One of London’s newest museums offers you the chance to take a ride under the bustling streets of the capital. You wouldn’t know it, but under your feet Royal Mail were transporting some 4 million letters across city for up to 22 hours a day. The service dates back to the 1920’s when the tunnels…
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Situated above the White Cliffs of Dover, this iconic castle has guarded our shores from invasion for 20 centuries and is the largest castle in England. Dover Castle is owned by English Heritage and is a Scheduled Monument meaning that it’s “nationally important” and is protected from any unauthorised change. Known as the ‘Key to England’,…
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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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First visited in the summer of 2012, Bowers Gifford is home to five surviving pillboxes which would have formed part of the GHQ defence line. Fifty of these lines were built and this particular one stretched from Canvey Island up to Colchester and would have been the first line of defence for London. Around 400…
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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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In a field parallel to the A12 lies two remains from the Cold War. Opened in July 1959 is the Royal Observers Corps (ROC) Post at Hatfield Peverel – built to monitor the radiation of a nuclear bomb; if one was ever dropped. Situated right next to the ROC post is a is a Type…
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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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