Posts Tagged ‘Pitsea’

Bowers Gifford Pillboxes

Posted: October 8, 2012 by BTP Liam in Case Study, Event Review
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
4

A few weeks back we headed up toward the new Sadler’s Farm upgrade, and turned off to the road which leads to St. Margaret’s Church, a more country lane. After exploring a few fences, we managed to get where we needed to be to visit the numerous pillboxes.

The first field backed straight on to the main farm buildings, which for that reason contained a good-condition pillbox clearly kept well by the farmer, and from the inquisitive members of the public (except us of course!). It was mounted on a concrete platform, and was brick-faced due to the moulding process which would have used bricks rather than wooden strips (causes the lines in concrete ones from where the concrete seeps between cement). It was a Type 26 (square with four standard loop-holes) and features a blast-wall protecting the entrance. This one however din’t have a loop on the entrance face of the pillbox, so only had three. It also featured an air-vent hole on-top through the ceiling to let out bad air produced from the firing of the guns inside.

A view from the field

Looking between the blast and entrance walls

Us posing inside!

We then painstaking (yes it was literally quite painful too) squeezed under a barbed wire fence and some thorn bushes into the next field west, we’re we found a large Type 28 pillbox. These pillboxes differed from the rest as they were designed as fortified anti-tank positions, with a large stepped loophole big enough to fit a 2-Pounder large gun, which was mounted with a shield across it’s front, and fired large 40mm (diameter of bullet) caliber rounds designed to pierce tank armour. It also features many standard loop holes for light-machine guns or rifles (there was a dividing wall in the pillbox which separated some normal loop-holes front he big gun loop-hole. Note how stepped-sides of loop-holes are to make incoming bullets deflect outwards and not inwards onto the crew. Sandbags would have been placed around the loop-hole to fill the space between it and the gun’s shield.

Myself at the 2-pounder loop

Joe on the east side (regular loop can be seen)

A contemporary diagram of an Ordnance QF 2-Pounder gun which would have been fired from this pillbox

We then cot back in the car following an easier public footpath along the south of the field, to which we then went back up the lane to opposite the farm’s main gate. In this field was another Type 26, with another blast wall. Although vines and the elements had started to get the better of it, we did go in and found tons of Peacock butterflies suspended around the ceiling. At first we thought these to be dead, but soon realized they must have gone in to feed from a salt or similar solution produced from the concrete in the presence of moisture. We also saved a butterfly from a spider’s web despite testing our courage in this pillbox, ridden with cobwebs and quite dark.

Watching over farm and field

Closer view

Beauty in decay

The final pillbox was a Type 24 – almost like a flat-ended hexagon. It had six sides, one being longer than the rest (containing the entrance with two pistol loops either side), with the other smaller sides having one regular loop hole in each. This was much further back up along the main road, to the north of it, in a public park. It featured a wall in the middle to stop explosions killing all the crew inside, instead just the ones in front of the wall.

The small sides

The larger side with pistol loops

Here is a plan of an average Type 24

So all in all it was a good trip out to liven-up a Sunday. Below is a great shot Joe got of a train powering down the adjacent railway, plus a slideshow of all our images from the day (you can mouse over it and flick through them yourself).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Watt Tyler Park WW2 Defences

Posted: March 15, 2012 by BTP Liam in Event Review
Tags: , , , , , , ,
0

As you should know if you’re either a budding historian or keen BTP reader, Watt Tyler country park is situated on the GHQ line – the 1st line of defense in WW2 against a German assault on the capital. Whilst the majority of the park’s history is focused on it as an early 20th Century explosives factory, it also features numerous defenses remaining from the Second World War.

The first is this pillbox. It would have been above ground in the day, being currently partially buried, and would have housed a Vickers Machine Gun – a stereotype ‘unbeatable’ machine gun, which is in fact not that common as the armament for British pillboxes, instead most used a light machine gun, or rifle. It has a compass or something ontop and a wooden fencing around it, and features a blast wall behind the entrance hole, which is covered by a loop hole for a pistol to attack any trying to take it from the rear. The wall would hve covered the pillbox from explosions, but most importantly would have made it an extremely difficult angle to lob a grenade inside.

