South Ockendon
South Ockendon is a village and Church of England parish in the Thurrock district and unitary district in Essex in the East of England, United Kingdom. It is located on the boundary with Greater London, simply outside the M25 motorway. The location to the north is North Ockendon. South Ockendon town came to be an area for prefabricated houses (prefabs) suiting bombed-out residents of East London/West Essex in the extremely late 40s. Much of the initial post-war building and construction was carried out by previous German prisoners of war. The majority of these were knocked down in the late-1960s when a big Greater London Council estate, Lecaplan "concrete" construction houses-- the Flowers' Estate-- was built to replace them, one more time with pre-fabricated residences, albeit of a superior style. The Lecaplan Type B form of pre-cast concrete (big panel concrete) terrace is built in rows of 8 homes to a design 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 constructed autos such as the RS1600. The plant was wound down slowly from the late 90's yet closed entirely in 2004, when the last 150 tasks were shed. Most of the 150 workers approved transfers to various other Ford or ancillary sites around Essex. The 'Aveley' plant was situated along as well as west of the railway line, beside Ockendon station in the Belhus Ward that part of Ockendon has actually currently been developed into new housing estates, with street names after popular Ford cars in maintaining with the sites background.
