Mental handicap
Duvals was original built as a farmhouse in the early 19th century. In 1948 it became a hostel for elderly male patients discharged from South Ockendon Hospital.
In 1954 it had 23 beds, with up to three patients sharing a room.
The hostel remained under the control of the South Ockendon Hospital Management Committee until the South Ockendon Hospital closed in 1994.
In 2003 the hostel was being managed by the South Essex Partnership NHS Trust. It was staffed to provide cover 24 hours a day and had the same status as an NHS hospital, although the residents did not required in-patient care. By this time only eight elderly residents remained, aged between 60 and 88 years.
The Trust considered the building unsuitable and outmoded to provide modern health care needs for patients with learning disbailities and limited mobility. It was impossible to install a lift in the decaying building and, in view of this, the increasing frail residents would have to move sooner or later.
Judged unable to meet national care home registration standards, Duvals closed in 2003.
Present status (January 2009)
The building is still there, but it is unclear who owns it.
The entrance into Edward Degrey Close.
Once the home of John Meeson, who owned the nearby chalk quarry and limekilns, it was bought by Edward Wright Brooks (1834-1928), a cement manufacturer. He enlarged the house in 1896.
The bay windows face southwards to what once would have been a view down to the river, but is now of the housing estate which has been developed in the grounds of the estate.
http://democracy.thurrock.gov.uk (1)
http://democracy.thurrock.gov.uk (2)
www.british-history.ac.uk
www.bygonegraysthurrock.co.uk
www.thurrock.gov.uk
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