South Ockendon
South Ockendon is a town and also Church of England parish in the Thurrock district as well as unitary area in Essex in the East of England, United Kingdom. It is located on the border with Greater London, just outside the M25 motorway. The area to the north is North Ockendon. South Ockendon town became an area for premade houses (prefabs) accommodating bombed-out residents of East London/West Essex in the extremely late 40s. Much of the initial post-war building was carried out by previous German prisoners of war. The majority of these were destroyed in the late-1960s when a huge Greater London Council estate, Lecaplan "concrete" building and construction houses-- the Flowers' Estate-- was developed to replace them, once again with pre-fabricated homes, albeit of an exceptional style. The Lecaplan Kind B kind of pre-cast concrete (big panel concrete) terrace is created in rows of 8 buildings to a layout by J C Tilley and also manufactured by W. & C. French. In the 1970s the Ford Motor Company factory at Aveley housed Ford's Advanced Vehicle Operations which built automobiles such as the RS1600. The plant was unwinded gradually from the late 90's however closed entirely in 2004, when the last 150 work were shed. Most of the 150 workers accepted transfers to other Ford or supplementary sites around Essex. The 'Aveley' plant was located along and west of the railway line, beside Ockendon station in the Belhus Ward that part of Ockendon has now been become brand-new real estate estates, with street names after well-known Ford vehicles in keeping with the sites history.
