Posts Tagged ‘Thorney Bay’

Canvey Island Guide Book & Flying Fortress Propeller Images

Posted: June 13, 2012 by BTP Joe in Various
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Hello everyone! It’s been a while since our last post because we’ve been busy with the stall in which we made a satisfying profit on the day. We met loads of wonderful people and many people bought our Canvey Island Documentary DVD, including our local MP, Rebecca Harris. You can buy yours now, here!

After an hour or so of scanning an old Canvey guide book, the page by page images can be seen in the gallery below! Canvey was seen and promoted as a holiday spot quite thoroughly over the past century but particularly in the early 1900′s when a popular man, Frederick Hester, was on the scene. (Read more here) Hester spent hundreds trying to re-vamp England and extensively promote it to Londoner’s; a place where they could go to breath sea air. Hester started to build a pier (which was planned to be 3 stories and bigger than Southend pier) and of course the Winter Gardens Tram line. Hester Unfortuantly became bust though and later died in 1934. Below are the images of the booklet. Image 1 is page 1, Image 2 is page 2 e.t.c (Hover over the image to view what number!! Sorry they’re not in order, WordPress is being stupid!!)

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As well as these images I also have a few more delights with thanks to Shirley Gartshore! ;) Below are images of the B17 Flying Fortress propeller which belonged to the plane which crashed at Canvey Point. You can read a very detailed account by Janet Penn here.

And now one last picture but this time a slightly different one. This photo below shows a crashed lorry but in the background on the right, we can see the Thorney Bay War defences from Tuesday 14th June 1977. If you zoom in and look just behind the lorry, you can see a long building which is the army huts in the Thorney Bay Camp. That’s all from me for now and expect a post by BTP Liam soon! I would like to ask please, for you support, in supporting myself in a competition that I recently entered. All you need to do is click the link here and watch the vid!

Tuesday 14th June 1977

Canvey Island – Our Little Thames Town

Posted: May 17, 2012 by BTP Joe in Event Review, Local Event, Other Websites/Organisations, Up-Coming Event, Website Update
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Wow, a lot of tags!! “Canvey, our little Thames town” is probably going to be the most iconic BTP words that you’ll ever hear! On June 3rd 2012 Liam and I will be down the sea front as part of the Town Council Diamond Jubilee event. The event is  a giant picnic event, where everyone can bring a bite to eat, or visit the local food shops and sit down and listen to the band music play! With confirmation from the various choirs, it’s guaranteed to be a great day out for all the family! The event times are 1pm until 6pm and it’s being organised by the town council; Geraldine Vallis in particular. But wait…..it gets even better!! Beyond the Point will be there! We could say it in posh terms “Visit our exclusive one off, road show!!” We will be in the heritage marquee promoting the website and the work that we do with our own stall which will feature a selection of our top finds (including the Stephens Inks thermometer), our best pictures, and an exclusive DVD which can only be purchased there and then! For all of our budding BTP readers, you can keep an eye on our countdown to the left <<<

Canvey Island Documentary DVD by BeyondthePoint.co.uk

The DVD

With 20+ copies available, make sure you get one! Titled “Canvey Island – A comprehensive documentary” this documentary DVD will feature information, interviews and images from Canvey Island throughout the ages! This 1 hour (approx) DVD will be on sale for £4.99 and it has been filmed in full High Definition! We haven’t done any BTP visits over the past couple of months as we’ve been out every weekend filming this and this weekend will be the last, with Liam just needing to do a final interview! We’ve been all over the island and after hours of filming and editing it will finally be ready! You can view the trailer below! You can also keep up with us via Twitter and Facebook!

That’s all from us, make sure you visit us on the day!

Get your DVD!!

Visit to the Canvey Island Anglian Water Site

Posted: April 29, 2012 by BTP Joe in Case Study, Various
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Anglian Water

A slightly different visit this time, to the Anglian Water treatment works by Thorney Bay. As someone mentioned on our Facebook Page “I think this is a real treasure on the island, so glad your covering it!”. We visited the site last month, accompanied by someone that I know, who works for the company. The site that lays at the southern end of Thames Road, was officially opened in 1967. Following historical info from CanveyIsland.org. 

