New Road, Grays.
Radio clip from the BBC Light service, The announcer seems to be suggesting, "Ok everyone, It's 10 o'clock, about time you were all thinking about going to bed"!
New Road, Grays. 1917.
| "Born Grays and grew up there during the war. Lived at Bridge Road and loved the old picture of New Road which showed Jones Dairy. I went there to go on the milk round every Saturday morning to earn some pocket money. I think the Milk lady was called Edna. Two of my uncles were trustees for Grays Athletic Football Ground. I can remember the old Co-op Bakery on the Riverside and the wharf where the coal boats came in to bring the coal ashore for the bakery. It was craned from the barge into trucks that ran on a short track over the path and above the yard where it was tipped in the coal heap. Next door was drums, where as kids we watched through the open doors the sheets of metal being turned into Metal Drums. In the floods of 1953 as a 17 year old St. John Ambulance Cadet I assisted the emergency services in Tilbury most of the Sunday and then manned the telephone in the reception area at Palmers Girls school where the refugees from the flood in Tilbury were accommodated on a temporary basis. National Service took me into the Royal Air Force Fire Service. A wonderful journey down Memory Lane"- Letter from Albert Gosnall who lived in Grays 1935-1956. |
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New Road, Grays, 2002. Grays Parish Church spire is the obvious landmark in both photographs. Turning right at the bottom of New Road leads to Grays Station and level crossing and continues onto The "New" High Street, while turning left leads to the Old High Street. The shops on the right of the 1917 photograph have long been demolished and the area used as a car park for many years, however Thurrock's large Council office complex now occupies this area as can be seen in the 2002 photograph.
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