IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Warwick Road, RAYLEIGH, SS6 8TG

Pub/restaurant in The Chase. The name recalls a hunting lodge that reputedly stood near here when Rayleigh Park was one of Henry VIII's estates. A convenient place for a bit of deer worrying and Anne Boleyn at nearby Rochford Hall.

If possible I try and find some green space in a square, there was very little is this particular square, but I did find this green near the "Rayleigh Lodge" pub.

On the South east corner of Grove Road and The Chase, the 1950's shopping arcade that is still the centre of this community. Post Office, Green Grocers and Butchers with a Wedding shop! The Butcher is out on the pavement discussing the day with a passer-by.

TQ8190 consists almost exclusively of suburban streets such as this one, although the infill between them is of various dates from after WW2 to the present

In the early hours of Saturday, September 12th 1987, a Beechcraft 200 Super King Air operated by National Airways, crash-landed on a car showroom in Eastwood Road, Rayleigh. The plane, piloted by 34 year old New Zealander, Hugh Forrester Brown, was just 3 minutes out of Southend Airport en route for Bergamo, Italy with a cargo of newspapers. In the fierce fire that followed the plane and the showroom were largely destroyed and the pilot died, the only casualty of the accident. I live about half a kilometre back along the flight path and was woken by a very low flying plane but went back to sleep only to be rewoken by sirens as the emergency services rushed to the scene. Only next morning did the sheer good fortune of local residents become apparent as the aircraft had hit the only unoccupied building in a tight-packed residential area. It is thought that the pilot had been attempting a landing on the Eastwood Road but had unfortunately missed that objective by a mere 15 metres. Mac's did not long survive the incident and the rebuilt showroom is now a Vauxhall dealership.