‘…piebald horses roaming a Dutch landscape of irrigation ditches and rifle ranges’ Iain Sinclair, London Orbital.

Thurrock has areas of flat, open marshland, as well as woodlands, meadows, wetlands, other habitats of nature conservation value and ten Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Around 60% of Thurrock is greenbelt – predominantly agricultural land and remote villages – but virtually inaccessible to the public.

Just over half of the borough (58%) is identified as a Landscape Improvement Area, defined as being in need of remedial treatment to improve its environmental quality. This includes areas of derelict land and former mineral workings. The main landscape types in the borough are:

Drained fen basin, intensively cultivated with very sparse settlement. Field patterns are pre-Roman in parts and there is some self-generating woodland and copses.

‘The very mist on the Essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds’ Joseph Conrad, the introduction of Heart of Darkness.

Steep sand and gravel ridges with dramatic views. The areas include mostly hedged arable fields, heathland and some ancient woods, with historic lanes and dispersed settlement – a fairly ‘unspoilt’ rural character.

Wooded gravel hills of mixed farmland with ancient mixed woods, disrupted by gravel pits and chalk workings and ribbon development (residential and industrial) along the major roads crossing these areas.

Wooded farmland of gently undulating fields, parkland and playing fields within a framework of woodland and hedgerows.

The Mardyke valley, a very distinctive and much valued valley with steep sides higher up but becoming flatter towards the estuary. The area is heavily wooded and secluded with some wet pastures and grazing.

Alluvial drained marshland, now primarily arable and grazing marsh, with ditches and dykes and much wild marshland.

Estuary marsh, with tidal saltings and mudflats.

Thurrock has 10 ecological corridors totalling 67km. These are routes which provide continuous habitats which allow plants and animals to migrate from site to site and survive in non-hostile conditions. During the winter months the flooded grasslands of Rainham and Aveley Marshes provide a feeding habitat for flocks of migratory wild birds including ducks, swans, geese and waders.

Most of the Thames Gateway outside London is greenspace and will remain so despite the new development that will take place. A current proposal by Terry Farrell posits that the entire Gateway be designated a national park, in order to raise the profile of the area and ensure that the new housing has an ecological emphasis and is designed in sympathy with the extraordinary landscapes that are found in the Gateway.

Thurrock Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)
Globe Pit, Grays
Grays Chalk Pit
Lion Pit, Grays
Purfleet Chalk Pits
West Thurrock Lagoon and Marshes
Inner Thames Marshes
Vange and Fobbing Marshes
Basildon Meadows
Mucking Flats and Marshes
Hangman’s Wood and Deneholes

Landfill
Thurrock is a major landfill destination using former quarries as landfill sites. Landfill and clay quarrying now exist in symbiosis, as landfill must be covered with clay to seal it. Quarries are backfilled with landfill which then supports the extraction of further clay.

The most well-known site is Mucking which takes nearly 20% of London’s waste, some 600,000 tonnes per year. It covers 205 hectares and is 20-30m deep in parts. Buried pipes pump out about 23MW of methane, enough to power a small town, which is used to generate electricity on site.

Mucking is a very ‘good’ site for landfill as it has river access – London’s waste comes by barge down the Thames saving large numbers of lorry movements. However, this site and most of the other landfill sites in Thurrock are due to close in the next few years so more sustainable waste management initiatives will be needed. Many landfill sites are adjacent to areas of considerable nature value and are to be developed for new natural habitats after their closure.

Background research for the Thurrock Community Strategy found that ‘green spaces’ and ‘peace and quiet’ featured highly as the things residents most value about Thurrock. Various initiatives are attempting to capitalise on this, improving and restoring natural habitats for nature, conservation and recreation. Notable is Thames Chase Forest which aims to create a community forest of 93,300 hectares.