Stratford Pillbox & Anti-Tank Blocks
Whilst working in the area, I decided to go on a walk and stumbled across this purely by chance. Just a few minutes walk away …
Thundersley Glen
Thundersley Glen is great example of how even the most seemingly natural spaces have a history all of their own; and how this changed the …
Chappel Viaduct WW2 Defences
British Troops have been pushed back to Dunkirk; all that lies between the Germans and Britain is the English Channel. With the threat of German …
St. Celement’s Church & The Cutlass Stone, Leigh-on-Sea
Located on a vantage point ontop of Leigh Hill, and adjacent to an old wide path for travelling up and down the hill, St. Celement’s …
The Benfleet Devil Steps
The steps in Summer 1961 by Harry Emery, and Winter 2010 by Eileen Gamble: Steeped in ghastly rumour, these concrete steps could have been built …
Chalkwell Sun Shelters
The coastline surrounding Southend from Chalkwell to Thorpe Bay has been a tourist hotspot for people; often urban residents from London, to enjoy the sea …
St. Botolph’s Priory
St. Botolph’s Priory was an Augustinian religious house in Colchester, Essex, between c.1100 and 1536. It is Grade I listed and can be walked around …
Colchester Roman Circus
It is well-known that Colchester has strong origins in the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. It was the first Roman legionary fortress established …
Lexden Iron Age Earthworks
On the edges of Camulodunum; ancient Colchester, there once stood an Iron Age defence system – part of a greater one spanning the circumference of …
Rayleigh Mount
What now stands as a strange overgrown mound of earth piling high into the sky, squeezed behind a car park near Rayleigh high street, was …
Shoebury Garrison
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 …
Shoeburyness Poppy Wave
It’s the final two weeks of the Poppy Wave sculpture in Shoeburyness and we decided to take a look before the wave of poppies move …
Springfield Lyons Bronze Age Enclosure
Only a handful of Iron Age sites still remain in England, with most lost to nature and seemingly destroyed over time. If you walk around …
Canvey V-2 Bomb Crater
When the land was first bought by the RSPB in 2006, one of their first jobs was to sweep the land to see if any …
The Red Hills
(Left) Replica red hill created at RSPB Bower’s Marsh nature reserve, Canvey Island. (Right) An actual site of a Red Hill. A faint hill remains between Waterside …
French Cannon Bollard
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 …
WW2 Stretcher Fences
In the years leading up to the Second World War the Government ordered the production of hundreds of thousands stretchers. They were built using two …
Southend Seafront WW2 Defences
Disguised Observation Post We started at a disguised defensive post, which when we visited in 2012 was next to the derelict Esplanade House. When we revisited in …
Hadleigh HAA Battery
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 …
Chapel of St. Peter-on-the-Wall
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 …
Prittlewell Camp Hillfort
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 …
RAF Hornchurch
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 …
Wat Tyler WW2 Defences
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 – …
Paglesham Pillboxes
Paglesham is a vast expanse of mostly rural land surrounded by earthen seawalls of the common pre-North Sea Flood style witnessed across the Essex coastline. …