The bunker was built in late 1940 as the South East Army Command Brigade Headquarters. It can be presumed that this was unlike most military installations on home ground in that it was not a defensive site for use by defensive forces; like the Home Guard or Territorial Army, but an actual command post for…
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Tucked away in an isolated field bordered by the A130 and a railway in Shotgate, near Wickford, Essex, lies two memorials constructed in 1920 to a tragic plane crash which occurred on 7th March 1918 at Dollyman’s Farm. The incident occurred at night when the two young pilots were flying from the RFC Rochford and…
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Joined by explorer Sam, we ventured into a culvert running through a suburban town on the border of south-east London and Kent. This drain, covered likely in the post-war period along much of its length, was created from a historic river which ran to the River Thames. Originally it was a ditch running through fields,…
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Canvey Island’s civil defence sirens – used to warn residents of air raids in WWII, potential nuclear bombs in the Cold War, and flood emergencies since the North Sea Floods of 1953, remained installed and frequently tested until around 2014. It is not entirely clear if this siren was from WWII, but even if this…
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Tucked away in the Little Gypps area of Canvey Island is a park known as the Gunny/Gunney, and here there was once a WW2 Heavy Anti Aircraft (HAA) battery designated as TN7 Furtherwick (Thames North battery No.7). There were six gun emplacements, four octagonal early-war pits positioned in a semi circle facing east and another…
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In the early Second World War – being 1939 or 1940, a total of nine pillboxes, along with other defences and bunkers, were built across Canvey Island. Canvey Island formed the start of the first line of defence against an invasion coming towards Western England from the Germans. This line is known as the GHQ…
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Canvey Island was a fairly quiet area in the 1930s, so when it became heavily militarised to defend against air, land, and sea on the approach to World War Two, it must have come as quite a shock. Arguably, this was one of the changes the island saw which transformed it into the town it…
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East along from Shoebury’s Gunners Park where the old ranges were, along the seawall by the Garrison, lies several WWII coastal defences built to protect this major military site during wartime. We visited these in 2011 and 2018, when the photography below was captured. No.2 Searchlight Emplacements The pair of Coastal Artillery Searchlight Emplacements housed…
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The ranges at Shoeburyness have a long ever-changing history, from the 1840s until present day. The ‘old ranges’, now Gunners’ Park near the Garrison, were in heavy operational through the Victorian and Edwardian eras and wartime up until probably the early Cold War. These ranges also saw use as coastal defences in the Second World…
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At the eastern end of Gunners Park; the site of the old Shoebury ranges, lie the area’s two oldest ancient and modern military installations. These are the 1852 Powder Magazines and the Viking rampart from AD 894 (some kind of defensive earthen wall) which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. This ancient earthwork was created possibly…
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