It's a shame I don't do much exploring in Essex anymore. I grew up on local history and that led me onto urban exploration, so I was originally very much focused on my local area. It feels like there's less and less about but every so often a new discovery gets made. The county does still seem a lot less well-documented than other surrounding counties such as Kent, so there is room for discovery if you can find a rare gem amongst the traffic-hampered roads and magically-appearing new build estates. Well one place I'd been interested in for over a decade was the gorges at Chafford Hundred. Back in 2013, I once snuck away from Lakeside with a friend and we decided to circumnavigate Lion Gorge, involving climbing around several fences and negotiating foliage. I wouldn't recommend, as we ended up directly beneath a crumbling cliff rolling uncontrollably down a pile of chalk. I came out covered. This is how urbex started for me, poking around the corners of the local environment. It was less structured than it is now and full of discovery, although whether that's thanks to growing up or the internet I don't know. On the other hand, I used to get excited about brick walls.
So fast forward to 2021 and I teamed up with @KismetJ and a non-forum legend to finally assess what the gorges were hiding. We knew tram tunnels and kilns existed somewhere, but it's a huge area obscured by foliage, elevation, and flooding. It wasn't going to be an easy task, but we began what would be an explore of the true old-fashioned way using nothing but research, old maps and a lot of searching around in bushes. What we found was certainly a surprise, so I think we can call it a win.
My mate circumnavigating Lion Gorge in 2013
The History
The gorges in Chafford Hundred date back as far as the 18th century, quarrying material including chalk, gravel and even flint for the production of bricks. From the 1870s, the quarries were used for the manufacture of lime, which had a range of uses, mainly for mortar but also other building materials such as whitewash paint and plaster. This was done by burning chalk in kilns to form calcium oxide, then adding water to make calcium hydroxide. There were numerous gorges created at the Chafford quarries which changed size, shape and number over a period of long over 100 years. Today, three main quarries exist; Warren, Lion and Grays Gorge, as well as a narrow gauge railway running south towards the Thames from Lion Gorge. We explored all but Warren Gorge, because we didn't suspect it had many treatures and is largely flooded now, but who knows. The three quarry pits all existed in some capacity since the late 18th century and the railway connecting to the Riverside Tramway was added in the 19th century. The quarries eventually became involved in the production of Portland Cement under several companies, which is probably deserving of a whole feature in itself. By the 1970s, the cement industry was declining sharply and the area became a wasteland. Some of the qurry pits were repurposed as industrial premises, others as shopping centres (Lakeside, and Bluewater over the river), and others such as the three mentioned were left as nature reserves to become partially reclaimed by nature.
Lion gorge and tramway to the Thames (centre) in April 1944 - Historic England
Grays Gorge - Kilns
We began the explore by comparing old maps with the largely open Grays Gorge nature reserve today, looking at the locations of the kilns and trying to place them amongst the modern quarry. This was easy for the first as the bottle kiln (I believe) presented itself as a large mound in the centre of a flat expanse. The brick arches and other features gave it's purpose away, and it was complete with railway sleeper trackbeds surviving running from the kiln around the site.
The second kiln was a bit harder to find, we didn't even know if it still existed. After tracing its location very approximately by trampling through overgrowth, we finally came across this rectangular brick structure with a central passageway, which is a different type of kiln (although what I do not know). There were bits of rail lying around everywhere.
Grays Gorge - Tram Tunnel & Other
Various remants of industrial activity could be found all around the gorge, and as we followed various paths (or not) around the fringes of the gorge such clues made us hopeful of a bigger find. Then we reached the highlight; a railway tunnel running under Hogg Lane, which I believe suffered a collapse some time ago and caused some havoc for the road above. This tunnel was big and nicely lined with brick, but sadly it was fully locked.
