Southend's D-Day Secret - Thames Estuary Mulberry Harbour

In this video, Liam walks out to the wreckage of the Phoenix cassion in the Thames Estuary off the coast of Southend-on-Sea. This was intended to be taken to the English Channel where it would have formed part of a Mulberry Harbour - a temporary floating harbour designed to assist the offloading of military hardware to the beaches of Normandy in 1944.
Find out more about this Mulberry Harbour at our website: beyondthepoint.....
Thanks to Southend Photowalk and Hike Essex for organising the trip.
Please subscribe to us for more hidden heritage, and visit our website for photography and articles.
Shot on the Nikon Z50 and GoPro Hero 6

[@telemachus53]

An amazing vid. Terrifying for me because I have traumatic memories from walking out when the tides out. You see that sandbank right next to the Mulberry? That gives you the illusion you've got plenty time to get back. No, because as you return you find that the tide has started coming in and the water level is getting higher rapidly. One of our party disappeared under the water and though we managed get her out my Dad had a lot of explaining to his friend, her Mum, when we got home. Not to mention the frantic panicking of my Mum when she saw we hadn't come back yet. She was so scared yet so glad to see us that she started screaming at us when we got back! Thanks for the vid and awakening memories.

[@BeyondthePoint]

You do have to be so careful, Joe and I got cut off on Canvey point many years back and had to swim for it - lesson you only learn once

[@crooked420s5]

Looking forward to this one nice little walk out to that. You lads need get down to purfleet in Thurrock the old army barracks that is now a natural park. And the sea wall down by the train station load of little pillows and shelters.

[@BeyondthePoint]

Thanks for the comment - we’ve visited the site before, there’s more information on our website about the place

[@sophiar4196]

Excellent video! I attended this walk that evening too and it's great to see your coverage of it. Keep up the good work!

[@BeyondthePoint]

Awesome! Worth persisting with the rain

[@odettestevens]

Brilliant. got to do it.

[@darrenrawlinson6344]

Its a "Phoenix" caisson, a small part of of what became the Mulberry harbour. Many years ago you could still see thousands of tin cans within, as they were used to transport supplies of food on the journey across. Early form of containerisation i suppose!

[@feldgendarmridpath7893]

Not a weather station but a shipping hazard light.

[@oges74]

Always amazed how far the tides goes out there

[@stephencleaves]

Brilliant video Liam and well done for persevering in the rain, love the waders as well ! :-)

[@BeyondthePoint]

Haha cheers Steve!

[@johnmarlow5007]

Great video. For anyone interested, there is also one in Langstone Harbour, Hayling Island on the South coast, that, like this one, got stuck on a sand bar and broke in two. Fascinating modern history.

[@Smannellites]

When I was a little boy, I walked out with my mum and dad on several occasions, This would have been about 1950. I can remember swimming in the scour pool next to the harbour. When you walked back inshore with the tide, the water was really warm. The two halves have moved apart since then, and it didn't have a light in those days.

[@blusky6]

Lovely video, superb editing. You chaps should take a look at Coldrum Longbarrow, Kits Coty etc if you like prehistoric stuff too

[@BeyondthePoint]

Thanks, sounds cool!

[@StephenandYhana]

This video is superb buddy, you have a great channel

[@BeyondthePoint]

Thanks :)

[@timsinnott386]

Fascinating always wanted to go out and see ! Thanks !

[@PaulMalone-pm8qk]

I always want to know what it was on the mulberry harbour thanks to you I know now 👍👍👍

[@Adam-Gates-Mudlark]

Wow! The tide goes out so far! Lovely shots!!

[@tomlee812]

This was such a feature of my youth in the 1950's and 1960's, when I lived at Leigh on sea. Some of my school friends claimed they swam out to it in the summer, but I don't know if that was true. It must have been wonderful to walk out to it at low tide as you did. I've been past it several times since on steamers and small boats out of Queenborough when visiting the Maunsell forts. I enjoyed this one, thank you.

[@BeyondthePoint]

Great story thanks for sharing

[@denishoulan1491]

One of these sits off the beach at Littlestone in Kent.

[@ExploringwithAustinandThomas]

Great video Liam, well done for perseverance with the weather, we liked the shots with the ship in the distance between the two sections and the music which captures the atmosphere. I think this walk should be on our list as well, maybe you should do the Broomway next :)

[@BeyondthePoint]

Cheers Austin yeah that was a cool shot! Not too bad as long as you check the tides. Broomway could be a shout, defo not going without a pro though haha

[@debsmostexcellentadventure5353]

Really enjoyed this video and channel,have a lovely week and stay safe debs fan 🤗xx......

[@dartskipper3170]

Part of the scenery of Thorpe Bay. Saw it whenever we visited at weekends in the summer. We lived about 45 minutes away by car.

[@chrisplunkett2814]

A very nicely done video as usual with a good history lesson thrown in for free.Nice new waders not really needed here but will certainly expand the number of places you can visit in the future. Finally a plea to anyone thinking of visiting this or anywhere else below the high water mark.Check the tide times and only ever visit on an outgoing tide.If it's by the low water mark like this you have several hours (one hour either side of low tide) as the tide turns where there's almost no movement.Too many people just turn up totally unprepared for things like this without thinking about what they're doing and put themselves and others at risk. Edit............I see there's a nice little fort just East of there with a 9.2 inch gun emplacement.Looks like this could be worth a visit sometime soon.

[@BeyondthePoint]

Indeed, got to be super careful with the tides, go out with it. Not heard of that gun emplacement - is that the Maunsell sea forts?

[@suzyqualcast6269]

I recall looking down on its brothers from the cliffs above Arromanches a few years back.

[@grahamunderwood9353]

good to see you are bringing attention to what was a vital contribution to the liberation of europe when these were assembled just off the beaches of normandy they became a giant harbour from which the allied forces could unload war materials vital for the bridgehead into europe further round the kent coast you can see the forts out to see that also used floating concrete technology and this would later be used in the making of the oil rigs out into the north sea

[@faithdodger]

I wanted to venture out today and I got too scared to do it alone. On searching for content on it on KZbin I found your video. This is a terrific video of it! Well done on finally setting outand succeeding😃! I'm a new subscriber.

[@BeyondthePoint]

Thanks for the kind comment! Hopefully the video helps you on your way 😁

[@enochpowelghost]

They were made under government contract with MOWLEM a very large building company at the time.

[@angelabird4794]

Great video as usual, how far did you get with severals institute xx

[@wrightgoodman8832]

Tied the boat to this a few years ago and sat on there and fished of it saw a seal and caught a few small fish nothing great

[@Philipb144]

The SS Richard Montgomery is another video

[@BeyondthePoint]

Yeah we're not walking out to that one!

[@pinkfairywings1]

How long did it take to walk out there??

[@andrewpaine2148]

It's no secret that it's there tho lol been past this hundreds of times when I was working on couple fishing boats from Leigh and that's not a weather station on top it's a flashing light beacon to warn boats to keep distance as to not crash into the thing at night

[@BeyondthePoint]

We never said it was a secret, you can see it for miles 😂

[@RamblingReliks]

Am I the only one who feels like an absolute idiot for thinking this was the wreck of SS Montgomery?

[@BeyondthePoint]

No! I'm sure I've heard other people think that also

[@scottlewisparsons9551]

Yes

[@johneastman1905]

And most of the other hiking visitors are just simply wearing shorts … Our video presenting boy has too much $ and just lucky it was not sunny and hot !