Historical Background

Canvey Island, situated on the North side of the Thames Estuary above Southend, is at a level of 8 ft. below normal tides. In about the year 1620 it was drained and dyked by Dutch engineers who were given land in recompense of their services. Some of the original Dutch houses have been preserved and many roads bear Dutch names. The flat terrain dictates the subdivision of foul drainage into small zones, each having its own pumping station to lift the flow to the next zone until it reaches the main pumping station at Long Road: sewage, therefore, tends to be septic on arrival. There is also some infiltration of saline ground water. The Long Road pump station was constructed thirty years ago to pump the sewage through an 18 in. rising main to a 24 in. outfall main laid through the sea wall and extending 500 ft. into the river. New pumps have been installed in the pumping station and a new 24 in. rising main laid in parallel to the existing 18 in. main. Both these rising mains now discharge to the treatment works which are situated at such an elevation that the effluent will discharge to the River at all states of the tide through the existing outfall pipe. – This was included in the brochure from it’s official opening.

Present Day

Today, the site is still used on a daily basis. (For those of you that like ‘technical bits’ then you’ll love this as it explains what the site does.) You can see some of the site in our short video below, of some clips of the site. Canvey Island Sewage Treatment Works is an “Activated Sludge” treatment site taking in and treating all the waste water flows from Canvey Island. It is fed from the Terminal Pumping Station in Long Road which is in turn fed by many smaller pumping stations all over the island. The flow enters the site and first passes through large screens to remove mainly rags but also any other large objects which would cause problems to the process should they get through, any flows during storm conditions which the works is not capable of treating overflow a weir and after screening is discharged to sea. Next the flow passes through a grit collector which removes all the smaller heavy objects which would cause blockages and wear to pumps, pipework etc. These 2 parts of the treatment process are known as Preliminary Treatment.

Anglian Water - Canvey Island Site

The flow then passes through tanks know as Primary Settlement Tanks (PST’s) and is called Raw Sewage where the flow is slowed right down and enables the heavier solids in the flow to sink to the bottom of the tank where it is removed and tankered off site to a treatment centre off Canvey in the local area usually Rayleigh, Basildon or Tilbury. This mass of settled solids is known as sludge and this part of the process is known as Primary Treatment. The flow from the PST’s now enters a large tank called an Aeration Tank filled with what is called Settled Sewage. This liquid is now free from rag, grit and settleable solids and is just cloudy waste water. The tank is full of bacteria and other micro organisms that feed on the organic matter in the cloudy water and are constantly fed with oxygen to promote an ideal environment for them to exist and multiply. The contents of this tank are known as Activated Sludge and the process is called Secondary Treatment. After the flow has passed through this tank which may take anything from 6 to 24 hours it passes through 2 more settlement tanks known as Final Settlement Tanks where the once cloudy sample full of suspended fine solids now settle to the bottom of the tank and are removed as was the sludge in the PST’s. The now clear treated liquid passes over a weir and is discharged to sea and has to comply with srtict consent parameters layed down by the Environment Agency. This process takes place constantly day in day out throughout the year.
You can watch our video below, of various clips of the site! Also, please get signing up and posting in our forum!!

Thorney Bay Army Camp – More Remains plus Rare Pictures!

Posted: March 23, 2012 by BTP Liam in Event Review, Other Websites/Organisations
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Hello all. Last weekend Joe and I visited Thorney Bay Army Camp again, and were pleased with our finds. You can see the previously covered surviving remains here http://beyondthepoint.co.uk/2011/12/13/thorney-bay-army-camp-remnants/ . This time we ventured into the camp and found another magazine (ammunition store_ like the one from last time. This one had metal grates over the holes in the walls, and one wall was painted white – it was in use as an electrics building or something similar.

Magazine

And we also found the hexagonal indentations in the sea wall. Pillboxes originally used to be here – when the wall was built/upgraded to the one we know it today in the 70s and 80s, these pillboxes were so tough their concrete couldn’t be easily destroyed. Instead the foundations of the wall were built around the buried pillbox (most remain embedded under the seawall today).

