Shoeburyness Range, Essex: A Desk-Top Assessment of its Historic Assets
Author(s): T Pearson
The report presents an overview of the landscape development of five of the six islands forming the Foulness archipelago on the north side of the Thames Estuary in south-east Essex. The study was entirely desk based, although informed by reports of past visits to listed buildings and limited fieldwork in the former Atomic Weapons Research Establishment area. The study focussed upon the area of the Shoeburyness Range owned by the Ministry of Defence and was initiated in order to inform the Heritage Protection programme. There is sparse evidence of prehistoric settlement within the study area. There is evidence for Roman period settlement but it is not until the medieval period that concerted efforts were made to drain the land and utilise it for agriculture. The pattern of land reclamation is in part decipherable through the network of drains which criss-cross the islands. There are two small settlements on Foulness Island, both of which date back to the medieval period, but since 1849 the area has been used by the military for artillery ranges. Shortly after the Second World War, Foulness Island was chosen as the site for the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment and substantial remains of this complex still survive following the abandonment of the site in 1997.
- Report Number:
- 82/2006
- Series:
- Research Department Reports
- Pages:
- 125
- Keywords:
- Medieval Post Medieval Prehistoric Roman Analytical Landscape Survey
