Treacle Mine Roundabout is a suburban roundabout between Grays and Stifford Clays, Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

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It is named, as is the adjacent public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 for the local legend of Treacle mines

Treacle mining

Treacle mining is the fictitious mining of treacle in a raw form similar to coal. The subject purports to be serious but is an attempt to test credulity. Thick black treacle makes the deception plausible...

 in the valley of the river Mardyke

Mardyke

The Mardyke is an area in Cork city, on the northern half of the long western part of the island formed by the two channels of the River Lee near the city centre. It comprises several large open spaces...

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The roundabout was built to link the new A13 to its former route (the A1306) and Long Lane at the top of Hogg's Lane: a spot that London Country bus timetables used to call Grays Corner. There was another Grays Corner elsewhere on the A13, so the name Treacle Mine was used informally to distinguish this older junction. This junction needed improving despite the long distance A13 traffic being bypassed because of the construction of Chafford Hundred

Chafford Hundred

Chafford Hundred is a recent UK housing brownfield just outside Greater London between Grays and South Ockendon in the Borough of Thurrock. It is immediately adjacent to Lakeside Shopping Centre and West Thurrock...

, an Infill development on former quarries, industrial and farming land, and the consequent increase in commuting

Commuting

Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.- History :...

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