Exploring Essex' Marshland Graveyard | Canvey Point Vlog

BONUS VIDEO LINK HERE - B-17 Plane Crash 75th Anniversary Service Memorials • B-17G Collision 75th A...
In our next vlog the BTP boys return to our ancestral home - Canvey Island’s ‘Point’ of marshland which extends into the Thames Estuary. Partly inspiring our name, this place has witnessed history throughout the eras. Not only is it a treacherous place to venture - we nearly drowned out there after misjudging the tides back in 2011 (no exaggeration, lesson permanently learned!) but the Point also has a tragic history. In 1944, an American B17 Flying Fortress crashed here after colliding with another which crashed in the Thames near Kent. The wreckage wasn’t excavated until several decades later, but more probably remains embedded in the mud. We try, and fail to find the crash site, now far out from the marshland due to erosion. However, we do find the site of Roman red hills, the Dutch seawall and field boundaries from many centuries ago, as well as potential remains of broken-up D-Day Lansing craft dismantled and discarded in the area after the invasions. Littered with washed up artefacts and being the site of various activities, we return to explore Essex’s marshland ‘graveyard’ which has sadly claimed many lives.
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[@davehayward4275]

The electrical component is part of the rev meter from a spitfire.

[@GreenStreetPlayer1]

Really interesting, thank you. Look out for the mines! It seems they are still finding them not too far away in Chalkwell and Southend. i wondered where the chalk came from that you used to find all along the sea front, it was part of the old 400 year old wall it seems, so the end of that mystery! Surprised Canvey did not flood before 1953 where you see where you compare the old and new sea wall.

[@tomlee812]

A fascinating venture and one which, even though I knew you got back safely, made me nervous about the quicksand mud and incoming tide! In the late 1950's and early 1960's my late father often used to walk us along the sea wall at leigh to Benfleet, although we never went onto the mud. We were always warned how dangerous it could be. I enjoyed this one .

[@ExploringWithEmAndStu]

Great explore, loved all the interesting history.. I find it really fascinating the stuff you can find washed up along the rivers down that way. Keep up the good work 👍

[@BeyondthePoint]

Cheers guys, who knows what else is out there. Just watched your Norfolk broads and East Mersey videos, very enjoyable keep up the outdoor freedom!

[@TonyAvis]

Gary Foulger wasn't the first person to dig this wreck. It was excavated in the 70's by volunteers from the Historic Aircraft Museum which was opposite what is now the Skyline Hotel in Aviation Way. In those days parts of the B-17 were visible at low tide including ay least one prop blade. They recovered a complete undercarriage leg and a cylinder head (both of which were restored and displayed at the museum) and possibly other parts that I never got to see which may have included the engine that was on show at Tilbury Fort although, from what I remember, there was a lot of discussion about an engine as the volunteers felt it would have been very difficult to recover something that heavy.

[@michaelcoker3197]

You've shown what KZbin can be! Quality work here!

[@BeyondthePoint]

Cheers love it!

[@kf8575]

Is amazing that those parts of the original sea wall are still there, especially where they are, that the wooden stakes havent crumbled and rotted away in the water. Remember when i was younger, my Dad telling me how they had to remove some parts of it when they built the current sea wall, he worked on it welding the steel framework and rebar inside it before the concrete was poured

[@pureboxofscartcables]

I love your films.

[@BeyondthePoint]

Cheers 😁

[@Adam-Gates-Mudlark]

Great adventure! The Southend bottle looks like a late Victorian codd bottle by the looks of the thickness of the glass. - oh I do hope you took it!⭐️⚓️

[@BeyondthePoint]

Interesting stuff, cheers!

[@98Blackbess]

Well done lads. Another brilliant video. Maybe you'll venture back out there again one day to look for that plane?

[@BeyondthePoint]

We will do, already made plans 👀👌

[@christoguichard4311]

Great video. Well done lads. I've been out there.

[@lesdunn736]

Brilliant... Thanks

[@christoguichard4311]

I don't know if this is common knowledge or not...but... It was Dutch engineers who were brought over in the 17th century to build Canveys original sea wall who lived in the "Dutch" houses. Many of them were paid in land on Canvey after they had finished. That's why many of the road names up towards the "Point" end of the island have weird-sounding Dutch names.