The buried Vickers MG pillbox

The blast wall with pistol loop

Next we saw some anti-tank blocks – concrete blocks put on the shores to stop enemy vehicles getting onto the mainland.

Anti-Tank Block

Next was the park’s second pillbox, which was the most common type along the GHQ line, a type 24. It has two pistol loops guarding either side of the doorway, and would have held Bren LMGs and SMLE rifles. It now has a wooden walkay which leads on-top.

An FW3/24

The next pillbox was hidden in the bushes, found only due to help from our guide Alistair who gave us insider information on the park’s past. An external sho was tricky as the castemate was covered by the trees, although a picture below shows the man pillbox, with a blast wall covering the door behind it. This pillbox would have also housed Brens or Lee-Enfields. The loopholes seen below the picture below, were sealed, with future plans to convert it into a bat cave, as is a popular trend with today’s remaining pillboxes.

The pillbox, foreground, with the blast wall in the distance.

One of the loops

 

For all the pictures visit here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.352068824815321.81174.238743826147822&type=3

For a short documentary of our trip, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od_Cxp36KLo&context=C4a2ba42ADvjVQa1PpcFNpk24qtigdlfDQ3Lts09vmJXO190LvF0M=

And for the explosives remains and history, go here: http://beyondthepoint.co.uk/2012/02/24/trip-and-tour-around-watt-tyler-country-park-the-explosives-factory/

Trip and Tour Around Watt Tyler Country Park – The Explosives Factory

Posted: February 24, 2012 by BTP Liam in Case Study, Event Review
Tags: , , , , , , ,
7

About a week ago, we managed to get a tour around the park with historian Alistair MacRae from the education team, and a ranger who specialised in the wildlife side of the park. A great thanks is given for a superb and in-depth tour! The site as put into action by Alfred Nobel – founder of the Nobel Peace Prize – who invented Dynamite in 1863, being a more safe and reliable method in which to manufacture Nitroglycerin – what would have been a viscous oil-like explosive made from Glycerin and Nitrogen. Although not as extensively produced at the factory, guncotton - explosive in a cotton-wool form, was made for use in cordite – an explosive used for sparking at the base of cartridge shells, propelling the bullet outwards, like a miniature ‘cannon’, were also made here. The factory was built in 1891 by the British Explosives Syndicate, with the main intention of the explosives to be used for weaponry, but also in mining. The factory saw heavy use in the First Wold War, but couldn’t make itself of enough use afterwards, and closed in 1929.

We arrived at around 11:30 and began too have an explore of the park by ourselves. Although the park is home to several WW2 pillboxes and defences, these are to be covered at a later date, so keep a close eye for that post-to-come. We started my looking around the visitor site and took a path which was covered in a wooded ‘decking’, similar to the wooden boarding used by workers so that grit on their shoes wouldn’t ignite any explosive. We saw some revamped buildings which would have been the firing range used to test cordite in the standard-issue Lee-Enfield rifles of the time.

The Cordite testing ranges

We then headed down the path and came to the dock-area of the site, which would have been where ships would have dropped supplies off, arriving from down up from the passage between Coryton and Canvey, going up past Vange. In the docking area we saw the remains of an old wooden jetty away off, probably in use by the factory, and also two anti-tank blocks from World War Two. Most importantly we saw an old Lighter boat which would have brought in shells from the US. It had clearly got stuck in the marsh and has rotted there to this day. We also found a ‘washing bowl’ from the factory, which would have been used to wash guncotton. A channel for drainage into the mud could be seen infront of it cut into the marsh.

A wrecked lighter used to bring goods to the factory

The washing bowl

We next came across an old crane presumably to take goods off of barges bringing them in.

