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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It is well-known that Colchester has strong origins in the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. It was the first Roman legionary fortress established in Britain; named Camulodunum. The legionaries moved away around around 49 AD and the settlement became a ‘colonia’ – a residential colony. Camulodunum was the Roman capital of Britain. The…
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On the edges of Camulodunum; ancient Colchester, there once stood an Iron Age defence system – part of a greater one spanning the circumference of the town. This is now roughly where Lexden is. Earthern ramparts defending the west side of Camulodunum were built roughly between 25 and 1 BC, and still remain today at…
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Only a handful of Iron Age sites still remain in England, with most lost to nature and seemingly destroyed over time. If you walk around the back of an industrial estate in Chelmsford, you’ll come across a rare surviving enclosure which is thought to date back 3000 years to 1000-700BC. Evidence suggests that the site…
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(Left) Replica red hill created at RSPB Bower’s Marsh nature reserve, Canvey Island. (Right) An actual site of a Red Hill. A faint hill remains between Waterside Sports Centre and Cornelius Vermuyden Secondary School (unclear if this is due to Red Hill works). (Bottom) Artists impression Before Dutchman Cornelius Vermuyden reclaimed Canvey from the sea in the…
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The Saxon chapel of St. Peter-on-the-Wall built in this extremely isolated marshland position on the Dengie peninsula nature reserve is the nineteenth oldest building surviving in England. It was built around 660-662 AD on the site of the third-century Roman ‘Saxon’ shore fort called Othona, used by the Romans for coastal defence against coastal or…
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In the fallow land directly South-West of Fossets Way, Prittlewell, lies an impressive Bronze or Iron Age circular hillfort dating from somewhere between the 8th to 5th century BC. The 250 meter-in-diameter fort is extremely rare and of national importance; it is designated a scheduled monument. It would have been a fortified settlement containing domestic…
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When Beyond the Point was first established in 2011, we started investigating some strange patterns on Upper Horse Island, situated to the west of Canvey Island. They appear to be the same colour to the marsh surrounding, but are clearly shaped by humans, it being square, with circles and lines inside. This lead us to…
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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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The last place that you expect to find an Egyptian relic is in central London – but you would be surprised! Known as Cleopatra’s Needle, it actually has nothing to do with Cleopatra, it was brought to London from Alexandria which is known as the royal city of Cleopatra. The obelisk was made in Egypt…
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