Ah… Benfleet.

Hemmed in a triangle of chavviness, that being the Basildon/Canvey/Southend trio of doom.

Benfleet itself might as well be two seperate places. Theres a section, (a chav may be heard to remark on this area as being "up on da ill") of very expensive housing, in plesant, well maintained streets. A private security company guards the area. You will find no chavs here.

But, unfortunatley, this accounts for maybe 5% of the town.

The rest, is council housing, and of course, social decay, centered around a small shopping parade on a crossroads called "tarpots" where at almost any time of day, a few charvers can be seen, but the best time to view the (un)natural behaviour of the chav, is after around 4 or 5 in the afternoon, where, upon thier return from school (or bunking off down to southend or basildon) they move onto the evenings entertainment.

Because theres so much for the chav at tarpots. One can walk into the KFC, get some greasy MSG/chicken combination, and then try to form as large a crowd as possible, while either trying to persuade members of the human race to buy them alchohol and cigarettes with verbal abuse ("Oi… OI! f***in lisen to me ya f***in t***er, sha sum f***in respek n f***in well get me n courtnay 10 f***in richmand n sum wite litenin) or just waiting for "dazza" with his "crew" to show up with the goods.

This is how the evening begins. From then, fuelled by whatever chemicals they managed to get hold of, the strange tribal behaviours can be monitored. Several males will vie to be the leader of the group, (decided on physical prowess in fighting, or who is the "ardest") with the leader most evident, easily spotted as the one making efforts at verbal communication/threats. Often this leader is slightly larger and older, and is often flanked by the lead female chav, who is often the lead males sexual partner.

In-fighting within the group is quite common, generally dealing with which chav is copulating with the other, or occasionally over financial matters. However the tribe holds together when presented with a external threat, such as another "crew" coming and attempting to steal thier "turf" or territory.

Several "crews" operate in the benfleet area, operating mainly around two parks (villa and richmond are notable for this) around cemetary corner and around the council offices/swimming pool, but the main centre of attention is around tarpots.

Despite the "crews" fighting against each other, a reasonably common occurence is for these "crews" to form together in an uneasy truce, and form a "massive". This larger group, sometimes of around a hundred chavs then either defends thier "turf" against another "massive", or invades several train carraiges for a journey to whats often a pre-arranged fight, in southend, basildon, rochford, wherever.

As the evening progresses, (especially when the last busses of the evening from southend and basildon arrive) provided there are no other matters of b theres a phase-shift in the age range of the chav, as specimens that look old enough (15-16 should do it) to enter the harvester owned pub at tarpots, or the other pub a few seconds walk (the name has changed endlessly thanks to being shut down so many times) occupy the place for a few hours, working into a drunken frenzy. One can often observe street-fighting late night/early in the morning, especially on weekends, or another favorite past-time of the chav, "racing" 1.4 litre escorts with more body kit than car.

To sum up, benfleet is an excellent place to view chavs, the total lack of any police ensure thier antics are never disturbed.

However, due to this, absolute care is needed to avoid becoming entangled in a situation. Its not uncommon for one or two chavs to try and attack a human, for the human to think they have the advantage and return the attack, for a hundred chavs to suddenly appear from seemingly nothing. BEWARE!

Benfleet / Tarpots, 10.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating