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The Boatman
Clock
was situated
on the front of Mr. Boatman's jewelry shop in the Old Grays High Street,
south of the present railway crossing.
 A
passing lumber lorry hit the clock, and because of the damage to the
brackets, it was taken down some time in 1963, and put into storage.
The Forum are
organising for the clock to be renovated, and with consultation with
Thurrock Council's Planning Department hope to see the clock once again in
Grays High Street.
As some of our
older residents may remember, the clock has two faces - hung on
brackets against a wall, the mechanism is held in a circular metal case.
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 Carnegie Clock
was
originally on the front of the Old Grays Library (the Thameside Complex is
now on this site), paid for by money donated by The Carnegie Trust in
1903,
and school children of Thurrock.
The Forum are
initiating that the clock be reinstated as part of the regeneration of
Grays town centre. It has been suggested it be mounted on an ornamental
brick tower structure.
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Bringing
Attention to Thurrock's Famous Residents -
Heritage
Plaques
Together
with Thurrock Museum and the Local History Society, The Forum are helping
to raise Thurrock's heritage profile by implementing a Plaque Scheme that
high lights historically important sites and persons. The first
plaques that will be sited are:
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The Dell,
College Avenue, Grays.
 The
first site to receive a plaque will be The Dell, College Avenue, Grays.
This listed house was built by Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 - 1913), a
welsh born scientist who helped formulate our present day understanding of
how the natural world developed. Wallace resided at The Dell between Mar
1872-July 1876. During that time he published:
May and June
1874: 'A Defense of Modern Spiritualism'
March 1875: On
Miracles and Modern Spirit
May 1876: The
Geographical Distribution of Animals
In his life time
he published over 2,000 papers and wrote his own biography. For
further reading The Alfred Russel
Wallace Page is very thorough.
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High House,
Horndon 
Philip Conrad
Vincent, the designer and inventor of the legendary Vincent motorcycles
lived with his uncle in his earlier life at High House. He went on to
purchase the H.R.D. company in 1928. From this factory he produced the
Vincent Motorcycle, using new designs and ideas. His slogan "The
World's Fastest Standard Motorcycle", was backed up by the various
wins in motor racing and setting world speed records.
The Vincent
factory ceased production in 1955.
Vincent was laid
to rest in Horndon churchyard.  The Black Shadow
series produced in the 1940s has become a very desirable classic bike,
there are many clubs and associations world wide.
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Ivy Walls,
Billet Lane, Stanford-le-Hope
Joseph Conrad, as
many English scholars appreciate, (1857-1924) born in Poland (Jozef Teodor
Konrad Korzeniowsk) is today regarded as 'one of the greatest writers of
fiction in English'.
He
married Jessie George in 1896 and they rented first a villa in
Victoria Road, Stanford-le-Hope, and then at the original Ivy Walls Farm,
Billet Lane, Stanford-le-Hope, an old Elizabethan cross wing farm house.
His novel, co written with R.B. Cunninghame, The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
was completed here in 1897.
Conrad's
often quoted goal as a writer: "My task which I am trying to achieve
is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel -
it is, above all, to make you see. That - and no more, and it is
everything."
'Amy Foster'
became a basis of the film 'Swept From The Sea' directed by Beeban Kidron.
'Apocalypse
Now' was loosely based on Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness.
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