Discover 11 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Grays (United Kingdom). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Arena Essex Raceway, St Mary's Church, and State Cinema. Also, be sure to include St Clement's Church in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Grays (England).
Table of Contents
Arena Essex Raceway
Sports venue in Grays, England. Arena Essex Raceway was a stock car and speedway racing track located near Purfleet, Essex. It opened in 1978 and closed in 2018. The Lakeside Shopping Centre was built alongside the venue.[1]
Address: Arterial Rd., RM19 1AE Purfleet
St Mary's Church
Church in England. The Church of St Mary is a Church of England parish church in Chadwell St Mary, Thurrock, Essex. The church is a Grade I listed building. Together with Emmanuel Church, it forms the Parish of Chadwell St Mary in the Diocese of Chelmsford.[2]
Address: Linford Rd, RM16 4JW Grays
State Cinema
The State Cinema is a Grade II* Listed building in Grays, Essex. Designed by F. G. M. Chancellor under Matcham & Co. it opened in 1938 as one of the most modern cinemas of its type at the time with seating for 2200 people. As a cinema, it closed in 1988 but has held numerous events and been used for various purposes since. Historic England describe the cinema as being "one of the best preserved of the super cinemas of the late 1930s."
In recent years, the building has been vandalised and pilfered from and has suffered water damage from a failing roof system. Its decay was so bad that it was entered onto Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register on which it was assessed as being "very bad". The building was bought by Wetherspoons in 2018 for conversion to public house. Works commenced in 2019 but stalled in 2020. The refurbishment remains ongoing.[3]
St Clement's Church
Building in Grays, England. St Clement's Church is a Grade I listed building in West Thurrock, Essex, England. It is the church for one of the traditional parishes in Thurrock. The building featured in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral.[4]
400 kV Thames Crossing
The 400 kV Thames Crossing is an overhead power line crossing of the River Thames, between Botany Marshes in Swanscombe, Kent, and West Thurrock, Essex, England. Its towers are the tallest electricity pylons in the UK.
The present crossing was built in 1965, and comprises two 190-metre (623 feet) tall lattice towers each side of the Thames. Some suggest that the choice of this height was deliberate, being just taller than the BT Tower in London. The span is 1372 metres (4501 feet), the minimum height of the conductors over the river is 76 metres (249 feet). Each tower has three crossarms and carries two circuits of 400 kV three-phase AC.
400 kV power lines also cross the Thames at the Thames Cable Tunnel, the Dartford Cable Tunnel, and the London Power Tunnels.[5]
Chafford Gorges Nature Park
Nature preserve in Chafford Hundred, England. The Chafford Gorges Nature Park is a 200-acre nature reserve located in Chafford Hundred, England and managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust. It includes two Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Grays Thurrock Chalk Pit has been designated for its biological interest, and Lion Pit for geological interest.[6]
Hangman's Wood
Park in Grays, England. Hangman's Wood and Deneholes is a 3 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Little Thurrock in Essex. The deneholes, which were created by medieval chalk mining, are a Scheduled Monument.
The name Hangmans Wood dates back to at least the mid 17th century when it was recorded on an estate map. Trees in the wood include oak, ash, sycamore and wild cherry.
The wood contains a number of deneholes which were investigated by the Essex Field Club at the end of the 19th century. There is normally no access to the deneholes, but permission can be obtained from the council. The deneholes are the most important underground hibernation sites for bats in Essex, with three species; Brown long-eared bat, Natterer's bat and Daubenton's bat. The oak woodland is ancient, and it provides a feeding habitat for the bats.
The deneholes in the wood, which were sometimes known as Cunobeline's gold mines, are described by English Heritage as medieval or post-medieval and were used for chalk or flint mining. The origin of these deneholes is discussed by Tony Benton. There appears to have been more than 70 holes in the wood at one time, concentrated to the north of the wood. Most only survive now as shallow dips in the ground.
The bridlepath which crosses Grangewood Avenue and runs beside Woodside School to connect Hangman's Wood with nearby Terrel's Heath is part of an ancient route from Coalhouse Point in East Tilbury to the bridge or causeway at Aveley.[7]
Bairstow Eves Sales
Address: 45 Orsett Rd, Grays
The Dell
The Dell is a house in Grays, Thurrock, Essex, built in concrete—one of the earliest houses in Britain to be built in this material. It was built on the instructions of Alfred Russel Wallace, who lived in Grays from 1872 until 1876.[8]
Address: Grays, 25 College Avenue, Grays
Tiptree Heath
Nature preserve in England. Tiptree Heath is a 25 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-west of Tiptree in Essex, England. It is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust together with the Friends of Tiptree Heath.
This is the largest surviving area of heathland in Essex, and has a number of plants rare in the county. It is dominated by heather and bent grass. There is also an area of secondary woodland with oak, birch and aspen, and a stream with several species of fern on its banks. A small herd of Dexter cattle help to control the growth of invasive scrub.
The site straddles the B1022 Maldon Road.[9]
Grays Thurrock Chalk Pit
Park. Grays Thurrock Chalk Pit is a 17.3 hectare Site of Special Scientific Interest in Grays in Essex. It is part of Chafford Gorges Nature Park, which is managed by the Essex Wildlife Trust.
Extraction of chalk finished in the 1920s, and since then colonisation of the site has created a range of woodland, grassland and scrub habitats which are important for invertebrates. There is also an area of open water. Beetles include two Red Book species, Mordellistena humeralis and Mordellistena neuwaldeggiana.
There is access to the site from Devonshire Road and Hogg Lane.[10]