West Thurrock & Purfleet 1863 Whites Directory

WEST THURROCK is a long straggling village, extending more than a mile along the road and the marshes on the north side of the Thames, opposite Greenhithe Pier, and between Grays Thurrock and Purfleet, 16 miles E. by S. of London, and 9 miles S.E. of Romford. Its parish includes Purfleet hamlet, and contains 2863 acres of land, and had 835 inhabitants in 1851, of whom about 500 Were in Purfleet village and barracks. Many of the inhabitants were, till a few years ago, employed in the extensive lime and ohalk pits, belonging to W. H. Whitbread, Esq., the lord of the manor, and owner of most of the parish; but these works are now closed. W. D. Cooper, Esq., and several smaller owners have estates in, the parish. West Hall, the old manor house, was formerly named Le Vineyard, from vines having been cultivated here in ancient times. It has latterly been called High House, from its situation. on the side of a lofty hill, commanding a delightful prospect over the marshes and the river Thames. It is now the residence of J. E. Joyner, Esq. The Church (St. Clement) is a very ancient stone building, with a massive tower containing three bells. W. H. Whitbread, Esq., is impropriator of the rectory, and patron of the vicarage, valued in KB. at £15.13s. 4d., and in 1831 at £310, and now held by the Rev. Frederick Heberden, M.A., at Wilmington, Kent. Here is a neat Parsonage and 3A. of glebe, and the vicarial tithes were commuted in 1836 for £313 per annum.

PURFLEET is a village and military station on the north side of the river Thames, at the mouth of a rivulet, and at the west end of West Thurrock, to which parish it is a hamlet, though sometimes called a township. It is 16 miles E. by S. of London, and 8 miles S.E. by S. of Romford, and has a pleasure fair on the 13th of June; and.a station on the London, Tilbury,and Southend Railway. The harbour is only used by small craft, and adjoining it is a large government powder magazine, consisting of five detached bomb-proof and well-protected store-houses, barracks for a company of artillery, a store keeper's mansion, and a good quay. This magazine was built in 1781, and has room for the safe keeping of 60,000 barrels of gunpowder.
The village is on rising ground, and in the vicinity numerous romantic scenes are formed by the high projecting chalk rocks, interspersed with deep and extensive caverns. Of these chalk hills, and those on the Kentish side of the Thames, the lofty Beacon Cliff, which overlooks, the village, commands an extensive prospect; finely interspersed with woods, gentlemen's seats, farmhouses, villages, etc

Those marked * are in Purfleet, and the others in West Thurrock
There are POST OFFICES in both villages. Letters via Grays.

RAILWAY   Trains to London and Southend, 9 times a day.