tillergirl
Well-Known Member
First time I posted this, the thread disappeared! 
How about a where and what is it?
- Thread starter tillergirl
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Otter
Well-Known Member
Ore entrance?
Cantata
Well-Known Member
I'm sure I've seen that in my extensive travels this year...
Is the pic taken from the Blackwater, looking north towards Tollesbury, and that building (dunno what it is) is on a farm south of Tollesbury?
Is the pic taken from the Blackwater, looking north towards Tollesbury, and that building (dunno what it is) is on a farm south of Tollesbury?
tillergirl
Well-Known Member
LK no sorry. Dick, you're disqualified. If you didn't know it we're sunk (literally).
But what is it? - yes I know it's a pill box but in the water?
But what is it? - yes I know it's a pill box but in the water?
DanTribe
Well-Known Member
Radar tower Tollesbury.
tillergirl
Well-Known Member
Don't think there is a radar tower but what it is - if I am right and I'm not certain - is not unconnected with electrickery.
ex-Gladys
Well-Known Member
Is the remains in the foreground the remnant of the old Crab and Winkle line pier? The building in the background loooks like a pumping station
tillergirl
Well-Known Member
That's it. It's the remains of the Tollesbury Pier Station. As to the building in the background may be:
"The extension to the pier remained open for less than 20 years and skirted the village before dropping steadily to the Blackwater. Two roads, Woodrolfe Road and Woodrolfe Farm Lane were crossed by this final section of the line.
The terminus at the pier consisted of an old coach body and a red brick hut about 40 yards from where the pier began. This extension was completed 2 years after the major part of the route, on 15th May 1907. It provoked much interest from local people, particularly because the promoters had plans for development of land here with bungalows and houses, and a yacht station nearby. The area was to become a continental packet station and a weekend yachting resort. High ideas indeed!
All these high ideas unfortunately were to come to nothing, and in 1939 the pier extension, which had only remained open until 1921, was taken over by the then War Department. Part of the structure was blown up in 1940 as an anti-invasion precaution. The overgrown track was terminated in a sand-drag and used by four locomotives to service the mobile guns that were stationed along the estuary. Part of the extension had been used previously for the storage of rolling stock, but the wooden pier had been allowed to fall into disrepair after closure nineteen years earlier.
Two buildings were erected near the line during the war as part of the anti-invasion precautions strung along the Blackwater estuary. One, a pill-box of thick reinforced concrete was built on the land end of the pier. The other, a control tower for the many electrically controlled mines, which effectively blockaded the estuary against enemy attack, was built about mile inland on the seaward side of the line."
"The extension to the pier remained open for less than 20 years and skirted the village before dropping steadily to the Blackwater. Two roads, Woodrolfe Road and Woodrolfe Farm Lane were crossed by this final section of the line.
The terminus at the pier consisted of an old coach body and a red brick hut about 40 yards from where the pier began. This extension was completed 2 years after the major part of the route, on 15th May 1907. It provoked much interest from local people, particularly because the promoters had plans for development of land here with bungalows and houses, and a yacht station nearby. The area was to become a continental packet station and a weekend yachting resort. High ideas indeed!
All these high ideas unfortunately were to come to nothing, and in 1939 the pier extension, which had only remained open until 1921, was taken over by the then War Department. Part of the structure was blown up in 1940 as an anti-invasion precaution. The overgrown track was terminated in a sand-drag and used by four locomotives to service the mobile guns that were stationed along the estuary. Part of the extension had been used previously for the storage of rolling stock, but the wooden pier had been allowed to fall into disrepair after closure nineteen years earlier.
Two buildings were erected near the line during the war as part of the anti-invasion precautions strung along the Blackwater estuary. One, a pill-box of thick reinforced concrete was built on the land end of the pier. The other, a control tower for the many electrically controlled mines, which effectively blockaded the estuary against enemy attack, was built about mile inland on the seaward side of the line."
rudolph_hart
Well-Known Member
Another explanation I was given was that there originally had been a WW1 aerodrome there, protecting/working with HMS Osea Coastal Motor Boat base, and this was a watch/control tower. Although I've sailed past it countless times and looked at it through binos, I've never got close enough (i.e. by land) to guess the age of the architecture.
DanTribe
Well-Known Member
I used to have access to copies of a weekly newspaper called The Yachtsman from about 1900.
There were reports of plans to extend the Wickford to Southminster rail line on to Bradwell and to run a ferry service across to the new continental steam packet terminal at Tollesbury. The Tollesbury pier was going to be part of this plan and it was hoped to develop the area into a new yachting centre.
I thought you were referring to the hexagonal brick building in the background. I did some survey work on that a few years ago when it was planned to turn it into a twitchers centre.
The owner told me it was built to house a type 287 radar set [really a low power RDF] used to detect local shipping movements for harbour defence. There is [or was] a sort of handle bar arrangement connected through a vertical drive shaft to manually turn a rooftop antenna. I believe the RDF was obsolete as soon as built and the tower used for mine control later.
There were reports of plans to extend the Wickford to Southminster rail line on to Bradwell and to run a ferry service across to the new continental steam packet terminal at Tollesbury. The Tollesbury pier was going to be part of this plan and it was hoped to develop the area into a new yachting centre.
I thought you were referring to the hexagonal brick building in the background. I did some survey work on that a few years ago when it was planned to turn it into a twitchers centre.
The owner told me it was built to house a type 287 radar set [really a low power RDF] used to detect local shipping movements for harbour defence. There is [or was] a sort of handle bar arrangement connected through a vertical drive shaft to manually turn a rooftop antenna. I believe the RDF was obsolete as soon as built and the tower used for mine control later.
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tillergirl
Well-Known Member
I've not heard about any WW1 aerodrome there but there are enough flat fields. The author of the extract I quoted above (a local vicar I believe) described the hex building as to the seaward side of the line and about a mile inland which from the Google Earth describes it pretty closely. I guess if it was there for the radar, it would be an obvious place to use for mine control later. But I would have thought mine control probably came at the beginning of the war before radar? Wasn't that a bit later.
The parallels with Nelson placing of a cutter at the mouth of the Blackwater to repel Napoleon are similar. Wouldn't fancy being in that pill box when an invasion fleet steamed into the Blackwater.
The parallels with Nelson placing of a cutter at the mouth of the Blackwater to repel Napoleon are similar. Wouldn't fancy being in that pill box when an invasion fleet steamed into the Blackwater.
DanTribe
Well-Known Member
After a bit of Googling, it seems that the radar and mine control were used in conjunction. The radar was an early basic model, pre magnetron and could just about detect ships within 15 miles. Once detected the radar tower would phone the mine control centre to set them off.
Perhaps it was fortunate that we didn't have to rely on this system.
Perhaps it was fortunate that we didn't have to rely on this system.
Cantata
Well-Known Member
Wouldn't have been too much of a problem. Being thirsty by that time, they would head straight for Bradwell Marina and the Green Man, but they'd be in too much of a rush and forget to swot up their pilotage so would get stuck in the entrance channel. Then the locals could have thrown buckets of buckets of nuclear waste at them until they surrendered.
