Stifford is an area and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the unitary authority of

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authority area with borough status and unparished area in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The ...

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

, England. The traditional parish of Stifford is divided by the A13 trunk road into two communities known respectively as North and South Stifford. In 1931 the parish had a population of 2188. On 1 April 1936 the parish was abolished to form Thurrock.

Origin of name

The place name Stifford is first recorded in

Domesday Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as ''Stiforda'' and means "path ford". The ford was across the Mardyke which flows through North Stifford before joining the Thames at

Purfleet Purfleet-on-Thames is a town in the Thurrock unitary authority, Essex, England. It is bordered by the A13 road to the north and the River Thames to the south and is within the easternmost part of the M25 motorway but just outside the Greater Lon ...

. Stifford gives its name to the Stifford Clays housing estate built in the late 1950s.

North Stifford

The original parish church (St Mary the Virgin) is located within North Stifford. The church is originally 12^th century with later 13^th, 14^th and 19^th century alterations and extensions, and is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. The church contains several interesting medieval

monumental brass A monumental brass is a type of engraved sepulchral memorial, which in the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood. Made of hard latten or sheet brass, let into the pav ...

es. William Palin who was rector between 1834 and 1882 wrote the earliest local histories devoted solely to the Thurrock area - ''Stifford and its Neighbourhood'' (1871) and ''More about Stifford and its Neighbourhood'' (1872). Palin was followed in 1980 by ''The Stifford Saga'' by Doreen Dean and Pamela Studd and in 2012 ''The Idyll in the Middyl'' by Cliff and Jan Cowin. The North Stifford Village sign was unveiled on 1 July 2011The Idyll in the Middyl by Cliff and Jan Cowin
publishers web site
(2012)

South Stifford

South Stifford is a small residential area within the town of Grays. South Stifford separates Grays' town centre from

West Thurrock West Thurrock is an area, former civil parish and traditional Church of England parish in Thurrock, Essex, England, located 17.5 miles (28.1 km) east south-east of Charing Cross, London. In 1931 the parish had a population of 5,153. On 1 Apr ...

and

Lakeside Shopping Centre Lakeside Shopping Centre, is a large out-of-town shopping centre located in West Thurrock, Essex just beyond the eastern boundary of Greater London. It was constructed on the site of a former chalk quarry. The first tenants moved into the compl ...

. It acts as a residential area for people working in many of the towns factories and surrounding retail areas, however it has recently been overshadowed by the huge housing estate of

Chafford Hundred Chafford Hundred is an area in the Borough of Thurrock in the ceremonial county of Essex. Chafford Hundred is north-west of Grays. Its railway station serves the area and Lakeside Shopping Centre. Lakeside Shopping Centre is in West Thurro ...

Education

South Stifford has one primary school, Stifford Primary School.

References

Former civil parishes in Essex Thurrock {{Essex-geo-stub