The history of the garrison dates back to 1849 when the land was first purchased by the Board of Ordanance. Woolwich Common was usually used for testing weapons, although as they became more powerful, they needed a new, larger site. During the Crimean War, the Royal Artillery School of Gunnery was established at Shoeburyness and…
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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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Purfleet Heritage & Military Centre is a museum set up inside Magazine No.5 from the Royal Magazine of Gunpowder. This MOD magazine (which means an explosives and ammunition store) was contracted in 1759, consisting of five buildings, plus a proof house for testing the explosive. Four of the magasines, which would have held up to…
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Known as 1, The Thames – this 19th century fort is situated 500 meters out into the mouth of the River Medway and was built to protect local dockyards from the potential invasion from the French. In 2014 the fort was up for sale and was sold for around £400,000 but the Grade II listed…
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Grain Dummy Battery, originally known as Grain Battery, was built shortly before Grain Fort, completed in 1865 to support two nearby forts; Grain Fort and Grain Wing Battery. Following the usual design for batteries, it consisted of several gun emplacements with magazines below. Unlike other forts, it’s likely that this one was out of service…
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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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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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Those of you who travel past West Ham station on the C2C train line will be familiar with the sight of Bromley-by-Bow gas containers. Upon closer inspection, you will see that these ugly industrial monstrosities are in fact works of art from the bygone era of the Industrial Revolution. The first industry known to be…
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Valence House is an old manor house in Becontree, Dagenham. It is the last survivor of Dagenham’s five manor houses. Whilst the Becontree estate of many miles of houses cropped up almost entirely as a ‘homes for heroes’ housing scheme for Great War veterans and their families in the 1920s, the area was once originally…
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North of Butlers Farm in the Shopland, Sutton rural area north of Southend lies what was once thought to be a Romano-British burial site by local historians. The mound is roughly 5ft x 16ft in size and is similar in shape to other local barrows which exist on Foulness Island and Mersea Island; both dating…
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