Hundred of Chafford

Chafford was an ancient hundred in the south west of the county of Essex, England. Its area has been partly absorbed by the growth of London; with its name reused for the modern housing development of Chafford Hundred. Its former area now corresponds to part of the London Borough of Havering in Greater London and parts of the districts of Brentwood and Thurrock in Essex.

History

Hundred meetings are thought to have taken place in Chafford Heath (grid reference TQ564836) in the southern part of the ecclesiastical parish of Upminster.

The hundred contained the parishes of Aveley, Brentwood, Childerditch, Cranham, Grays Thurrock, Great Warley, Little Warley, North Ockendon, Rainham, South Ockendon, South Weald, Stifford, Upminster, Wennington and West Thurrock.

It bordered Ongar hundred to the north, Barstable hundred to the east and Havering liberty to the west. The River Thames formed a 7-mile (11 km) boundary with Kent to the south. The hundred covered a narrow area stretching 12 miles (19 km) northwards from the river.

Chafford Hundred

Coordinates: 51°29′17″N 0°18′00″E / 51.488°N 0.300°E / 51.488; 0.300

Chafford Hundred is a turn of the 21st century settlement built between Grays and South Ockendon in the Borough of Thurrock. Its station also serves, to its western side, intu Lakeside in the largely retail and distribution-dominated area of West Thurrock. It is located in the Chafford and North Stifford, and South Chafford wards of Thurrock.

History

Built on an area of 600 acres, northwest of Grays town centre. Two-thirds of the site was previously used as a chalk quarry, the rest was agricultural land. Approximately 5,300 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.Chafford Hundred Lakeside railway station serves the local area, and was built expressly for the settlement. It opened in 1993, and currently sees a twice hourly service connecting it to London, Grays and Southend. 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.