A goods crane

We then looked at a Vickers machine-gun pillbox which was on the site, and then continued on in through the woods, finding another pillbox. We continued through the woods and came across a strange concrete tunnel. Also, we founded remains of an old brick wall.

A factory brick wall

We then headed back to the Visitor Centre for a quick sandwich, before meeting Alistair at 1 o’clock. He then showed us the exhibition about the park’s explosive factory history, which offered a hands-on detailing of its past, which gave us a bit more of an idea of ‘what it was all about’ before setting off. The first place Alistair took us was to the tunnel built into a mound (the park’s highest point) we had visited earlier, giving us a rundown on what the point of it was. It would have been roughly where the Nitroglycerin production started, in which pipes would have sent necessary liquids down into a pit.

The 'mysterious' tunnel

We were then led down the hill which the tunnel pipes would have led on to (except for one pipe which could cut off the explosives by sending them to an isolated tank, in case of fire). At the base of the hill was a pit containing foundations for a building where the chemicals would have been first processed. The foundations in brick can be seen below:

The production would have then continued across the site through several buildings which would have further processed the Nitroglycerin. These building foundations were surrounded by ‘blast mounds’ – gold-bar shaped earth mounds which would have protected the buildings surrounding it from the flying debris of the building inside, which would have of course exploded.

A blast-mound

The explosive would have been carried between buildings via man-pushed ‘bogey’ carts, which would have ran along rails –  a fragment remains in the park which can been seen below. What made Nobel’s Dynamite so safe was that the Nitroglycerin it would have used would have exploded even under subtle sudden pressure. Instead, it was mixed with a cat-litter type earth/sand called ‘kieselguhr’, which would make it safer and thus easier to work with.

The last remaining bogey rail

We then carried on the trail to where some more blast mounds where, but this time they would have protected buildings which would have contained women packaging the Dynamite into red ‘cartoon-style’ packaging, just without the fuse. these buildings would sit one between each of the mounds seen below:

From here the Dynamite was ready to be taken to a different area for final production. We were taken to seen a mystery building, which appeared to have a reinforced roof and possible loop-hole, referencing to it being maybe modified for WW2, although this could just have been something else of similar appearance. We also saw a second building which also doesn’t fit criteria well for any building sort, so too remains a mystery. It’s door and flooring are probably from the 1980s when the park was bought by a company hoping to bring it up to something like it is now.

Mystery building no. 1

Mystery building no. 2

" "

Interior of building 2

We finally were shown another WW2 pillbox, and also a blast-mound containing a memorial to three men who were killed in the explosion of the building based there. The blast mound had a side missing due to the explosion, and what marks the spot is several stones from St. Michael’s chruch in Pitsea, which is now only a tower, where these men, or what was left of them, were buried.

And that was it –  a truly great, ‘insider’, day out! Thanks again to Alistair, and remember to keep an eye out for the parts of this trip skimmed over on the WW2 remains, which will of course be detailed along with our pictures. Also, a YouTube video of the whole event is soon on the way!

All the pictures from the day can be seen at our Facebook Page here http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.352068824815321.81174.238743826147822&type=1

WW2 Back Home – Memoirs of Peter Basham

Posted: January 21, 2012 by BTP Liam in Case Study, Event Review, Various
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

Hello. Today we have an interview with my grandad, Peter Basham, who lived in Nevendon, Pitsea, who was a young boy when the Second World War hit.

I was around seven years old in 1943, when I remember many occurrences. The first was when I remember the German air-raids flying across into London, and it was a frightening feeling. I also remember the ‘Doodle-Bug’ V1 flying bombs going over, and we heard the unforgettable noise of them coming by. I always feared hearing when the engine would cut out, meaning it was about to plummet and explode. The nearest bombs, from a German air-raid, were dropped about 100 metres away from our bungalow – it struck a gas main! My sisters and I were doing some crayoning in the front room, and the blast blew the crayons around the room, and all the lights went out, but luckily we were unscathed. That was the nearest we had to a fatality due to the war. The nearest V1 to our bungalow hit about a quarter-half a mile away, and we were about eight miles away from the Oil Refineries at Shell Haven, which were a German target from the air, meaning the area was under quite a threat.