[@mattylad8035]

I remember the point some 40 years ago, when I was about 14 me and my mate (stephen trent) went and "borrowed" a rowing boat from the boathouses and started rowing out to leigh on sea. We got a little way down the creek and the tide went out! lol. Luckily we were saved by some guy in waders who came and towed the boat back (we had to squelch our qay to shore to run from the rozzers who were on their way). Happy times - but it's dangerous out there!

[@propertygeek]

Just found your chanel by chance. I was born on canvey . The plane wreck you were looking for I discovered as a young boy while collecting copper and brass nails and riveted ect which my grandad used to weigh in for cash to the metal man. After hammering away at a big brass nut with my hammer and chisel realised after removing more mud what looked like a bomb ! Getting back I called 999 from the old red telephone box at the point. A policeman turned up on his bicycle and wanted me to show him what I had found. He borrowed a pair of welly boots from a house nearby and off we went .you never see anything so comical . I am bearfoot a skinny kid.He could hardly walk in the mud and its a long way out.When we get there he turns to run back to shore so fast his boots get stuck andb falls over I pick up his hat and watch in amazement .by the time we get back he is covered in mud ,fire ambulance and bomb squad are all there. Lol later the paper reported it as a bomb scare that turned out to be a canister of somthing . What a day ! The next time I hit the newspapers was when collecting fishing weights for the lead or to sell back to the fisherman on the seawall I came across what looked like the body of half a baby . When that was reported the papers called it a dead seal but know it was iether half a dead baby or a canvey monster ! And It was all hushed over .

[@BeyondthePoint]

Wow some great stories there, cheers for sharing them. What sort of years did these happen? Hopefully you will find some of our other content of interest!

[@propertygeek]

@@BeyondthePoint you have some great videos that bring back so many memories . Policeman in the mud I guess would have been around 1974 when I was 11 or 12 years old and the freaky thing washed up when I was 13 or 14. What a coincidence! The next video I would watch be read bradwell and your sitting by the memorial next door to my house .The house that we moved to from canvey at the age of 17. So yes I found so much more of interest. It made me laugh when you found the chapel door open as it's always open always has been. In fact I remember canvey when nobody locked their doors .we didn't have to. Everyone seemed to know everyone at least everyone down there street. You didn't need cameras on every corner because everyone had eyes to see. Can you imagine the freedom i had as a child growing up.i feel sorry for the kids these days.Once I learned to ride a bike there was no stopping me . My grand parents lived on the Dutch village so would visit them often . I had explored every street by the time I was 12. There were only 2 rules I would never dare to break ... Be home before dark ,and don't go off the island. ! Well I didn't start breaking those untill I hit my teens at least because I remember cycling up Essex hill past the water tower often on my way to thickly to visit my dad who lived there from age 13 onwards and comming back seeing how far I could roll without peddling to get back over benfleet bridge. Definitely subscribe to your channel thanks for the great work I could go on forever about some of your others but buff said for now👍

[@BeyondthePoint]

Jason Taylor Some great memories! Glad you like the videos. Our website BeyondthePoint.co.uk has a lot more Canvey history and around in articles and photography. Bradwell is an excellent place, very eerie but also picturesque, anywhere along Essex’s marshland coastline seems to have such an atmosphere, a very thought provoking area to grow up. Sadly things have changed and we can’t leave our doors unlocked on Canvey now, but I still love the place! A lot of character. Still a lot of traces left of ‘old Essex’ albeit mixed with the new. Thanks for the anecdotes.

[@propertygeek]

@@BeyondthePoint your very welcome to the anecdotes. I love the island too. With guys like us we'll turn things round by everything we do. So don't be sad :)

[@muddundee]

The crash site was further to the east than the current point, nearer to whats called clock bank, i doubt there is anything left now. Back in the early 60's the tips of a couple of propellers still stuck out of the mud, one of the engines was recovered & sat in the yard of Alpha marine oposite the corner club. Another wound up in the museum at Coalhouse fort tilbury. The other two were also salvaged but dont know where they went. My Uncle Fred Budd saw the two planes come down, he & his mates got a lot of "souvenirs" from it until the police sealed the area.

