H.M.P. Bullwood Hall was a former women’s prison in Hockley, built in the 1960’s initially as a women’s borstal. The site was opened to house minors, although went on to hold female prisoners of any age. In 2002, six-part series ‘The Real Bad Girls’ aired on ITV. The series was filmed at Bullwood Hall and…
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Canvey Island was a fairly quiet area in the 1930s, so when it became heavily militarised to defend against air, land, and sea on the approach to World War Two, it must have come as quite a shock. Arguably, this was one of the changes the island saw which transformed it into the town it…
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The New Empire theatre had what might initially appear to be an Art Deco-style frontage. However, it was in fact built in a vaguely Neo-Classical style in 1896 by Frederick Marlow. He owned a public hall previously on site which became the original Empire Theatre in 1892, but this burnt down in 1895 hence its…
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Two busts that stood in ‘Poets Corner’ of the Winter Gardens, today in the Canvey Heritage Centre. Photographs of Frederick Hester, and his monrail before & after electrification. Also images showing interior of his winter gardens. Have you heard of Frederick Hester, the man who promoted Canvey in the early 1900s to make it a…
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In 1891, the Salvation Army established a Home Farm Colony in Hadleigh where the Hadleigh Downs Country Park lies today. The Salvation Army Jetty was used in the early 1900s to load off and on goods, mainly bricks, made at the Salvation Army brickworks located at the bottom of Chapel Lane. The bricks were then…
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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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Another vessel involved in the Second World War marooned on Canvey is the M.V. Bendigo. Historian Robin Howie explains: “The M.V. Bendigo was being towed round the island to a new berth on the western side of the bridge,ironically only about a couple of hundred yards away from its existing one.This was necessary due to…
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Two artist’s impressions (top and bottom: graphic or model and painting) of the proposed refinery, the trademark six-legged dog ENI logo and a map showing land allocation. The square UR Ltd. area is from 1965 suggesting the area further down is from the 1971-3 application. Before Occidental looked to build a refinery on Canvey in…
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Seven Victorian tunnel-like magazines were built on the Benfleet waterfront near Jotmans in the late part of the 19th Century. They would have been used for the storage of explosives by barges possibly on the way to London or nearby explosives factories (where is now Wat Tyler Country Park and Coryton Refinery). The Benfleet Community…
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Ferro-Concrete barges were used to keep artificial ‘Mulberry Harbours’ afloat used by the allies in D-Day as checkpoints in the English Channel. One was thought to have drifted off of the broken Mulberry harbour that lies out in the Thames opposite Shoebury/Southend. Using our Time Tool below, you can see then and now photos of…
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