Aveley has given its name to the Aveley Interglacial period around 200,000 years ago. Important evidence of the local flora and fauna of the period and some signs of occupation by Neanderthal humans have been found there.[2]
In Domesday the name has various spellings – Alvithelea, Alvileia and Alvilea.[3] The name means Aelfgyth's wood clearing.[4] A variation, in 1418, is Alvythele.[5]
On 1 April 1936 the parish was abolished to form Thurrock.[6]
The Aveley mammoth
In 1964, amateur geologist John Hesketh found the remains of a late form of steppe mammoth in a clay pit on Sandy Lane. The Natural History Museum excavated the site and uncovered the most complete mammoth skeleton found in the UK, along with a junior straight-tusked elephant found beneath it. The animals were separated by 50,000 years and were originally thought to date back 100,000 and 125,000 years respectively, but recent dating techniques show they died 200,000 and 250,000 years ago.[7]
The skeletons were on display from 1970 to 1990 in the Natural History Museum, before being stored in the museum's palaeontology department for a number of years.[8] They are currently being exhibited in the 'From the Beginning' gallery. Other animal remains were also found at the Aveley site, including a 200,000 year-old jungle cat, a large lion, a brown bear, wolf, rhinoceros, moles, bats, and terrapins.[9]
Notable people
Martina Cole, the crime writer, was brought up in Aveley
Alice Diehl (née Mangold), the novelist and concert pianist, was born in Aveley.[10]
Robert W. Gibson, English-American architect, born in Aveley in 1854.
Kate Evelyn Luard, Royal Red Cross and bar was born in Aveley vicarage.
Aveley forms part of the Thurrock constituency, and is covered by the Aveley and Uplands ward. Their local Member of Parliament (MP) is Jackie Doyle-Price, who was first elected in the 2010 general election, retaining her seat in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections.[13] She was appointed Minister of State for Industry during Liz Truss's short-lived premiership before returning to the back benches following the appointment of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister.[14]
The Aveley and Uplands ward elects three councillors to Thurrock Council. As of May 2022, two were of those elected were members of The Conservative Party and one was a member of The Labour Party.[15]
Historic buildings
St Michael's Church
The parish church of St Michael is a Grade I listed building dating from the 12th century.[16][17] It contains a 14th-century memorial brass to Radulphus de Knevynton, which is echoed in the arms of the Thurrock unitary authority. The church was declared unsafe in the 19th century, with the recommendation that it should be pulled down. However, this was averted by its parishioners, who raised £1,000 to save it.[18]
In the 2021 United Kingdom census it had a population of 9,801.[1] According to Thurrock Council, the ward of Aveley and Uplands had a population of 8,381 people in 2001. In 1931 the parish had a population of 2,003.[20]
Sport
Aveley is the home of non-League football club Aveley, which plays at Parkside. It was also home of now defunct Thurrock, who played at Ship Lane.
Belhus golf course is located in Aveley near the site of the former Belhus Mansion. Much of the remaining land from Belhus forms the Belhus Woods Country Park.
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