Shoeburyness

This week I polished off the district of Southend on Sea covering fourteen churches. Back in the day these were all enclaves in the district but nowadays Southend is one homogeneous mess - a seaside resort in serious decline.

SS Peter & Paul, now redundant and currently unused (it was used as office space up until recently), was the church for Shoebury Garrison. Having housed Royal Artillery and Gunnery schools since the early 1800's, Shoebury Garrison became redundant in 1976 and the last service was held year in 1997.

Built in 1866 to the design of J Egan Roper this is a building of remarkably little merit although the estuary is lovely.

SHOEBURYNESS. We gaze from this low headland over the wide Thames estuary toward the hills of Sheppey in Kent, seeing midway the Nore lightship so eagerly longed for by mariners coming home. The Ness is famed for its School of Gunnery, and over its marshes and sands most of our important inventions in artillery have been tested. War and preparations for war have never long been absent here. Stone Age workshops and Roman kilns have yielded their secrets to the antiquarian, and we can trace the rampart thrown up by the Danes who retreated here from King Alfred’s men.

Flickr.