Courtesy of Canvey Archive (canveyisland.org)

Next up are some pictures I found over at the formidable resource ‘SEAX’ at http://unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk. This site featuresa map with literally the exact location of every Roman coin, old boat, or WW2 pillbox throughout Essex, along with pictures for a few of them. I found these incredible pictures (http://unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk/uep/custom_pages/monument_detail.asp?content_page_id=89&monument_id=23615&content_parents=48,61,79) which I don’t think have really passed anyone’s attention before, and were taken in the 1990s by Fred Nash, an owner of the site. They show colour pictures of the remains of the camp in the final days – here are a select few:

Troop Housing

A sad sight - a probable pillbox

PLEASE LOOK AWAY NOW
A pillbox gets its head smashed - half a loop-hole can be seen

A probable underground air-raid shelter for the camp - my dad remembers this in the 70s

Excellent, although painful to watch, pictures. For all the pictures from our trip go here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.370837339605136.85073.238743826147822&type=3

And for our mini-documentary on it, visit here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzU0R67J9hM

 

Thorney Bay Army Camp Remnants

Posted: December 13, 2011 by BTP Liam in Case Study, Event Review
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In the 1940s US and Canadian troops would train and live in England before the D-Day invasions of France, to shorten the journey time/make the assault more effective. This was the main purpose of ‘army camps’ in the Second World War throughout England, and not to house British troops as many may think. Many army camps, however, were built to house those stationed at sea or air defence gun aites nearby. Thorney Bay army camp would have been used to house the British soldiers who would fire/work at the Scars Elbow Sea Defenses (see http://beyondthepoint.co.uk/2011/10/27/scars-elbow-sea-defences-rare-picture/).

I and BTP Joe have passed the area twice, and do promise to return for a thorough investigation. On each of the two quick visits, we have found a total of three remains. The first below is the ‘magazine’ (ammunition storage building). It still had the iron doors attached and several slits to presumably let in light, not to fire out of, as this was not a defensive building. Inside it looked like nothing but a homeless person had taken shelter, due to the several mattresses e.t.c.

The next find is simply a concrete base which was left when the earth was built up around the sea wall in the 1970s/80s. This would be where the ‘tower’ was from the camp. We now know that this the remains of an entrance to an underground area for pipes area built in the 60s as the sluice connected to Anglian Water (search the site for more info). My father remembers seeing this entrance amongst undergrowth as a child.

The final find was from our second trip, and used to have this building next to it (photo courtesy of Dave Bullock)

Long lost to 2009

Here it is, the very nice rusty looking telephone cable pole. This was attached to the communications building seen above, but was demolished in 2009 before we were into this hobby. It is an excellent landmark and reminder of the area’s proud past.

Finally, I would love to wish you all a Merry BtP Christmas, and announce that a Christmas Eve treat is to be released on Beyond the Point, being an interactive entirely new feature…

H.P. Fielder’s 1930 Map of Essex

Posted: November 21, 2011 by BTP Joe in Case Study, Various
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Hello, I was fortunate enough to be able to have a look a map of Joe’s aunts, with the name  ’H.P. Fielder’, one of Canvey’s most well known World War 2 characters (who owned Thorney Bay including the army camp, and many other placed on the Island, plus he was a member of Canvey’s governance – read more here ‘http://canveyisland.org/page_id__625_path__0p22p.aspx‘), written on it in ink. We took it to the Bay Museum and came to the conclusion it was a hunting map (hence the ‘Essex union’ cover, and that it displayed numbered hunt spots, and the boundaries of their hunting license. We then took it to Janet Penn, who runs and contributes to Canvey’s archive (www.canveyisland.org). She came to further conclusion that someone, probably Fielder, had got the map on printed paper, and divided/segmented it up into pieces, and glued it on canvas, which then was placed in the Cover, and the coordinates were manually added by and in ink. It also has someone else’s writing on it, which appears just to be calligraphy practice.

 

 

 

 

This shows the exact location of the Kynoch Hotel, marked simply as 'Hotel'

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