hinterland". In 1848, Prittlewell was described in the White's Directory of Essex as "a neat and well built village with many modern houses overlooking the estuary of the Thames, 1½ miles North West of Southend, and 3 miles South of Rochford". Links between Prittlewell and Southend were improved in 1889 when a road, named Victoria Avenue, was built between the village crossroads by the church to Southend and in 1892 when Prittlewell railway station was built on the Great Eastern Railway, linking Southend and London. 1892 also saw the foundation of the Municipal Borough of Southend-on-Sea, which took over responsibility for Prittlewell from an earlier local board. 20th century The old priory, which had been in ownership of the Scratton family, was bought by local jeweller and benefactor R. A. Jones and was given to the people of Southend as Priory Park. In 1901, Eric Kingham Cole was born in Prittlewell and went on to form EKCO, a radio, TV and plastic manufacturer, in 1924. In 1930, he built a large factory opposite Priory Park, but by 1966 the electrical side of the factory was closed (except for the car radio repair department, which closed in 1977). The Access (credit card) business moved into the factory in 1972, but with the business changing in the 1990s, Royal Bank of Scotland moved out, leaving the EKCO (now Linpac) plastic factory the only operative on the site. This closed down in 2007, and the whole site was demolished in 2012, with a combined housing and commercial development (and a new Havens Hospice) being given planning permission on 14 January 2015. On 9 November 1913 the parish was abolished to form "Southend on Sea". Geography Modern-day Prittlewell stretches from the crossroads by St Mary's Church to London Southend Airport on the boundary between Southend and Rochford. Demography At the 2001 UK census, the Prittlewell electoral ward had a population of 9,478. The ethnicity was 95.1% white, 1% mixed race, 2.8% Asian, 0.5% black and 0.6% other. The place of birth of residents was 93.9% United Kingdom, 0.8% Republic of Ireland, 1.2% other Western European countries, and 4.1% elsewhere. Religion was recorded as 71.2% Christian, 0.3% Buddhist, 1.2% Hindu, 0% Sikh, 1.1% Jewish, and 1.7% Muslim. 16.2% were recorded as having no religion, 0.3% had an alternative religion and 8.0% did not state their religion. The economic activity of residents aged 16–74 was 39.5%