Property Auction 1860

Auction held at The Crown Inn, Rayleigh

Soon Benfleet was to experience the rapid expansion of population that characterised the late nineteenth century and twentieth centuries, but in 1860 it was still very much a village.

The arrival of the railway a few years earlier had not made an immediate impact and the property developers had not yet invented the Little Switzerland tag. The properties for sale were not new builds, but older buildings clustered around the station and creek, some of which had existing tenants.

For those like myself who had not come across the word Messuage, it means  ” A dwelling house and its appurtenances”, in other words, outbuildings, garden etc.

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