O
outkast
Guest
Guest
This was a very difficult explore due to the site being vastly overgrown, it took a couple of attempts to get in and I only managed to get to part of the site, the rest was just too overgrown, if I had known in advance how bad it was I would have taken a machette or garden shears.
Heres a bit of info i have found on the net about the place.
1891 - An entirely new East Tilbury Battery was constructed between river and village street. It was designed for 4 x 6-inch breech loading guns and 2 x 10-inch breech loading guns on disappearing mountings. These were new breechloaders using smokeless powder with a range of 6,000 yards, which made the cumbersome R.M.L.s obsolete.
1903 - The disappearing mountings of the 6 inch breech loading guns at East Tilbury Battery were replaced by conventional ones and the 10 inch breech loading guns declared obsolescent.
I tried reaching the emplacements from the north end first, I could only get into the undergrowth as far as a small brick biulding, I dont know if this was some kind of living quarters as it had a fireplace in each room.
I then had to make my way back out of the undergrowth and find a way round to the emplacements, I managed to get to one of the emplace ments from the front.
There were steps running down from this to what at first I thought was a tunnel but this turned ot to be just a square room
I made my way along the line the fortifacations would take and came across 2 much larger emplacements, both looked like this and were much bigger than the original one I had found
I could not get to the rear of these bigger ones due to the overgrowth so I made my way back along the line to try and find a way down to the rear of the position, I managed to get down behind the line but it was almost impossible to get from one emplacement to another, I tried to get through the undergrowth and came to many dead ends, before I finally found the entrance to one of the magazines.
once inside I found them to be surprisingly clean
in the pic below you can see that there would have been a row of pegs on the wall, at the bottom of the pic you can see a post attached to the wall, when operational anyone entering the magazine would have been required to strip to their underwear, hang their clothes on the pegs and then cross the waist high gate wich would have been where the post is, hanging on the pegs the other side of the gate would ahve been clothing deemed safe to wear in the magazines so not to cause any mishaps with the dry powder stored there.
at certain points along the magazine were these portholes.they were all numbered.
these were accessed from a narrow tunnel behind the main one, they originally would have had a sheet of glass on the magazine side, lanterns were put inthese to provide light into the magazines.
much of the original signage is still on the walls.
this magazine sat under 2 of the smaller emplacements with a tunnel leading left and right out to the cartridge lifts, the first I visted was not in good shape
I then walked up the other tunnel to the second cartridge lift and found this one to still be in situ
There was a lot of these butterflies on the walls of the tunnels
I tried to get to the rear of the 2 larger emplacements to see of they had magazines too but the undergrowth was just too thick and the light was fading so i beat a retreat, maybe I will go back some day with some garden shears to make it easier to get around the site, but for now thats all i could reach.
Hope you enjoy the report.
Cheers, Dave
Heres a bit of info i have found on the net about the place.
1891 - An entirely new East Tilbury Battery was constructed between river and village street. It was designed for 4 x 6-inch breech loading guns and 2 x 10-inch breech loading guns on disappearing mountings. These were new breechloaders using smokeless powder with a range of 6,000 yards, which made the cumbersome R.M.L.s obsolete.
1903 - The disappearing mountings of the 6 inch breech loading guns at East Tilbury Battery were replaced by conventional ones and the 10 inch breech loading guns declared obsolescent.
I tried reaching the emplacements from the north end first, I could only get into the undergrowth as far as a small brick biulding, I dont know if this was some kind of living quarters as it had a fireplace in each room.
I then had to make my way back out of the undergrowth and find a way round to the emplacements, I managed to get to one of the emplace ments from the front.
There were steps running down from this to what at first I thought was a tunnel but this turned ot to be just a square room
I made my way along the line the fortifacations would take and came across 2 much larger emplacements, both looked like this and were much bigger than the original one I had found
I could not get to the rear of these bigger ones due to the overgrowth so I made my way back along the line to try and find a way down to the rear of the position, I managed to get down behind the line but it was almost impossible to get from one emplacement to another, I tried to get through the undergrowth and came to many dead ends, before I finally found the entrance to one of the magazines.
once inside I found them to be surprisingly clean
in the pic below you can see that there would have been a row of pegs on the wall, at the bottom of the pic you can see a post attached to the wall, when operational anyone entering the magazine would have been required to strip to their underwear, hang their clothes on the pegs and then cross the waist high gate wich would have been where the post is, hanging on the pegs the other side of the gate would ahve been clothing deemed safe to wear in the magazines so not to cause any mishaps with the dry powder stored there.
at certain points along the magazine were these portholes.they were all numbered.
these were accessed from a narrow tunnel behind the main one, they originally would have had a sheet of glass on the magazine side, lanterns were put inthese to provide light into the magazines.
much of the original signage is still on the walls.
this magazine sat under 2 of the smaller emplacements with a tunnel leading left and right out to the cartridge lifts, the first I visted was not in good shape
I then walked up the other tunnel to the second cartridge lift and found this one to still be in situ
There was a lot of these butterflies on the walls of the tunnels
I tried to get to the rear of the 2 larger emplacements to see of they had magazines too but the undergrowth was just too thick and the light was fading so i beat a retreat, maybe I will go back some day with some garden shears to make it easier to get around the site, but for now thats all i could reach.
Hope you enjoy the report.
Cheers, Dave
