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- source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- source: Family History Library Catalog
- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
Grays Thurrock, commonly known simply as Grays, is the largest town in the borough and unitary authority of Thurrock in Essex and one of the Thurrock's traditional (Church of England) parishes. The town is approximately 20 miles (32 km) to the east of central London on the north bank of the River Thames, and 2 miles (3.2 km) east of the M25 motorway at the Dartford Crossing. Its economy is linked to Port of London industries, its own offices, retail areas and Lakeside, West Thurrock. Its riverside faces Broadness Lighthouse at Broadness Point in Swanscombe in Kent.
It has a variously used riverside (from homes through wild bird-habitat marshland to importation, storage and distribution).
The parish was part of the Thurrock Urban District from 1936 until 1974. Since 1974 it has been located in the Thurrock District in Essex (a unitary authority since 1998).Between 1894 and 1936 it was an urban authority in its own right.
A nineteenth century description
A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Grays Thurrock from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:
- "GRAYS THURROCK, or GRAYs, a small town and a parish in Orsett [registration] district, Essex. The town stands on the Thames, and on the London and Southend railway, between Fiddler's Reach and Northfleet Hope, 3 miles WNW of Tilbury Fort, and 10 SE of Romford; consists chiefly of one street, irregularly built, extending along a small creek; contains many new houses; was given, in 1194, by Richard I. to Henry de Grey; is a seat of petty sessions; and has a station on the railway, a post office, of the name of Grays, under Romford, London E, and a pier 400 feet long. A weekly market is held on Thursday; fairs are held on 23 May and 20 Oct.; and a large trade is carried on in the export of bricks to London. The parish comprises 1,374 acres of land, and 260 of water. Real property:£6,889. Population in 1851: 1,713; in 1861: 2,209. Houses: 400. The increase of population arose from the influence of the railway, and from the establishment of a chemical manufactory. The property is got much divided. Belmont Castle, about a mile from the town, the seat of R. Webb, Esq., is a modern Gothic edifice, and stands on an eminence, amid fine grounds. A whale, 58 feet long, came ashore at the parish in Oct. 1849. Brick making, and chalk-limeburning are largely carried on. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester. Value: £250. Patron: James Theobald, Esq. The church is cruciform and good; and has a tower, with a recent low spire. There are a national school, a free grammar school, and some charities."
Research Tips
- Essex Record Office handles Essex archives within the county. The address is Wharf Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6YT.
- The Essex Society for Family History covers topics of genealogical interest throughout the present County of Essex (i.e. excluding the western area now in Greater London). Subscription necessary.
- GENUKI provides a list of towns and parishes leading to pages for individual parishes with useful local information for genealogists and family historians.
- Wikimedia Commons has a set of maps of the old hundreds of Essex. These do not show the individual parishes within the hundreds.
- For very detailed investigation Wikimedia Commons also has a series of 176 part maps of the Ordnance Survey 1st series 1:10560, Map of Essex
- FamilySearch lists its collections of church records and vital records along with those provided by other organizations, both commercial and voluntary.
- The commercial website FindMyPast also has a collection of wills and newspaper transcriptions, as well as the "1939 Register" (an equivalent to the census gathered at the beginning of World War 2).
- A Vision of Britain through Time is a website produced by the Department of Geography of the University of Portsmouth. It outlines all parishes as they were in the 19th century.
- British History Online has transcribed eight volumes of the Victoria County History project for Essex. Seven of these cover the history of parts of the county in great detail, although the project is incomplete for Essex as a whole. Ownership of land through the centuries can often be traced here. The volumes of note are as follows:
- Volume 4, Ongar Hundred, including Chipping and High Ongar, Chigwell, Stondon Massey and Theydon Bois (26 parishes in all).
- Volume 5, Becontree Hundred outside Greater London. A thematic account of the growth of metropolitan Essex since 1850. Also contains topographical accounts of Barking, Ilford, Dagenham and other areas of Essex now within Greater London.
- Volume 6, parishes of Becontree Hundred now within the London boroughs of Newham, Waltham Forest and Redbridge. These include West and East Ham, Walthamstow and Wanstead.
- Volume 7, Covers the ancient parishes, formerly within the Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower and now within the London borough of Havering, and those in Chafford hundred in western Essex now bordering London. It includes accounts of Hornchurch, Romford, Havering.
- Volume 8, accounts of the parishes of Chafford and Harlow Hundreds, including Brentwood, Harlow and Thurrock.
- Volume 9, the Borough of Colchester, describes the life of the oldest and for long the largest town in Essex from the Iron Age to 1990.
- Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (part), includes Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe and other parishes to the north and west of Colchester.
- As of June 2019 Ancestry (Worldwide subscription required) includes Essex, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, these early records are from parish registers of baptisms and burials during the years 1538–1812, and marriages during the years 1538-1754. These are in addition to their previous holdings:
- Essex, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1918: 3,937,941 records
- Essex, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1935: 1,968,439 records
- Essex, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1994: 730,118 records
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