Warley Hospital was the first County Asylum to be built in Essex, following the passing of the County Asylums Act. The first patients were first admitted in 1853; 130 out of a capacity of 300 although by the turn of the century the site had expanded and accommodated just short of 2,000 patients. Psychiatric Hospitals…
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This heavily-defended concrete strongpoint has been described as the ‘monster’ pillbox, and is potentially the largest in Britain. It is located in the flat expanse of farmland east of Burnham-on-Crouch and Southminster on the very isolated yet peaceful Dengie Peninsula along the Essex coast. Built in 1940, this blockhouse would have been armed to the…
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Moated sites are as the name suggests – wide ditches full of water that would have surrounded an island which would have had a domestic or religious building on it. They were mostly built during the medieval period around central and eastern England, often to show wealth and status in the countryside. The Howbury moated site…
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Victoria Avenue in Southend began to be developed in the post-war period as a centre for tall brutalist offices and civic buildings. These remained largely undeveloped until the mid-2010s when work began to revitalise the ugly structures. Liam remembers having his driving theory exam in Baryta House further down the road in 2015, only to…
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Sometime roughly around 1622, a Canvey land owner known as Sir Henry Appleton called upon expert Dutch engineer Cornelius Wasterdyk Vermuyden to reclaim Canvey’s constantly flooding marhsland. Whilst it is traditionally thought that Vermuyden was directly responsible for Canvey’s reclaimation as he was other parts of England’s south-east coast, it is now thought that an…
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Behind Fairleigh Court in Leigh on Sea remains an impressive set of six Anderson shelters. Anderson shelters were issued free to all householders earning £5 a week, and cost £7 for those earning more. They were issued from February 1939 prior to British declaration of war, and throughout the Second World War. When the war…
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Why do Joe and I continue to run Beyond the Point, some seven years after its creation? After all, we earn no money from our work and fit it in entirely in our own free time. Because it is a past-time we enjoy and because we want to educate others about their secret local…
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If you happen to be walking past the orangutan enclosure at Colchester Zoo, keep an eye out for the ruins of the All Saints’ Church. Although a church or temple had existed on this site since the Roman era, the current church was built in the late 13th century, used to serve Stanway Manor, which…
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This page documents a fascinating chance discovery by BTP Liam whilst on holiday in Northern France in Summer 2012. Whilst the photographs are quite poor quality and feature a rare glimpse at an extremely youthful-looking BTP Liam, they may be of interest to future explorers. There was plenty more remains along the coast that I…
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Down Canal Road in Strood lies these anti-tank defences. Built at the start of the Second World War, they were intended to slow down any tanks trying to get onto British soil. On the battlefields, anti-tank traps would have lead tanks and other military vehicles down specific routes where they would encounter mines and other…
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