IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Harrap Chase, GRAYS, RM17 5EW

On 29th May 2015 an HGV learner driver and his instructor had a nasty surprise when the back wheel of the truck caused a tunnel below Image to collapse. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-32930839 for the full story. Hog Lane is a "spine" of chalk between two disused chalk pits which ceased operations in the 1920's. The Western pit is now partly the Badgers Dene housing estate with its northern end being a nature reserve Image The eastern pit now houses the Titan Works industrial area. In former times narrow gauge railways passed under the road in several places, it is thought that one of these is the cause of the massive traffic disruption in Grays

Hog Lane is a "spine" of chalk between two disused chalk pits which ceased operations in the 1920's. It links the Image roundabout and central Grays. On 29th May 2015 an HGV learner driver and his instructor had a nasty surprise when the back wheel of the truck caused a tunnel below the road to collapse. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-32930839 for the full story. See also Image The Western pit is now partly the Badgers Dene housing estate with its northern end being a nature reserve Image The eastern pit now houses the Titan Works industrial area. In former times narrow gauge railways passed under the road in several places, it is thought that one of these is the cause of the massive traffic disruption in Grays

Grays Chalk Pit SSSI was being degraded in scientific interest as it was becoming secondary woodland. Tree felling is the first stage of restoring 50% of the floor of the pit to chalk grassland supporting rare plants and invertebrates which was why the SSSI designation was earned. The site is owned and managed by Essex Wildlife Trust http://www.essexwt.org.uk/.

The garage is now demolished and the area a car park. The red RT bus was not allocated here, but just paying a visit on the way back to Canvey Island from a rally in London. There was a time in the past, in London Transport days, when all of the Grays buses were RTs, but green.

A frozen ditch in a south eastern corner of Grays Gorge, a former chalk quarry and now part of the Chafford Gorges Nature Park.

Formerly the Ritz cinema, it was built in the Moderne style to the designs of architect E.Hamilton Parke in 1939, and opened in 1940. Closed in 1976. One of two Grade II (http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1384993) or above listed former cinemas in Grays. Bingo operations have served to save redundant cinema buildings, in the same way that public house chains have given new life to post office buildings.

Some of the secondary woodland that was not part of the Image

A Squirrel by the rim of Image sorry I can't get used to its gentrified new name of Image

Grays Gorge is an SSSI and part of Chafford Gorges Nature Park. Note the chalk cliffs in the background.