Ferro-Concrete barges were used to keep artificial ‘Mulberry Harbours’ afloat used by the allies in D-Day as checkpoints in the English Channel. One was thought to have drifted off of the broken Mulberry harbour that lies out in the Thames opposite Shoebury/Southend. Using our Time Tool below, you can see then and now photos of…
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Walking along you wouldn’t bat an eye lid at this rather bollard – that’s unless you knew the history of it. In October 1805 the Battle of Trafalgar took place between the British Navy and joint French & Spanish fleets. Twenty seven British ships were up against 33 of their counterparts and, after a bloody…
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In the years leading up to the Second World War the Government ordered the production of hundreds of thousands stretchers. They were built using two metal poles and wire mesh as metal would be easier to clean and disinfect and would be sturdier than wooden or fabric stretchers. Some 600,000 were estimated to have been…
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Disguised Observation Post We started at a disguised defensive post, which when we visited in 2012 was next to the derelict Esplanade House. When we revisited in 2017, the site has been demolished and replaced with a Premiere Inn – luckily the pillbox-like structure has survived! The brick wall appears to be of classic Southend Victorian origin,…
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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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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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When walking between Newtavern and Shornemead Fort in Gravesend, we pass through Milton industrial estate on the eastern outskirts of Gravesend connected to a Thames-side wharf to the north and canal to the south. We have done this wharf both back in Summer 2013 on our camping expedition across Gravesend and Cliffe, and again in…
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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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What is RAF Hornchurch? Hornchurch Country Park covers almost 105 hectares on the former site or RAF Hornchurch. Used today by dog walkers, fishermen and families; many historic remains are scattered around the park and we went to explore what still survives from the Second World War. The airfield has existed since 1915 as ‘Sutton…
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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 defence 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…
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