Grays Gorge - Air Raid Shelter
This structure has some mystery surrounding it. It is fairly well known but still took a while to find, and resulted in me crawling up some very steep and slippery quarry banks and almost tumbling a long way to the bottom. The structure appears to be a brick-lined air raid shelter from the Second World War set into the edge of the quarry. It originally seems it would have had an escape tunnel at the far end leading out from the quarry, but it has since collapsed. People have argued it was a tram tunnel converted during the war, but I think its shape suggests it was purpose built with the usual central room with toilet cutouts, accessed via two entrances. Have wanted to see this place for many years so it was good to finally do it.
TBC...
So fast forward to 2021 and I teamed up with @KismetJ and a non-forum legend to finally assess what the gorges were hiding. We knew tram tunnels and kilns existed somewhere, but it's a huge area obscured by foliage, elevation, and flooding. It wasn't going to be an easy task, but we began what would be an explore of the true old-fashioned way using nothing but research, old maps and a lot of searching around in bushes. What we found was certainly a surprise, so I think we can call it a win.
My mate circumnavigating Lion Gorge in 2013
The History
The gorges in Chafford Hundred date back as far as the 18th century, quarrying material including chalk, gravel and even flint for the production of bricks. From the 1870s, the quarries were used for the manufacture of lime, which had a range of uses, mainly for mortar but also other building materials such as whitewash paint and plaster. This was done by burning chalk in kilns to form calcium oxide, then adding water to make calcium hydroxide. There were numerous gorges created at the Chafford quarries which changed size, shape and number over a period of long over 100 years. Today, three main quarries exist; Warren, Lion and Grays Gorge, as well as a narrow gauge railway running south towards the Thames from Lion Gorge. We explored all but Warren Gorge, because we didn't suspect it had many treatures and is largely flooded now, but who knows. The three quarry pits all existed in some capacity since the late 18th century and the railway connecting to the Riverside Tramway was added in the 19th century. The quarries eventually became involved in the production of Portland Cement under several companies, which is probably deserving of a whole feature in itself. By the 1970s, the cement industry was declining sharply and the area became a wasteland. Some of the qurry pits were repurposed as industrial premises, others as shopping centres (Lakeside, and Bluewater over the river), and others such as the three mentioned were left as nature reserves to become partially reclaimed by nature.
Lion gorge and tramway to the Thames (centre) in April 1944 - Historic England
Grays Gorge - Kilns
We began the explore by comparing old maps with the largely open Grays Gorge nature reserve today, looking at the locations of the kilns and trying to place them amongst the modern quarry. This was easy for the first as the bottle kiln (I believe) presented itself as a large mound in the centre of a flat expanse. The brick arches and other features gave it's purpose away, and it was complete with railway sleeper trackbeds surviving running from the kiln around the site.
The second kiln was a bit harder to find, we didn't even know if it still existed. After tracing its location very approximately by trampling through overgrowth, we finally came across this rectangular brick structure with a central passageway, which is a different type of kiln (although what I do not know). There were bits of rail lying around everywhere.
Grays Gorge - Tram Tunnel & Other
Various remants of industrial activity could be found all around the gorge, and as we followed various paths (or not) around the fringes of the gorge such clues made us hopeful of a bigger find. Then we reached the highlight; a railway tunnel running under Hogg Lane, which I believe suffered a collapse some time ago and caused some havoc for the road above. This tunnel was big and nicely lined with brick, but sadly it was fully locked.
Grays Gorge - Air Raid Shelter
This structure has some mystery surrounding it. It is fairly well known but still took a while to find, and resulted in me crawling up some very steep and slippery quarry banks and almost tumbling a long way to the bottom. The structure appears to be a brick-lined air raid shelter from the Second World War set into the edge of the quarry. It originally seems it would have had an escape tunnel at the far end leading out from the quarry, but it has since collapsed. People have argued it was a tram tunnel converted during the war, but I think its shape suggests it was purpose built with the usual central room with toilet cutouts, accessed via two entrances. Have wanted to see this place for many years so it was good to finally do it.
TBC...
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always good to finally tick off the bucket list
