Chafford Hundred

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. 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.

Prehistory and Thurrock Chalklands
The earliest evidence of human occupation in the area around Chafford Hundred dates back to the prehistoric period, with archeological evidence strongly suggesting the existence of human settlement and agricultural and industrial development in the area from around 8,000 BC in the Mesolithic through to the Neolithic, Bronze, Iron, Roman and Early Medieval periods. Animal fossils and shark fossils dating to the prehistoric period have also been discovered in the area.

By the 19th century, the area had become the site of disused chemical works in Grays Thurrock. In 1870, Edmund Wright Brooks took over the works and turned them into quarries for his cement manufacturing company. Several other cement companies, including the Portland Cement Works Company and the Lion Cement Company, had started quarrying the area by 1874. By 1925, most of these companies had merged to form Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd, which later became Blue Circle Industries. For much of the 20th century, the area was mainly the site of several chalk, gravel and brickearth quarries, with the last of these closing down in 1976. As such, the area was called the Thurrock Chalklands prior to the development of Chafford Hundred.

By the early 1970s, most of the land in the Thurrock Chalklands had become derelict and abandoned. Blue Circle Industries continued to own most of the land in the area long after the closure of the quarries, and it remained interested in developing the area. In 1973, the local authorities Essex County Council and Thurrock Council looked into regenerating the area with government support. The councils' interests in the area were renewed in 1981 with the completion of the M25 and A13 in Thurrock, which intersected near the area. The location of the Chalklands behind Thurrock's industrial waterfront was seen as having strategic value, and a new development on the site was expected to meet an anticipated increase in local industrial demand caused by the completion of the roads.

Another organisation, the national house-builder Consortium Developments Limited (CDL), also expressed interest in the Chalklands area. CDL had been founded in 1983 by Britain's ten largest house-building companies as a consortium which aimed to promote and build privately developed new towns in South East England. It made its first planning application in March 1985 for a £450 million new town development known as Tillingham Hall on the Metropolitan Green Belt in the north of Thurrock, which would provide 5,100 dwellings for 14,000 people. Thurrock Council and Essex County Council opposed the Tillingham Hall proposal as it would be built on green belt land and blocked planning permission for the project. The project also posed a threat to their ambitions for a development in the Chalklands, and this may have influenced Thurrock's opposition to the proposal. CDL looked at the Chalklands area as a potential alternative development site to Tillingham Hall, prompting Blue Circle Industries to propose a development of its own in the area before CDL could make a planning application there.

Construction of Chafford Hundred
Blue Circle Industries made a planning application with two other developers, West Thurrock Estates and Tunnel Holdings, to build a housing development on the Chalklands in August 1985. The proposed development was designed by architect Owen Luder and named Chafford Hundred after the historic Hundred of Chafford, which included parts of what is now Havering, Thurrock and Brentwood.

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. 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. It was named "Chafford Hundred" after a former Bishop of London and the historic Hundred of Chafford.

The development would be built on a 600 acre site in Grays and West Thurrock, north-west of Grays town centre. Around two-thirds of the site was previously used as a chalk quarry; the rest was mostly former agricultural land which had become uncultivated. Planning permission to reclaim and develop the site to build 5,000 homes was granted in July 1986 and construction began in 1988. Blue Circle Industries formed a consortium with construction companies Rosehaugh and Pearson plc with the trade name Chafford Hundred Ltd to build the development. To pay for construction costs, the consortium took up a £45 million loan to be paid back over the next seven years. 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. At the time, Chafford Hundred was characterised by the press as a new town in West Thurrock. Officially, it was a housing estate in the western part of the town of Grays.

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. 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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. The area's Member of Parliament is Jen Craft. Although there were initially no facilities, they managed to raise funds to build a youth park which was launched last year. The area is also served by multiple churches.

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


 * Tudor Court Primary School
 * Warren Primary School
 * Harris Primary Academy Chafford Hundred
 * Harris Primary Academy Mayflower
 * Harris Academy Chafford Hundred (secondary, formerly Chafford Hundred Campus Business and Enterprise College)

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.

Politics and governance
Chafford Hundred is in the parliamentary constituency of Thurrock. The local member of Parliament (MP) is Jen Craft of the Labour Party, who was first elected at the 2024 general election. As one of the more affluent areas in the constituency, Chafford Hundred was traditionally more supportive of the Conservative Party until the 2010s, when demographic changes in the area and its growing popularity with commuters led to a shift in favour of the Labour Party. The local authority is Thurrock Council which has held unitary authority status since 1998. As such, the council is responsible for all local government services in the area. Chafford Hundred also falls under the jurisdiction of Essex Police and the Essex County Fire and Rescue Service which are overseen by the elected Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex. Since 2016, the police, fire and crime commissioner has been Roger Hirst of the Conservative Party.

For the purposes of local elections to Thurrock Council, Chafford Hundred is divided between the two electoral wards of South Chafford and Chafford and North Stifford, with the latter also including the separate community of North Stifford. Both wards elect two councillors each who serve for a term of four years. In the early years of the development, Chafford Hundred was split between the wards of West Thurrock, Stifford, Grays Thurrock Town and Grays Thurrock North. As the development continued to grow into the 1990s, the Local Government Commission for England split off parts of these wards to form a new separate ward for Chafford Hundred in 1997, which elected two councillors. Continued population growth into the 2000s led the commission to reorganise Chafford Hundred and its neighbouring wards into the current wards of South Chafford and Chafford and North Stifford in 2004. Former Conservative council leader Mark Coxshall represented Chafford and North Stifford until he lost his seat to the Labour Party at the 2023 Thurrock Council election. As of 2024, all four councillors for Chafford Hundred are from the Labour Party.

Notable people
Singer Louisa Johnson is from Chafford Hundred and attended Harris Academy Chafford Hundred. Television personalities Chloe Brockett and Toby Aromolaran  also come from the area, as does footballer Elliot Omozusi. Chafford Hundred Athletic Club, a sports marketing club in Chafford Hundred, is managed by retired javelin thrower Fatima Whitbread, who founded it after her retirement in 1991. Notable members of the club have included Yvonne Murray, Tom McKean, Jonathan Edwards, Kelly Holmes, Linford Christie, Iwan Thomas and Steve Backley.