Prior to the construction of the Colvin opening bridge in 1931, a ferry and stepping stones at low tide were used to get from Benfleet to Canvey and back. The stepping stones were cast into buckets originally and were removed in 1931 and held in the old Canvey Council Offices down Long Road for a…
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St. Johns’ Abbey was a very wealthy Benedictine abbey situated in Colchester, Essex. It functioned between 1096 and 1539. All that survives today is this stunning gatehouse built around 1400. It is now owned by English Heritage and is Grade I listed – you can walk through it publicly today. The structure is architecturally beautiful;…
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Turn back the clock to 1850 and Canvey Island little more than farmland and a small village, much like the Wild West. Only few of these actually remain today, with Brickhouse Farm being one of the only still in operation. So, where did all the rest go? Well, a majority became left abandoned due to…
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In the early 17th century, Canvey Island was inhabited by a community of Dutch settlers who whilst living both alongside and at times at loggerheads with the locals helped to shape the islanders topography today. Two houses built in a contemporary Dutch cylindrical shape survive to this day at Northwick seen below, and at Canvey…
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Known as either Canvey Island’s Heritage Centre or St Katherine’s Church, this building stands proud along Long Road. Towards the second-half of the 19th Century, Victorian Canvey was undergoing true establishment as a village, rather than just farmland. With a new church, St. Katherine’s, built in 1875, a village well, constructed in 1879, and numerous other…
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The current seawall that encircles Canvey Island was a late 1970s upgrade to the 1950s wall that was the first to be made out of concrete in response to the dated earthen mounds that failed to stand the test of the tide in the 1953 floods. The current wall, finished in the early 1980s, was…
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Several years ago BTP Joe was on Shell Beach, Canvey, when he came across this old piece of pottery. It clearly belonged to the company ‘Cox’s’ who set up a major establishment on Canvey. Aside from the main building, there was a small cafe hut on the beach at one time, from which we speculate…
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Lt. Col. Horace Percy Fielder could be considered the man to whom established Canvey as a residential area. A few decades before, at the turn of the century, Frederick Hester established Canvey as a tourist plotland area (read more here). However, Fielder could be considered the first to put Canvey on the map as a day…
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Who are Dr. Feelgood? Dr. Feelgood are a band formed in 1971 originating from Canvey; headlining the pub rock genre which was a revival of blues and rock and roll music popular in the 1950s and 60s from band such as the Rolling Stones. The scene’s back to basics attitude and intense energy; displayed by Dr. Feelgood,…
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Battlesbridge may not appear to be a very large place, but it is historic. It sits on the River Crouch where it narrows and heads towards its source. The small bridge over the river is where the village gets its name from. The original timber bridge stood for a long while since c.1351 when the…
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