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Chafford Hundred
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Chafford Hundred
Chafford Hundred, or simply Chafford, is a housing development and suburb in the town of Grays in the borough of Thurrock in Essex, England. Chafford Hundred is north-west of Grays Town Centre.
Its railway station serves the area and Lakeside Shopping Centre.
Lakeside Shopping Centre is in West Thurrock. Chafford Hundred was built on parts of the historical parishes of Stifford and West Thurrock, Mill Lane being the border of the respective historical parishes. It is located directly between North Stifford and South Stifford.
The earliest evidence of human occupation in the area around Chafford Hundred dates back to the prehistoric period, with archeological evidence strongly suggesting the existence of human settlement and agricultural and industrial development in the area from around 8,000 BC in the Mesolithic through to the Neolithic, Bronze, Iron, Roman and Early Medieval periods. Animal fossils and shark fossils dating to the prehistoric period have also been discovered in the area.
By the 19th century, the area had become the site of disused chemical works in Grays Thurrock. In 1870, Edmund Wright Brooks took over the works and turned them into quarries for his cement manufacturing company. Several other cement companies, including the Portland Cement Works Company and the Lion Cement Company, had started quarrying the area by 1874. By 1925, most of these companies had merged to form Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd, which later became Blue Circle Industries. For much of the 20th century, the area was mainly the site of several chalk, gravel and brickearth quarries, with the last of these closing down in 1976. As such, the area was called the Thurrock Chalklands prior to the development of Chafford Hundred.
By the early 1970s, most of the land in the Thurrock Chalklands had become derelict and abandoned. Blue Circle Industries continued to own most of the land in the area long after the closure of the quarries, and it remained interested in developing the area. In 1973, the local authorities Essex County Council and Thurrock Council looked into regenerating the area with government support. The councils' interests in the area were renewed in 1981 with the completion of the M25 and A13 in Thurrock, which intersected near the area. The location of the Chalklands behind Thurrock's industrial waterfront was seen as having strategic value, and a new development on the site was expected to meet an anticipated increase in local industrial demand caused by the completion of the roads.
Another organisation, the national house-builder Consortium Developments Limited (CDL), also expressed interest in the Chalklands area. CDL had been founded in 1983 by Britain's ten largest house-building companies as a consortium which aimed to promote and build privately developed new towns in South East England. It made its first planning application in March 1985 for a £450 million new town development known as Tillingham Hall on the Metropolitan Green Belt in the north of Thurrock, which would provide 5,100 dwellings for 14,000 people. Thurrock Council and Essex County Council opposed the Tillingham Hall proposal as it would be built on green belt land and blocked planning permission for the project. The project also posed a threat to their ambitions for a development in the Chalklands, and this may have influenced Thurrock's opposition to the proposal. CDL looked at the Chalklands area as a potential alternative development site to Tillingham Hall, prompting Blue Circle Industries to propose a development of its own in the area before CDL could make a planning application there.
Blue Circle Industries made a planning application with two other developers, West Thurrock Estates and Tunnel Holdings, to build a housing development on the Chalklands in August 1985. The proposed development was designed by architect Owen Luder and named Chafford Hundred after the historic Hundred of Chafford, which included parts of what is now Havering, Thurrock and Brentwood.
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Chafford Hundred
Chafford Hundred, or simply Chafford, is a housing development and suburb in the town of Grays in the borough of Thurrock in Essex, England. Chafford Hundred is north-west of Grays Town Centre.
Its railway station serves the area and Lakeside Shopping Centre.
Lakeside Shopping Centre is in West Thurrock. Chafford Hundred was built on parts of the historical parishes of Stifford and West Thurrock, Mill Lane being the border of the respective historical parishes. It is located directly between North Stifford and South Stifford.
The earliest evidence of human occupation in the area around Chafford Hundred dates back to the prehistoric period, with archeological evidence strongly suggesting the existence of human settlement and agricultural and industrial development in the area from around 8,000 BC in the Mesolithic through to the Neolithic, Bronze, Iron, Roman and Early Medieval periods. Animal fossils and shark fossils dating to the prehistoric period have also been discovered in the area.
By the 19th century, the area had become the site of disused chemical works in Grays Thurrock. In 1870, Edmund Wright Brooks took over the works and turned them into quarries for his cement manufacturing company. Several other cement companies, including the Portland Cement Works Company and the Lion Cement Company, had started quarrying the area by 1874. By 1925, most of these companies had merged to form Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd, which later became Blue Circle Industries. For much of the 20th century, the area was mainly the site of several chalk, gravel and brickearth quarries, with the last of these closing down in 1976. As such, the area was called the Thurrock Chalklands prior to the development of Chafford Hundred.
By the early 1970s, most of the land in the Thurrock Chalklands had become derelict and abandoned. Blue Circle Industries continued to own most of the land in the area long after the closure of the quarries, and it remained interested in developing the area. In 1973, the local authorities Essex County Council and Thurrock Council looked into regenerating the area with government support. The councils' interests in the area were renewed in 1981 with the completion of the M25 and A13 in Thurrock, which intersected near the area. The location of the Chalklands behind Thurrock's industrial waterfront was seen as having strategic value, and a new development on the site was expected to meet an anticipated increase in local industrial demand caused by the completion of the roads.
Another organisation, the national house-builder Consortium Developments Limited (CDL), also expressed interest in the Chalklands area. CDL had been founded in 1983 by Britain's ten largest house-building companies as a consortium which aimed to promote and build privately developed new towns in South East England. It made its first planning application in March 1985 for a £450 million new town development known as Tillingham Hall on the Metropolitan Green Belt in the north of Thurrock, which would provide 5,100 dwellings for 14,000 people. Thurrock Council and Essex County Council opposed the Tillingham Hall proposal as it would be built on green belt land and blocked planning permission for the project. The project also posed a threat to their ambitions for a development in the Chalklands, and this may have influenced Thurrock's opposition to the proposal. CDL looked at the Chalklands area as a potential alternative development site to Tillingham Hall, prompting Blue Circle Industries to propose a development of its own in the area before CDL could make a planning application there.
Blue Circle Industries made a planning application with two other developers, West Thurrock Estates and Tunnel Holdings, to build a housing development on the Chalklands in August 1985. The proposed development was designed by architect Owen Luder and named Chafford Hundred after the historic Hundred of Chafford, which included parts of what is now Havering, Thurrock and Brentwood.
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