THIS week in Down Memory Lane we visit South Ockendon and an interesting photograph published over a century ago in a booklet produced by Mr A Kimber, of the High Street, South Ockendon, with photographs taken by Mr CM Ansell a founding member of the Thurrock Photographic Society.

The photograph shows a family from the village standing in West Road, outside the Wesleyan Church, with its commemorative opening date on the front of the building as 1847.

Apparently the Wesleyan Church originated in 1809, when a house in South Ockendon was registered for worship by Henry Smith, who ran a grocers shop in the village. He seems to have led the society at least until 1851.

The new church for the South Ockendon Wesleyans was opened in 1847 and required enlarging by 1857 and a Sunday school was added in 1891.

It is also interesting to note that John Wesley preached locally in open air sermons at Purfleet from 1764 onwards.

The other day I was asked by a group visiting the museum gallery about the origin of the word South Ockendon – the following is thought to be the best interpretation: “South Ockendon is an ancient parish. It was a village before the Norman Conquest and had a church by 1085.

"It is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Wokenduna, supposedly named after a Saxon chief, Wocca, whose tribe lived on a hill.

"The suffix ‘don’ in Old English means a low hill in open country.”