We have been fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to document a nuclear bunker built in the basement of Castle Point Borough Council’s offices. It was initially built for emergency planning during a nuclear war, but has been equipped more recently to handle environmental disasters or terrorism. In the late 1980s, plans were drawn…
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In 1891, the Salvation Army established a Home Farm Colony in Hadleigh where the Hadleigh Downs Country Park lies today. The Salvation Army Jetty was used in the early 1900s to load off and on goods, mainly bricks, made at the Salvation Army brickworks located at the bottom of Chapel Lane. The bricks were then…
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Map showing rough path of the discernible Prittle Brook & sections explored The Prittle Brook is a tributary of the River Roach spanning down through Prittlewell which takes its name after it, through Southend, Westcliff, Chalkwell, Belfairs Wood and Hadleigh Great Wood, before becoming difficult to source somewhere in Thundersley and Benfleet. The map above…
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These peculiar concrete remains are located in the wooden area west of the current sewage works, just north of the waterline. We came across the mysterious ruins for the first time in early 2013, and they were indeed quite impressive! It was a privilege to be the first to photograph the construction although it wasn’t…
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Thundersley Glen is great example of how even the most seemingly natural spaces have a history all of their own; and how this changed the landscape. A section of woodland in Benfleet adjoining with Mount Road Wood and Shipwright’s Wood in Benfleet. It was once part of the greater Jarvis Wood belonging to Jarvis Hall…
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The steps in Summer 1961 by Harry Emery, and Winter 2010 by Eileen Gamble: Steeped in ghastly rumour, these concrete steps could have been built anytime from the early to the mid 20th Century, and are believe to have gained their name from several local folklore tales – the first is that the steps were devilish…
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Seven Victorian tunnel-like magazines were built on the Benfleet waterfront near Jotmans in the late part of the 19th Century. They would have been used for the storage of explosives by barges possibly on the way to London or nearby explosives factories (where is now Wat Tyler Country Park and Coryton Refinery). The Benfleet Community…
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Photographs above are from HadleighHistory.org.uk in an article written by local author and Historian Robert Hallman The oldest house in Benfleet as it has been known was formerly a ‘poorhouse’, which we would interpret as a government-funded structure that would support those in poverty and provide them with housing. Whilst ‘poorhouses’ include the treacherous workhouses…
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TN9 Hadleigh at Sandpit Hill was one of several heavy anti-aircraft batteries in the area – such as TN7 Furtherwick and TN8 Northwick on Canvey, and also TN10 Vange. They would’ve been used for defence in the Second World War to shoot down enemy bombers and fighters during the Blitz. It also would have been a defence…
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What is Hadleigh Iron Age Roundhouse? Hadleigh Country Park is open to a whole host of historic sights – from the widely-popular Hadleigh Castle to the hidden remains of a heavy anti-aircraft battery and the Salvation Army home colony. One such tucked away treasure is the replica Iron Age roundhouse located behind the Olympic Park…
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