames includes a Unilever chilled distribution centre for all its chilled food and a Procter and Gamble (originally Hedley's) plant manufacturing detergents and soaps.[2] The large coal-burning West Thurrock Power Station closed in 1993, and was replaced by a plant making industrial chemicals, particularly the raw materials for detergent manufacture. The 620-foot-tall electricity pylons of 380kV Thames Crossing, the tallest electricity pylons in UK, remain. Just upstream of the pylons the tunnel of High Speed 1 passes under the Thames.
Sights of the town
The old parish church, St Clement's is now redundant. It was used for the funeral in the film "Four Weddings and a Funeral".
Belmont Castle is a neo-Gothic mansion, built in West Thurrock in 1795 but it was demolished in 1943 to make way for a chalk quarry.[3]
The Lakeside Shopping Centre is to the north of the town.
Outside links
References
- ↑ PH Reaney, The Place-Names of Essex, (CUP, 1969)
- ↑ Victoria County History - A History of the County of Essex: Volume 8 (1983)
- ↑ Carney, T. J., "A Picturesque Object", the story of Belmont Castle, Grays, originally published in Panorama, No. 28, Thurrock Local History Society, 1986
