Riddle of the Wallasea pillbox

Wallasea pillbox (3),
originally uploaded by chemodan.

Remains of the pillbox have been found by John Myers of Rayleigh

Another case for the trespassing police?

Concrete police (arrest this girl),
originally uploaded by Julieanne Savage.

Call Rettendon police because I am in trouble yet again. This time for sniffing around some old buildings behind the railway line at Southend airport.

The building you see here is a former barrack room for RAF photographers stationed at the base during WW2. In the white building next to this, the aerial photographs which have become important social documents were processed. Can't you just imagine them being developed and hanging to dry in a mangy old darkroom? Thanks to the work of these guys WW2 fans like me are able to know the precise locations of local pillboxes, both extant and destroyed. Can you blame me for wanting to closely inspect this place?

As I came out of the barrack room, I was accosted by some a**hole wearing a yellow security jacket. "What are you doing?" was his polite way of introducing myself. When I told him I was making a website on RAF Rochford, he didn't want to know. "This is all out of bounds. The airport isn't open to non-members."

It comes to something when a girl can't go out for a walk on a Sunday afternoon to look at some old historical sites without the entire Essex local constabulary after her. Perhaps Rettendon cop-shop have passed on my photofit to this guy and Southend Flying Club are using it as a dart board. Okay, slight exaggeration, but what this guy said to me seems about the most ludicrous bit of piffle I have heard lately. How can an airport be "closed"? And how does he know I'm not a "member"? Member of what exactly?

Is this what you get for sending off your twenty quid to the Vulcan Restoration Team?

My new favourite pillbox?

To annoy all you concrete-hating kinartists,
originally uploaded by Julieanne Savage.

This great pillbox was recenly discovered in some woodland in Rochford Borough in excellent condition. It is quite a good walk across some tractor trails across a field (all uphill). I am reluctant to give the exact location as too many pillboxes around this area are being badly vandalised and used as inequitous dens. If I can save one more from being totally vandalised, it will be worth it. Despite its remote and hidden location, even here there was evidence of some partying with the obligatory few beer cans. Other than that, the pillbox is in great condition with evidence that the warden of this particular wood is not letting it get completely overgrown. For instance, debris and leaves had been cleared out of the entrance.

I discovered the pillbox whilst searching for a spigot mortar emplacement that a member of staff at the local garden centre told me he thought was in this particular wood. No evidence of the spig, (as yet) but I could not believe my luck when I found this PB when straying slightly off the woodland path. I returned to the pillbox a few days later to show a friend of mine, Dave who found it equally interesting. (I mean, who wouldn't?)

What I also liked about this pillbox was the Tolkien-esque location: you can almost smell the essence of Treebeard, Galadriel et all in here.

As for the mythical spig, this seems a ridiculous place to have one, which leads me to wonder which came first, the woodland or the pillbox? All the other PBs in this area are in hedgerows or open fields on high ground: I imagine the original intention being to 'guard' RAF Rochford from glider landings. There was evidence of some roof 'disguise' which wouldn't have been needed if the pillbox was in woodland. Here is a picture that Dave took of me with a roof flake:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbullock/2449142535/

More damage to historic Victorian military in Shoeburyness

'Bunka crew' den,
originally uploaded by Julieanne Savage.

This is a photo of a Victorian experimental casement on a former military test range in Shoeburyness, Essex. The site was called the Old Ranges.

I remember first coming here for a nosy around, circa April 2000. At that point all you had to do was clamber up the old sea wall at the end of Barge Pier Road. I don't think the site had been sold to Gladedale Homes then, who have since desecrated it. This expedition was very difficult for me as I had just been involved in a bad motorbike accident and couldn't walk properly. I managed to climb up the old sea wall and get a look at this building, not really knowing then its significance.

This is the inside of an experimental gun casement known as LIght Quick firing battery. It was used in the late 1800s to fire shot out onto the sands. Since the Old Ranges site was sold off by the council, the developers have let several historic listed buildings like this go to wrack and ruin. Since I was last here in the summer, a huge chunk of the outer brickwork has been damaged and the whole structure is pouring with water. Southend council are doing nothing to protect what is left of this historic area and the few suriving remnants of Victorian military history are being ruined.