Recently, I posted a thread about artillery shells and 6 under wing machine guns being discovered on Shoebury East Beach, which is 5 minutes from where I live.

Well .... it's got worse.

Southend Council has closed East Beach in Shoebury to the public after more artillery and mortar shells were found washed up a couple of days ago.

A spokesman for the Council said "Due to the increasing amount of unexploded ordnance items being found within and near to East Beach, and with public safety our first priority, we feel we must take the decision to temporarily close the beach. The MOD has started surveying works which once completed will allow us to properly assess the risk and make an informed decision as to what we do next. We are working with them to get this work done as quickly as possible. As part of this, we also need to consider the implications of the increasing number of unexploded ordnance being washed ashore.”

It is thought that the recent bad weather experienced across the country, including high tides and waves, has led to more ordnance being washed up around the country, including East Beach.

New signs are to be put in place from today, along with fencing by the weekend.

Even to this day, certain sections of East Beach are permanently closed off to the public. Whilst the old artillery barracks are now closed, the sneaky beaky secret squirrel testing station on Foulness Island still regularly test fires all manner of weird shit over the East Beach range.

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Map of prohibited beaches - Barge Pier to MOD Shoeburyness boundary

Just to show what Foulness has got up to in the past, below is a picture of Britain's biggest gun ..... an eighteen inch railway Gun which was developed at the Ministry of Defence, Proof and Experimental Establishment during the war.

It's pictured being moved to the Royal Artillery Museum at Woolwich.


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This is no ordinary gun, it weighs over two hundred tons!!

The firm that moved the gun had to use 250 ton capacity crane to lift the Barrel out of the Railway Mounting and it weighed in at one hundred and twenty tons. The Mounting weighed at a mere ninety five tons.

At Woolwich, the gun was placed on a short stretch of railway track especially constructed by the Royal Engineers.

The ceremonial handover, for the gun, was completed in the presence of Colonel ‘Monty’ Cleeve. He was the Commanding Officer of the Royal Artillery’s Railway Super Heavy Guns that were used to defend Britain’s coasts in 1940 and his personal connection with ‘Bochebuster’, one of the sisters of this gun, qualified him Guest of Honour at the presentation.


By the way ....... the shell fired by this gun weighed 2,500 lbs with a maximum range of 14.3 miles.

Woof!!