[@themodelrailwayrepaircentr297]

Born n bred right there. Your looking a bits of broken MTBs. The plane you seek is about 400 yards away. We found an arm bone on it years ago. We took it to the police station and they told us to put it back where we found it

[@BeyondthePoint]

Could be right there. We’ve heard they may have been parts of dismantled D Day landing craft. Interesting story!

[@themodelrailwayrepaircentr297]

@@BeyondthePoint I remember landing craft there , but they were further along the beach bit to the far right. They are definitely bits of Mtb your at. They were stripped and then burnt on site to collect the copper rivets from the wood.

[@baxterpoo]

Hilarious, I recognized the orange plate right away as we had a set in the 1960s. I knew before you scratched it off what it was and what era it came from. I'm watching this because it is near where the famous Tilikum was found in the mud in 1916.

[@BeyondthePoint]

Didn’t know about that, just looked it up and very interesting!

[@dillathehun]

Used to live in number 3 chapman road as kid growing up used to go and get all the bones from the sheep. Only found out about the b17 a few backs. I’ve heard rumours of and old spitfire in the same area too

[@jjs3287]

That would tie in perfectly with another comment saying the electrical component the guys found was part of a Spitfire rev counter. If its all true thats a hell of a good find.

[@dillathehun]

@@jjs3287 I heard about the spitfire years ago. My next door neighbour was one hell of an engineer and I’m sure he went out looking for parts to reclaim and reuse not sure if he ever did but he was the guy who told me about it.

[@wahwahworld-hr8to]

Could you let me know if anyone is getting that battery in because il get someone out there to get it, i cant leave it there its a terrible thing to find dumped in our river, some ppl have got no pride 😮

[@thetelegothika5327]

I dated a girl from Canvey Island a few years' back, she never mentioned a downed plane though, lol. We liked winding her friends up (who lived near Westcliff-on-Sea) about the SS Richard Montgomery though, and how it might blow up at any minute. always gets the party started, that! Cool seeing all the random relics on the marshes, eerie place!

[@BeyondthePoint]

How very brave of you! Haha indeed the area has quite a lively military past which still impacts the landscape

[@thetelegothika5327]

@@BeyondthePoint Haha! Yeah it was a funny romance. We met a Japanese pop karaoke night. Absolutely! And the jewel in the crown must be Maunsell Forts!

[@BeyondthePoint]

Haha nice, I joke but Joe and I are actually big fans of Canvey. Keep wanting to do the Maunsell forts boat trip at somepoint

[@thetelegothika5327]

@@BeyondthePoint Oh I totally believe it, you come across as having a lot of respect for the place! I have good times in Canvey tbf, good memories. I think some kiljoys have removed the ladders from sea forts which used to allow access from the sea! The place looks like a proper old-skool adventure site! Complete with tenuous cable bridges, and all! Indiana Jones and The Maunsell Forts. *cue theme tune*

[@chrismccartney8668]

Well in the river crouch are the remains The ship that took Darwin to Galapagos. There in the mud of the dengie mud the remains of i a Martin Marauder. It was marked on charts and the remains of two Bomb Targets and wooden railway that ran to them. They are still marked charts as although mostly destroyed they still a hazard..

[@wcronin7307]

What and where exactly are the Roman red hills??

[@BeyondthePoint]

They were heaps of soil and pottery burnt in fires to dry salt out on the marshes I believe. The clay made them red. They are located all over the place, although rarely visible as anything significant from the surface

[@stevet6838]

How do you get to the bill mum and dad post never knew about that

[@BeyondthePoint]

It’s just along where the seawall path continues after it’s washed away for a section

[@sotirzvanidjubre4109]

Weirdly low number of subs...

[@BeyondthePoint]

Cheers for the confidence in us - yep we’ve been running for 8 years and had some big videos, but for some reason the subs are yet to take off! Gradually working our way towards 1k and we’ve seen improvement since doing more regular uploads in the past two years

[@robpower100]

Jesus go back to school how can you not tell the difference between a boat and plane even in pieces? obviously you have done no homework on your subject. And just so you know always walk out with the tide and tell someone where you are going, your in my playground.

[@christoguichard4311]

Horrible ignorant comment! 🙄🥴