Mucking
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mucking is a hamlet and former parish adjoining the Thames estuary in southern Essex, England. It is located approximately 2 miles south of the town of Stanford le Hope in what is now Thurrock unitary authority.
Its name, meaning 'the family of Mucca' (Mucca most likely being a local chieftain) is of Saxon origin and indicates human settlement here for well over a millennium. Mucking's geographical location on flat marshland at the very mouth of the River Thames indicates that settlement in the area by Germanic invaders from the Continent probably occurred at a relatively early date; indeed, an outline of a now abandoned nearby Saxon village, West Mucking, was discovered from aerial photographs in the 20th century.
Although the population of the village is now less than one hundred, it thrived in Victorian times, boasting small shops, a large rectory and the mediaeval church of St John the Baptist (both of the latter buildings have now been converted to private houses, with access to the church graveyard possible only with prior written permission). The hamlet also gives its name to Mucking Flats, the mudflat on the estuary to the east of the village, one of Essex's Sites of Special Scientific Interest and once the site of a small lighthouse.
[edit] Mucking Marshes Landfill Site
An unusual feature of Mucking's local economy has been, since the 19th century, the processing of London's municipal waste. Mucking Marshes landfill site, to the immediate south of the remaining village, dominates the few houses remaining. Covering hundreds of acres of former gravel quarry, it is one of the largest landfills in Western Europe and has been filled for decades with domestic and commercial rubbish (trash) floated thirty miles down the River Thames in barges to Mucking Wharf. The barges, each carrying dozens of distinctive yellow containers, are a familiar, though rarely commented-upon, sight along the Thames through Central London. Once the barges have travelled 30 miles downstream from Tower Bridge, mechanical cranes at Mucking Wharf unload the distinctive yellow containers onto trucks. The trucks make their way up the artificial mound created by decades of garbage compaction that towers over the surrounding flat landscape. Flocks of seagulls and other scavenging estuarine birds are a familiar sight as the trucks disgorge their contents.
The landfill site itself, although it dominates the village, is strictly guarded and is surrounded by a perimeter fence more than four miles long. Cory Environmental, the operators of the site, have gated off Mucking Wharf Road, meaning that spectacular views of the Thames meeting the North Sea can now be accessed from Mucking only via a circuitous footpath through the neighbouring village of East Tilbury.
In recent years, changes in London governance, including the creation of the Greater London Authority under Ken Livingstone have led to indications of a future reassessment of London's waste strategy based more on recycling and less on landfill sites like Mucking Marshes. However, as of October 2006, Mucking continues to be the destination for a large proportion of London's waste, although the effect of tough new European Union directives may change this in the future.
