{"id":17411,"date":"2025-05-24T08:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T07:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=17411"},"modified":"2025-05-21T13:52:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:52:33","slug":"thames-gateway-essex-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=17411","title":{"rendered":"Thames Gateway – Essex 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thames Gateway – Essex<\/strong>: I didn’t write much about my bike ride in south Essex on 24th May 2007, though the pictures on My London Diary tell the story of my route. I began at Rainham on the edge of Greater London in the London Borough of Havering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It wasn’t a linear ride but one where I went back and forth rather extensively exploring some of the areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next came the village of Aveley, where the Old Ship has a pub interior “of Outstanding National Importance” but I didn’t go inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I photographed the Mar Dyke at North Stifford along with a number of houses, some thatched and cycled around the Stifford Green estate on site of Stepney Boys Home built around ‘The Tower’. This had been an approved school and then a community home until it closed in 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Next came Chafford Hundred<\/a>, an area where chalk was extensively quarried from 1874 until the last quarry closeed in 1976. In 1986 a proposal by Blue Circle Industries, West Thurrock Estates and Tunnel Holdings to build 5,000 homes on derelict land was approved and the first were completed in 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Parts of the area were still in industrial use in 2007 and there is a nature park with extensive lakes and ditches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Lion Gorge, Chafford Hundred<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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From there I cycled a little deeper into Grays before going to Orsett Fen and Orsett and Horndon on the Hill which has a rather fine old pub I also didn’t go inside. Cycling and beer really don’t mix well with modern traffic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are more impressive ancient buildings, a reminder of the wealth that once came from the wool trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I made my way via Bulphan towards Upminster where I could use my railcard to start my journey home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here is the short text I wrote back in 2007 – with the usual corrections. The cost of the ticket I bought then is now \u00a315.30 – an increase of around 9% above inflation – another of the costs of privatisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday I bought an expensive ticket – just up from \u00a36.60 to \u00a37.90 – for a one-day railcard for Greater London from Staines, and put my folding bike aboard the train, changing to reach Rainham, Essex, (L B Havering) on the furthest edge of London from where I live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Don’t let anyone tell you Essex is flat. O boring. Over a few hundred yards you can move from idyllic thatched cottages to post-industrial dereliction; from dramatic man-made scenery with lakes and chalk gorges to densely packed modern housing estates. From farms owned by city millionaires to council tower blocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Most of my winding route took me through Thurrock, one of the major growth sites of the Thames Gateway area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are many more images from this ride on My London Diary, beginning here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flickr<\/a> – Facebook<\/a> – My London Diary<\/a> – Hull Photos<\/a> – Lea Valley<\/a> – Paris<\/a>
London’s Industrial Heritage<\/a> – London Photos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photographs on this page are copyright \u00a9 Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thames Gateway – Essex: I didn’t write much about my bike ride in south Essex on 24th May 2007, though the pictures on My London Diary tell the story of my route. I began at Rainham on the edge of Greater London in the London Borough of Havering. It wasn’t a linear ride but one … Continue reading Thames Gateway – Essex 2007<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3],"tags":[1898,20584,2158,16918,3867,20597,1838,12394,20590,1890,10442,20593,20425,20595,21,20585,17,1343,20586,20591,20587,20594,83,943,13634,20589,20588,20592,12397,20583,20599,20596],"class_list":["post-17411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-londonphotos","category-my-own-work","tag-1898","tag-aveley","tag-bike-ride","tag-blue-circle","tag-brompton","tag-bulphan","tag-cement","tag-chafford-hundred","tag-chalk-quarry","tag-cycle-ride","tag-essex","tag-grays","tag-havering","tag-horndon-on-the-hill","tag-housing","tag-jewish-cemetery","tag-london","tag-london-photos","tag-mar-dyke","tag-new-town","tag-north-stifford","tag-orsett","tag-peter-marshall","tag-pub","tag-rainham","tag-stepney-boys-home","tag-stifford-green","tag-tank-farm","tag-thames-gateway","tag-thurrock","tag-upminister","tag-woolmarket"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17411"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17413,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17411\/revisions\/17413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}