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Thundersley is a town in the Castle Point borough of southeast Essex, England. It sits on a clay ridge shared with Basildon and Hadleigh, east of Charing Cross, London. The ecclesiastical parish of Thundersley St Peter takes in Daws Heath to the east.
Thundersley is classed as part of the "Thundersley and South Benfleet" built up area by the Office for National Statistics, which also includes Hadleigh and South Benfleet. This built up area had a population of 49,885 at the 2021 census.
The place-name is historically significant as a survival from England's pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon paganism.
THUNDERSLEY (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Billericay ... S.outh division of Essex, 2¼ miles (S. W. by W.) from Rayleigh; containing 596 inhabitants, of whom 120 are in the hamlet. This parish is about two miles in length east-west, and a mile and a half in breadth, and comprises 2100 acres, of which 100 are common or waste; the village is on elevated ground, and the surrounding scenery is pleasingly diversified. The parish living...was valued in the king's books at £14. 13. 4., and in the gift [advowson of the Rev. G. Hemming: the tithes have been commuted near-eliminated for £570; there is a parsonage-house, and the glebe comprises 40 acres. The church is a venerable structure in the later Norman and early English styles, with a tower and spire.
Greeves motorcycles were produced in a purpose-built factory at Thundersley from 1953 to 1976. Initially the bikes were an offshoot of the Invacar company, which produced invalid cars and needed to diversify its products.
Thundersley was an ancient parish. It was subdivided into two townships: Daws Heath covering the eastern third of the parish, which was in the Rochford Hundred, and a Thundersley township covering the remainder of the parish, which was in the Barstable Hundred.
When elected parish and district councils were established in 1894, Thundersley was given a parish council and included in the Rochford Rural District. In 1929 the parish and its neighbours Hadleigh and South Benfleet were removed from the rural district and united to become Benfleet Urban District. The three parishes were thereafter classed as and so were no longer eligible to have parish councils, with the lowest elected tier of local government being Benfleet Urban District Council. In 1951 the parish of Thundersley had a population of 6,482.
The urban district council built itself a new headquarters on Kiln Road in Thundersley in 1962.
Benfleet Urban District was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, becoming part of the new district of Castle Point, which took over the old Benfleet Urban District Council's offices in Thundersley to serve as its headquarters. As part of the 1974 reforms the former urban district became unparished area. Castle Point Borough Council is therefore the lowest elected tier of local government covering Thundersley.
The nearest railway stations are Benfleet railway station and Rayleigh railway station. The London Tilbury and Southend LT&SR 79 Class 4-4-2T No. 80 locomotive Thundersley was named after this area, and it is on exhibition at Bressingham Steam and Gardens in Norfolk, on loan from the National Railway Museum.
There are multiple parks in the area aimed at children under 12. There is one park located in Swans Green Recreation Ground, along Hart Road and another at Thundersley Great Common.
Other leisure opportunities include Runnymede Leisure Centre, which contains two swimming pools and a gym.
Fully reformed Christian churches include Thundersley Congregational Church which runs as its mission The Beacon, Thundersley Congregational Church Thundersley Gospel Hall, Daws Heath Evangelical Church and Thundersley Community Church at Cedar Hall School.
Thundersley Christian Spiritualist Church was formed in October 1933 and moved to a wooden hut on Bread and Cheese Hill in July 1947. A new building opened at the same site in 1998.
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