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Grays Leasing

Did You Know?

Grays is the largest town in the borough and unitary authority area of Thurrock, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. The town, which is both a former civil parish and one of Thurrock's traditional Church of England parishes, is located on the north bank of the River Thames.

As well as Thurrock Yacht Club, Grays Beach is the site of the local landmark The Gull, a lightship built in 1860, which has lain on the foreshore for decades and is now in a serious state of dilapidation. The light from The Gull has now been removed, restored and installed on the foreshore of the yacht club.

The family name of Gray first purchased the manor of 'Thurrock' in 1195, from Isaac the Jew, having gained permission from King Richard the Lionheart. The family had a 300-year association with the area and their surname was later adapted in to the name of the parish, Grays Thurrock.

We warmly welcome you to The Wharf, a 300-year-old riverside pub and restaurant in Grays, Essex. Once known as The Sailors Return Inn, the first reference to any dwelling on this site dates to 1228. Then, passing sailors navigating a nearby creek would find themselves lodging in the pub's many sea-view rooms.

Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that he visited Grays on 24 September 1665 and apparently bought fish from the local fishermen. Parts of Grays and Chafford Hundred are set within three Victorian chalk pits; the largest two being the Lion Gorge, and the Warren Gorge.

Thurrock is a Saxon name meaning "the bottom of a ship". The element "Grays" comes from Henry de Grai, a descendant of the Norman knight Anchetil de Greye, who was granted the manor of Grays Thurrock in 1195 by Richard I.

The Pleistocene gravels at Grays have yielded a remarkable series of mammalian remains, including those of the wild cat, spotted hyena, wolf, bear, bison, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, and mammoth. Remains of human occupation from the Palaeolithic to the Roman period have been found in the parish.

Medieval Grays grew up along the narrow High Street which ran north from the Thames to join the road from Purfleet to West Tilbury (now Orsett Road). As late as 1777 the built-up area of the town extended no farther north than the church

The port of Grays, with its wharfs and ferries, is described elsewhere.  As early as 1637 there were regular boat services between Grays and London. In 1838 travellers to London could use the Gravesend river steamers, 'hailed by a boat put off Grays'.

Grays had a postal receiving house, served from Romford, by 1838.  There was a telegraph office by 1874. The post office was in the High Street in the 1880s, but by 1890 had been transferred to New Road, where it remained until a new office was built in George Street