When I was six years old, I had to go to Billericay hospital – the nearest one to us – to get my tonsils removed. Surrounding the hospital were many barrage-baloons, designed to catch-out German aircraft on their very thick metal wires.

On another occasion, a German fighter plane (a Messerschmitt) flew down Rectory Road (where I lived), very low, and we had chickens in our garden. It started machine-gunning the road, so we all hit the ground. I remember seeing all the chickens flying about and cackling, although no-one was injured., but it was a terrible fright to us all. We also used to stand in the garden, watching all the British Lancaster bombers heading over to Germany on a bombing attack. This became quite a common sight.

On the next instance, I was at Nevendon Primary School which was the school everyone went to in our small community. I remember vividly it was lunchtime -about midday – when there was a huge explosion when we were in class. Again, approximatley a quarter to half mile away, all the windows shook in the classroom. We saw a huge pall of smoke going up, and it was a V2 rocket bomb, which was undetectable by radar (that’s why there was no warning, as usually we’d hear the sirens going so we all went to our brick air-raid shelters), and was the last of Hitler’s terror weapons to be put into use. The V2 blew a massive crater in the corner of what was the edge of the field and Nevendon Wood (now called ‘Nevendon Bushes’), and split many of the trees. We also found a huge slab of the rocket itself, which stayed there for years. Later on, when I was a bit older, we used to fire our shotguns at it, but not a single pellet could penetrate it! I also saw a V2 rocket crossing the sky, which landed several miles away. It was incredibly fast and moved in an instant.

When we were going home from school, when an air-raid was expected, we found tons of strips of ‘chaff’ – a foil-like aluminum sheet-metal which was dropped by British planes to scramble the enemy’s radars. We used to collect it all up and take it home with us.

Later on, in the 1950s, I was called up to do 2 years national service in the Army – not many people left the areas where they lived at the time, and it was strange to find the different dialects from across the country. I remember my first training when I fired a Lee-Enfield .303 rifle which was so forceful that it came back and the bolt cut my lip.

In the 50s I began working at Shell Oil Refinery. In the marshes there were brick rectangular pits which were never put into use, although would have been used in the War to be filled with oil and set alight, to create the impression to the Germans flying above that the refinery had already been bombed, making them move on and bomb elsewhere.

So there we go, quite a detailed and eventful account, bringing home the terrors to everyone in England in the Second World War. Thanks to Peter Basham for this account, and I hope you find it interesting!

A V1 'Doodle-Bug' Bomb

Occidental Refinery Visit 3 + Emergency 3rd Bridge/Flood Barrier off Canvey

Posted: December 30, 2011 by BTP Liam in Case Study, Event Review
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Today was quite a story. It began with us heading out at 11 o’clock and starting in the car park in the RSPB Reserve off the  left of Canvey Road. We followed the pathways from here to the seawall, and then proceeded west. From here we saw the sewage pump of TN8 Northwick, now mostly situated in part of the second last recycling centre at Northwick Road. Later along the way, we found an old concrete drainage exit point, and saw many old groynes, in the marsh and stream between Canvey and Pitsea, from the seawall, which is nothing but an earth mound which means it must be the old Dutch seawall.

As we continued along the wall we saw a familiar sight, nine horses, three of which were having a good mooch about along the seawall directly in our path. After much deliberation, we walked through them. As we exited the ‘horse-barricade’, Joe noticed one of the horses making a quick ‘canter’ (I think that’s a fast walk) towards us, followed by others. Joe called “run” so we did. Although this may have set off the other horses we weren’t going to hand about. The horses went down off the wall to meet with the others, and before we knew it, we were running for our lives from a group of nine horses running for us below the seawall at full-pelt! We managed to stay in front of them due to having the higher, quicker, route, reaching the fence and gate in time. We then looked upon the horses from the other side, and fed them dry grass, realizing that perhaps all the horses thought when they ran after us was that we were the farmers with food for them.

