West Thurrock is an area, former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

and traditional

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

parish in

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authority area with borough status and unparished area in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The ...

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

, England, located 17.5 miles (28.1 km) east south-east of

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In 1931 the parish had a population of 5,153. On 1 April 1936, the parish was abolished to form Thurrock.

Location

West Thurrock is part of the unitary authority of

located on the north bank of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

about from

. Nearest places: *

Aveley Aveley is a town and former civil parish in the unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex, England, and forms one of the traditional Church of England parishes. Aveley is 16 miles (26.2 km) east of Charing Cross. In the 2021 United Kingdom c ...

Chafford Hundred Chafford Hundred is an area in the Borough of Thurrock in the ceremonial county of Essex. Chafford Hundred is north-west of Grays. Its railway station serves the area and Lakeside Shopping Centre. Lakeside Shopping Centre is in West Thurro ...

* Grays *

South Ockendon South Ockendon is a town, former civil parish and Church of England parish within the Thurrock borough in Essex in the East of England, United Kingdom. It is located on the border with Greater London, just outside the M25 motorway. The area to t ...

Nearest stations: *

Chafford Hundred railway station Chafford Hundred Lakeside railway station, also known simply as Chafford Hundred station, is located on a single-track branch line of the London, Tilbury and Southend line, serving the town of Chafford Hundred as well as Lakeside Shopping Centr ...

Grays railway station Grays railway station is on the London, Tilbury and Southend line serving the town of Grays, Essex. It is down the line from London Fenchurch Street via and is located at the junction where a branch line from via re-joins the route from R ...

Purfleet railway station Purfleet railway station is on the London, Tilbury and Southend line serving the town of Purfleet, Essex. It is down the line from London Fenchurch Street and it is situated between to the west and to the east. Its three-letter station code ...

Industry

Industry along the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

includes a

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

chilled distribution centre for all its chilled food products including

Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. ...

Bertolli Bertolli is a brand of Italian food products produced by multiple companies around the world with the trademark owned by Mizkan Holdings. Originating as a brand of extra-virgin olive oil, in which it was the global market leader, pasta sauces an ...

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! is a brand of a spreadable emulsion of vegetable oil in water with butter flavorCalvani Terry. ''Antitrust Law Journal'', 1989, "Advertising Regulation: The States v. FTC. "...a nationally distributed butter subs ...

Stork Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons an ...

, Peperami and AdeZ. A

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

(originally Hedley's) plant manufactures detergents and soaps. The large coal-burning

West Thurrock Power Station West Thurrock Power Station was a coal-fired power station on the River Thames at Stone Ness, West Thurrock in Essex. The station was at the northern end of the 400 kV Thames Crossing of the National Grid. History The station was built by the ...

closed in 1993, and was replaced by a plant making industrial chemicals, particularly the raw materials for detergent manufacture. The 190 metre tall electricity pylons of

400 kV Thames Crossing The 400 kV Thames Crossing is an overhead power line crossing of the River Thames, between Botany Marshes in Swanscombe, Kent, and West Thurrock, Essex, England. Its towers are the tallest electricity pylons in the UK. The present crossing was ...

, the tallest electricity pylons in the UK, remain. Just upstream of the pylons the tunnel of

High Speed 1 High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of a line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe ...

passes under the Thames. West Thurrock was formerly the site of a large chalk quarrying and cement making industry. Individual companies included Brooks (which became part of APC), Wouldham Cement and Tunnel Cement (now part of

Hanson Cement Hanson Cement is a cement production company located in the United Kingdom. It was called Castle Cement until it was rebranded in 2009. The company is now owned by HeidelbergCement. History The company was formed in 1981 through an amalgamatio ...

). Today, this industry is represented only by the works of Lafarge below the

Queen Elizabeth II Bridge The Dartford-Thurrock River Crossing, commonly known as the Dartford Crossing and until 1991 the Dartford Tunnel, is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, carrying the A282 road between Dartford in Kent in the south and Thurro ...

. A new plant for the production of aluminous cement was completed in 2003.

Buildings

West Thurrock is the location of the

Lakeside Shopping Centre Lakeside Shopping Centre, is a large out-of-town shopping centre located in West Thurrock, Essex just beyond the eastern boundary of Greater London. It was constructed on the site of a former chalk quarry. The first tenants moved into the compl ...

on the site of a chalk quarry owned by Tunnel Cement. The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

(now redundant) was used for the funeral in the film '' Four Weddings and a Funeral''. Belmont Castle, England, a

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

mansion, was built in West Thurrock in 1795 but was demolished in 1943 to make way for a chalk quarry.

Origin of the name

Thurrock is a Saxon name meaning "the bottom of a ship".PH Reaney, ''The Place-Names of Essex'', (CUP, 1969) West Thurrock is one of three "Thurrocks", the others being Little Thurrock and Grays Thurrock.

References

External links

Photo of St Clement's church and Procter & Gamble on flickr
{{authority control Populated places on the River Thames Towns in Essex Port of London Former civil parishes in Essex Thurrock