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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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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Dotted around the city, it takes a keen eye to spot these cattle troughs disguised amongst the bustling traffic. Nowadays they’re mainly used as flower beds but the history of them takes them back to 1859 when MP Samuel Gurney and barrister Edward Wakefield established the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association. Initially they…
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The last place that you expect to find an Egyptian relic is in central London – but you would be surprised! Known as Cleopatra’s Needle, it actually has nothing to do with Cleopatra, it was brought to London from Alexandria which is known as the royal city of Cleopatra. The obelisk was made in Egypt…
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‘Canvey 2000’ was an attempt to rejuvenate Canvey Island’s seafront in 1997, hoping to restore it to reflect some of the glory as a tourist resort, centred around Thorney bay holiday camp and beach, which it had seen from the 1900s up until the 1980s. It saw some success and definitely revitalised the seafront into…
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Pictured above is the planned lake hotel artist’s impression, original pre-2005 Lakeside logo, the new Intu facade c.2013, and construction of the centre c.1993. Although this article is a dramatic change to the usual content of Beyond the Point, I hope it will be of interest. Whilst not necessarily of historic focus, this article will investigate…
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The Shell Haven Oil Refinery existed behind the Coryton refinery that dominates the skyline of the surrounding area, which ceased oil production in 2012. It closed in 1999 having been operating since 1916. Prior to this, the area of Shell Haven was scraped by Kynoch’s Munitions Factory which stood near the site of Coryton village…
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Transformed from chalk industry giants of the 20th Century, these huge craters in the landscape now form nature reserves due to the mineral-rich soils. What’s more, is that water collects in the bases of them, forming lakes. One of these can be walked to after ten minutes, as soon as you cross the Lakeside c2c…
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1-15 Royal Terrace and the Royal Hotel were built well before the Victorian era – in the time of Georgian rule in the 1790s. Originally Southend was a place popular with fishermen, and it was not actually known as ‘Southend’ until this time when it was called ‘New South End’. Southend previously only referred to…
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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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