OXY Rd.

We eventually reached the north of the Occidental site, seen previously here http://beyondthepoint.co.uk/2011/07/18/western-canvey…of-the-old-tip/. We were greeted with the ‘Danger Keep Out’ sign featured on this site, and one of the main refinery roads. We paid a visit to the flood barrier/emergency bridge, noting that the seawall along it is the same as Canvey’s old seawall before 1970/80. The barrier would also be used as an emergency bridge off of Canvey, in the case of a flood, as we first thought. We are now presuming that it was only an emergency bridge to be used by workers or near residents in case of a disaster at the Occidental refinery, and they would have to evacuate to Pitsea via this bridge. We believe this firstly because the emergency bridge going off of Canvey has rocks lining the marsh near it identical to the rocks, buried with the concrete, in the area shown in our previous post at the top of this paragraph. Another reason is that the only road going to the emergency bridge was built by Occidental and starts as an extension of Northwick Road. The next reason is that the road is of course now part of the abandoned Occidental site, meaning it is severely overgrown, and it would be a huge struggle to get a car or van down the road. This suggests the road once would be used as an emergency bridge, but nowadays has been left to fall into disrepair as it no longer has anyone to use it (being the Occidental workers). A final point which probably confirms this is that the Occidental road signs here say ‘RVP’ meaning ‘RendezVous Point’ in case of emergency.

We then proceeded to the Occidental site via a break in the fence, although we didn’t want to get to the fence via this route due to the field of cows and bulls staring us head on – now they are more dangerous than horses! Instead we fled to the seawall, and walked along it to the third more secret Occidental Jetty (the main one being the mile-long oil pumping one, the second being the ‘construction jetty’ with a WW2 boat at it’s side). This jetty is made mainly of a wooden frame although contains metal fastenings and concrete beams for support at attachment to the shores. We know this is Occidental due to the several trademark ‘Danger Keep Out’ signs lining the fence blocking easy access. About one third of this wooden structure has been either demolished, burnt, and rotted, probably a mixture of all three.

We then entered the Occidental site and sat and ate lunch on ‘the ramp’ with soup and tea from our new Thermos flasks, which do the job well for exploring. Next we headed for the square area of the Occidental refinery once containing the chimney and large sheet-metal ‘hangar’ like buildings. Now all the buildings are gone, along with the chimney which was demolished by Fred Dibnah and his crew in 1997. All that remains of the buildings are concrete stumps with wires, in which the walls of the bulidngs would have been fastened and secured down to. All that remains of the chimney is simply just a small tarmac-like circle similar to those of the bases of the oil drums, except smaller, which goes a few feet down into the ground. Upon searching through one of the building sites, we found many piles of bricks and concrete which came from the fallen chimney. I’m assuming Fred and his crew dumped them there. We also spotted a white builders helmet, which upon closer inspection said ‘Rudders Demolition’, meaning it must have belonged to Fred Dibnah, or his crew, which is more likely. We also saw concrete columns adjacent to the chimney, being the remains of it’s control area.

The Chimney Control Structure

An alien seating area for discussion!

The chimney base

The chimney, or all that's left of it, with a helmet belonging to Dibnah's helpers. Note the bricks are produced by 'Coal*something* Allanite

We finally took a peek at big ‘OJ’ (the Occidental Jetty) and headed down the bridle way of the Roscommon Way extension, towards the WW2 pillbox. On the wire mesh covering the pillbox entrance we placed a pro-looking homemade historical information sign with cable-ties, in order to remind those curious of their local past.

The jetty back in 1977 (not really, but I wish!)

The pillbox with our sign

Keep a look out for a BTP Documentary on BTP TV on this trip!