Thurrock

Coryton oil refinery

Thurrock, seaport and unitary authority, geographic and historic county of Essex, England. It occupies the north bank of the Thames estuary, about 15 miles (24 km) east of central London. Grays is the administrative centre.

The southern part of the area was largely reclaimed from the Thames marshes by immigrant Dutch workers. Thurrock’s chief town, Grays, was originally a fishing village but eventually became a river port for London’s hay and grain market. At West Tilbury, Elizabeth I made her well-known speech to her troops in 1588 at the time of the threatened invasion by the Spanish Armada. The Tilbury Docks, at nearby Tilbury, were built (1884–86) on what had been uninhabited marsh.

Thurrock’s industries now stretch along the Thames and include soap and margarine works, cement works, and timber yards. The unitary authority includes rural sections as well as several suburban towns. At its eastern end, huge oil refineries were established at Shell Haven and Coryton, but those facilities were later closed and the land converted into deepwater container and oil-transshipment ports, respectively. Area 63 square miles (163 square km). Pop. (2001) 143,128; (2011) 157,705.