With news the Dick Turpin pub is set to be demolished and replaced with a petrol station, we look back to a time when it was a place for weary road travellers to find refreshment.

It was built in 1927, around the same time as the A127 Southend Arterial Road. 

The road in the image shows that at that time it was a much tamer place to travel, with fewer vehicles and little noise.

Echo: As it was - the old Dick Turpin pubAs it was - the old Dick Turpin pub (Image: Unknown)

As an interwar roadhouse, the pub was built to cater visitors travelling along the newly constructed Southend Arterial Road.

According to wickfordhistory.org.uk, the pub, then called The Harrow, was run by Eleanor Sharp, and was later renamed as the Brighton Run before finally being given the name Dick Turpin.

Whilst there was a previous pub on the site at least as early as 1915, it bears no relation to the later building

Echo: Now - the historic pub and plans for the new petrol stationNow - the historic pub and plans for the new petrol station (Image: Image: EG Group / Greene King))

The pub was thought to have been lost to the coronavirus pandemic after operator Greene King announced it was shutting down permanently in November 2020, almost seven months after the first Covid lockdown.

However, the pub was reopened in the summer of 2021 to great fanfare.

But now a planning application has been submitted by EG Group to level the site and replace it with a petrol station, drive-thru coffee shop and parking areas with charging points for electric vehicles.