THURROCK Historical Society chair Susan Yates turned the clock back again in the latest of her occasional articles for Thurrock Nub News.

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THE Twenties in Thurrock witnessed the erection of some fascinating buildings.

We start in Aveley when circa 1120 St Michael's Church was built. This Norman church with some Roman tiles in its walls still has traces of paintings on the roof timbers. Originally just a nave and a chancel the church entrance was off the old market place in the High Street.

In the chancel is the resting place of the step grandparents of the Rev. John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace. There are many memorials inside the church to the Barrett-Lennard family who lived at Belhus Manor from circa 1401 until 1923 when the house and contents were sold and the family moved to Horsford Manor, Norwich.

There is also the large memorial in the graveyard on the right as you come in the gate. Inside the church there is a stained glass window in memory of the son of the Rev Bixby Garnham Luard, vicar of Aveley from 1871 to 1895.

Built circa 1420 Appletons Farm, Bulphan, was described by Glyn Morgan in Forgotten Thameside as 'one of the most picturesque houses in Thurrock'.

This former moated timber framed farm house with tiled roof is Grade II* listed. It is described by Historic England as: A 15th century hall house with gabled and jettied crosswings, timber framed and plastered with a red tiled roof and of two storeys. It has two gabled dormer windows and a red brick chimney stack of the late 16th century with four diagonal shafts. A beam on the mantel apparently has the date 1632. The chimney at the east end (the one visible from the Old Brentwood Road) is early 19th century. The extensions at the rear are 17th century. The roofs are crown post and collar purlin with braced arch tie beams.

The farm takes its name from Richard atte Napleton mentioned in the Feet of Fines in 1326 according to Reaney's Place Names of Essex. Richard and his wife Alice took over the farm from one John Cleve. In 1405 John Hurte yeoman of Bulphan in his will left a farm called Napletons.

The Hurte family retained the farm for nearly two hundred years and it was probably them who built the house we know today. After the Hurte family Appletons had many owners.

The Silverlocks in 1667 and in 1684 it was held by one Captain Bateman.

The farm changed hands again in the early part of the 18th century when bought by the Theobalds family. The Theobalds were a well-to-do London family who owned properties in Grays and South-West Essex and held Appletons Farm until 1896 although they never lived there.

1897 saw a dreadful harvest when floods washed crops and therefore profits away. Appletons Farm however, had been sold with its 95 acres for £650. The farm house and its fields went to different owners and thus the farm was no more.

It is said Henry VIII stopped off at Appletons for a 'quick one' but as it was never a beer house or inn this is unlikely.

In the 21st century Appletons was opened by Mr Monk as a small coffee shop. It had no mains water or toilets. Now it is known as Ye Olde Plough House, Bulphan restaurant and function centre.

Here we are in 2020 and I wonder how many new builds will still be standing in 100 years let alone 600 years or 900 years. I suspect not many, if any at all, but one building opened on 16th May 1930 by Ramsay McDonald has received the loving care and attention it deserves.

The London Cruise Terminal. This grade II* listed building, despite the fact it is loved by locals and river enthusiasts had been allowed to fall into decay. Courtesy of Port of Tilbury/Tilbury on Thames Trust Limited it has been reroofed making it weatherproof and now it has been redecorated but more of this in my next article.