The plotlands was an area of natural land available for rent/purchase as holiday spots, popular with Londoners who wanted to escape to the countryside. No proper development was really carried out and the residences, pathways, and streets, were the handywork of those visiting Dunton for leisure. It was used as a plotlands site until 1980…
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Beyond the Point has visited Wat Tyler country park on numerous occasions over the years, and the photographs below range from 2011, when much of the article was written, to Autumn 2022. However, we would like to thank Alistair MacRae from the education team, and a ranger who specialized in the wildlife side of the…
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Overlooking the surrounding marshes, St Michael’s Church has been stood on Pitsea Mount for centuries having been build around the 16th century, with extensive rebuilding taking place in 1871. Although once the whole church would have stood on this spot, today just the tower and alter remains with the perimeter marked out. It was during…
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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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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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During the 1920s a London publican, Edwin Cash, decided to run a ‘get rich quick’ scheme in which he sunk five wells to the rear of Hovells Farm, near what was Vange Hall Estate. Despite the well’s name, it was actually situated nearer to Laindon than Vange, actually within the parish of Fobbing. The ironically…
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In January 2012, Liam interviewed his grandfather Peter Basham, who lived in Nevendon during the 1930s, wartime and early post-war period. Nevendon is an area now consumed largely by the Burnt Mills Industrial Estate, but was once a standalone village on the outskirts of Basildon, Wickford and Pitsea. Peter was a young boy when the…
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