Grays, United Kingdom

The name Thurrock means the place where dirty water or bilge collects. The name was typically applied to the bottom of a ship, but in this case is thought to refer to marshy areas on the banks of the Thames. By 1190, the manor which had been owned by William Peverel in 1086 had come to be under the tenancy of a Jewish man called Isaac, son of Josce the Rabbi. In 1194, Isaac's son, another Josce, lost possession of the manor when it was seized by the crown. The following year, 1195, the crown granted the manor to Henry de Grey, who also purchased Josce's remaining interest in the manor. The manor thereafter remained in the possession of the de Grey family until the 16th century, and so the manor and its associated parish both became known as Grays Thurrock. Over time, Grays Thurrock generally became known just as Grays. Today, the Royal Mail just uses Grays as the name for the post town, and the Office for National Statistics likewise calls the built up area just Grays.

A church is known to have existed at Grays by the late 12th century. The church is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. Fragments of late 12th century and 13th century fabric survive, notably in the tower, but most of the building was rebuilt in 1846. The Church of England ecclesiastical parish it serves is still officially called Grays Thurrock.

Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that he visited Grays on 24 September 1665 and apparently bought fish from the local fishermen.

The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway opened its line from London as far as Tilbury in April 1854, and Grays railway station opened a few months later on 13 August 1854.

Parts of Grays and Chafford Hundred are set within three Victorian chalk pits; the largest two are the Lion Gorge and the Warren Gorge. Another area of the Chafford Hundred residential development is built on a Victorian landfill site.

In 1903 a Free Library was opened on Orsett Road, financed in part by Andrew Carnegie. It was demolished after the 2nd World War to make way for the Thameside Complex.

Thurrock Town Hall on New Road in Grays was built in the 1980s; work on an extension began in January 2020.

On 23 October 2019, the bodies of 39 people were found in the back of a lorry at Waterglade Industrial Park in Eastern Avenue. They are believed to have been victims of human trafficking, or migrants being smuggled into Britain. The vehicle, registered in Bulgaria, was thought to have travelled to the UK through Purfleet from Zeebrugge. A 25-year-old lorry driver from Northern Ireland was arrested by Essex Police on suspicion of murder and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in April 2020. Essex Police launched an investigation afterwards and the lorry was moved to the nearby Port of Tilbury. It is the biggest murder investigation in the history of Essex police. On 26 May 2020, a total of 26 further suspects, most of them Vietnamese nationals, were arrested in Belgium and France.