Author: Liam Heatherson

By Liam Heatherson

RAF Bradwell Bay Remains

RAF Bradwell Bay was rebuilt in 1940 over the site of an interwar 1936 aerodrome. The surviving concrete runway was built in 1941. The airfield served as a night fighter base and saw the regular arrival of damaged or low fuelled aircraft which it had to tend to. It was notably equipped with FIDO (Fog…

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By Liam Heatherson

B-17 Crash at Canvey Point

The Canvey Archive has a large collection of memoirs, photographs, and by CloudScout” href=”https://beyondthepoint.co.uk/historic-locations/canvey-island/the-second-world-war/b17-crash-site/#48142577″> shared is here: http://canveyisland.org/documents/DHB_v2_Med_Res.pdf On the 19th of June 1944 a formation of B17 Flying Fortress American bomber planes were heading back to their base in Kimbolton, and it was pilot Lt. Lloyd Burn’s 29th mission. The Heavenly Body II was the…

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By Liam Heatherson

RAF Rochford Pillboxes

Back in Easter 2014, the two BTP boys, and occasional accomplice Jack, set off to investigate pillboxes once defending Rochford airfield – now Southend airport. This is when the article was written and most of the photographs taken at this time – since then, ongoing development has changed much of the farmland but the pillboxes…

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By Liam Heatherson

Camden Catacombs

So we began blowing up an inflatable canoe on the side of Regents Canal footpath much to the confusion and amazement of passers by. When it was finally ready, we hopped in and nearly got crushed by a large tourist boat why proceeded to tell us ‘we were on the wrong side’, despite having seen…

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By Liam Heatherson

Tonedale Mills

Tonedale Mills in Wellington was once the largest woollen milk in South West England. It famously produced Taunton serge fabric and later produced the khaki dye used in British Army service dress following the Second Boer War. The factory opened in 1790 under the Fox Brothers at the height of the industrial revolution, but the…

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By Liam Heatherson

WW1 Southend & The Palace Hotel

Shortly before BTP Liam wrote this article, he began reading the book ‘Southend at War’ by the excellent local author Dee Gordon. Beyond the Point’s affiliation with the Imperial War Museum Centenary Partnership meant that it would be both appropriate and useful to create a short documentary on Southend in the First World War inspired…

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