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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Overlooking the surrounding marshes, St Michael’s Church has been stood on Pitsea Mount for centuries having been build around the 16th century, with extensive rebuilding taking place in 1871. Although once the whole church would have stood on this spot, today just the tower and alter remains with the perimeter marked out. It was during…
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For Halloween this year, we thought we would investigate the vast and endless folklore of one of the most isolated and eerie places in Essex. Carrying on from last year’s Halloween coverage on the Leigh Witch Trials, this lonely village has similarly sinister connections. Even on our brief visit we were greeted by the footsteps…
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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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Whilst working in the area, I decided to go on a walk and stumbled across this purely by chance. Just a few minutes walk away from the Olympic Stadium, this Second World War pillbox was built around 1940 and forms what would have been part of the outer London defence ring – one of the…
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Paglesham’s flourishing oyster-farming industry dates back to the late 19th Century. Whilst oysters have been farmed around the Essex coastline as far back as the Roman era, they exploded in popularity nearing the turn of 1900 because they were a cheap source of food for the poor. By the early 20th Century, oyster beds at…
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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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British Troops have been pushed back to Dunkirk; all that lies between the Germans and Britain is the English Channel. With the threat of German troops soon being on British Land, orders were sent out across the land to built defences in towns, near main roads, railways and key areas. Starting along the coast and…
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Located on a vantage point ontop of Leigh Hill, and adjacent to an old wide path for travelling up and down the hill, St. Celement’s Church stands proud on the horizon and can be seen for miles around. The tower is 80ft high and the current church was built around 1500 with Victorian and Edwardian…
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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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