Chafford Hundred
Housing in Chafford Hundred
Chafford Hundred is located in Essex
Chafford Hundred
Chafford Hundred
Location within Essex
Population16,420 (Mid-2019) Ward-level population estimates (Experimental Statistics) [1]
OS grid referenceTQ595795
• London18.5 mi (29.8 km) W
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townGRAYS
Postcode districtRM16
Dialling code01375
PoliceEssex
FireEssex
AmbulanceEast of England
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Essex
51°29′17″N 0°18′00″E / 51.488°N 0.300°E / 51.488; 0.300

Chafford Hundred is an area in the Borough of Thurrock in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. Chafford Hundred is north-west of Grays.

Its railway station serves the area and Lakeside Shopping Centre.

Lakeside Shopping Centre is in West Thurrock and is located in the Chafford and North Stifford, and South Chafford wards in the borough of Thurrock.[2] 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.[3]

History

In 1985, Thurrock Council and Essex County Council approved a proposal by Blue Circle Industries, West Thurrock Estates and Tunnel Holdings to build a large landscape-housing estate on derelict land adjacent to the M25 motorway in Grays, Essex.[4][5] Designed by architect Owen Luder, the proposal included the construction of 5,000 homes, five schools and new shops for a population of 15,000 people, and was estimated to cost £100 million.[5] It was named "Chafford Hundred" after a former Bishop of London and the historic Hundred of Chafford.[5][6]

The development would be built on a 600 acre site in Grays and West Thurrock, north-west of Grays town centre.[7][8] Around two-thirds of the site was previously used as a chalk quarry; the rest was mostly former agricultural land which had become uncultivated.[8][9] Planning permission to reclaim and develop the site to build 5,000 homes was granted in July 1986[7][10] and construction began in 1988.[11] Blue Circle Industries formed a consortium with construction companies Rosehaugh and Pearson plc with the trade name Chafford Hundred Ltd to build the development.[11] To pay for construction costs, the consortium took up a £45 million loan to be paid back over the next seven years.[12] By this point, the project included plans for a new church, shopping centre, doctor's surgery, library and a train station on the Fenchurch Street railway line, with an overall estimated cost of £750 million.[13][14] At the time, Chafford Hundred was characterised by the press as a new town in West Thurrock.[15][14][16][13][17] Officially, it was a housing estate in the western part of the town of Grays.[18][7]

The first homes in Chafford Hundred were completed in 1989. Approximately 5,600 houses and flats have been built since 1989 on 353 acres of brownfield housing land. These areas have a variety of housing types which includes private sector housing as well as housing associations and retirement homes.[8] Chafford Hundred railway station serves the local area, and was built to serve the area. It opened in 1993, and currently sees a twice hourly service connecting it to London, Grays and Southend.[19] The name is re-used from the historic Hundred of Chafford, which covered a much larger area including parts of present-day Thurrock in Essex and the London Borough of Havering in Greater London.[20]

The area has seen large growth since its inception, with many City workers living there due to the relatively easy commute into central London. In 2012, it was reported in the national press, that more than half the flats (in the estate) were repossessed during the early 1990s housing slump, impacting it so significantly that prices fell by half.[21] Housing ranges from one or two bedroom apartments up to five / six bedroom large houses and therefore the area caters for many, although property prices grew rapidly during the late 1990s – The Evening Standard article, "the most coveted address in Britain" by Nick Curtis in 2001 included properties in the new village.[22] This is not due to the architecture of the houses (mostly all very similar starter homes), but because it provides relatively affordable housing with public and recreation areas, as well as generally large private gardens, well connected to many jobs.[23]

There are four elected councillors representing Chafford Hundred, currently Cllr Mark Coxshall and Cllr Garry Hague for Chafford and North Stifford Ward, and Cllr Abbie Akinbohun and Cllr Suzanne Hooper for South Chafford Ward.[24] The area's Member of Parliament is Jackie Doyle Price. Although there were initially no facilities, they managed to raise funds to build a youth park which was launched last year.[25] The area is also served by multiple churches.[26]

Schools

Chafford Hundred currently has four primary schools and one secondary school.

Geography

The land is on very gentle slopes (ranging from 18 to 34m AOD) and the area also has included a number of park and recreational areas. The largest area is of special environmental and scientific interest, Chafford Gorges Nature Park; its management was taken over by Essex Wildlife Trust on 9 June 2005.

References

  1. ^ "Ward-level population estimates (Experimental Statistics) - Office for National Statistics".
  2. ^ 2010 post-revision map non-metropolitan areas and unitary authorities of England Archived 3 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ "Parishes: West Thurrock | British History Online".
  4. ^ "Reclaimed land". New Society. Vol. 75, no. 1213. 28 March 1986. pp. 548–549 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ a b c Jones, Graham (28 August 1985). "Chalkpit plan eases threat to Green Belt". The Daily Telegraph. No. 40, 493. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Borough and council history: From Turroc to modern Thurrock". Thurrock Council. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  7. ^ a b c "Community Needs and Open Spaces Study – Thurrock Council" (PDF). Thurrock Council. September 2005. pp. 105–106. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  8. ^ a b c "Chafford Hundred Station Travel Plan" (PDF). Government of the United Kingdom. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
  9. ^ "Builders press for more than 30,000 homes on eight sites". The Guardian. 7 January 1986. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "The cement maker's blues". Manchester Evening News. No. 36, 448. 27 August 1986. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ a b Dineen, Michael (31 July 1988). "Thoroughly Thurrock". The Observer. No. 10269. p. 51 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Premier's £200m loan facility hangs in balance". The Daily Telegraph. No. 41, 333. 16 May 1988. p. 22 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b Dineen, Michael (6 March 1988). "Bargains in Liverpool". The Observer. No. 10248. p. 51 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ a b Taylor, Cheryl (22 November 1989). "The bridge to higher places". The Daily Telegraph. No. 41, 808. p. 30 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Boardroom briefs". Manchester Evening News. No. 36, 192. 3 March 1988. p. 21 – via Newspaper.com.
  16. ^ "New town for Essex". Burton Trader. No. 873. 23 March 1988. p. 6 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Whetnall, Norman (3 March 1988). "Soaring Footsie cheers chartists". The Daily Telegraph. No. 41, 270. p. 20 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Department of the Environment; Breheny, Michael J.; Gent, Tim; Lock, David (1993). Alternative Development Patterns: New Settlements. H.M. Stationery Office. p. 121. ISBN 978-0-11-752784-3.
  19. ^ "Network Rail Winter 2016/7 Working Timetable" (PDF). p. 28. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  20. ^ "Chafford hundred: Introduction | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  21. ^ Clark, Ross (11 December 2002). "Who will survive a crash?". The telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
  22. ^ Curtis, Nick (11 December 2002). "The Most Coveted Address in Britain". The telegraph. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
  23. ^ Moran, Joe (2005). Reading the Everyday. Routledge. p. 207. ISBN 978-1-134-37215-7.
  24. ^ "Current councillors | Thurrock Council". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  25. ^ "The Enquirer :: First anniversary for Chafford Hundred youth park". Archived from the original on 28 August 2013.
  26. ^ "All Saints Church". Archived from the original on 7 October 2013. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
  27. ^ Shepherd, Jessica (13 January 2010). "School created five years ago is 'most improved'". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
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