Hi all;
Time for something different !!! Just to the North of North Fambridge railway stn in deepest Essex lies a strange,rusting,overgrown structure that was once part of our defence against invasion from the enemy !! Very little is known about it except that it was one of 50 sites (in Essex) that were earmarked to receive a floodlight surrounded by large mirrors to illuminate the night sky in the event of an aerial invasion.
The structure is a steel enclosure 50 feet across and 7 feet high in which the floodlight was centrally mounted and surrounded by twelve large (9'6"x5'6") mirrors which would obviously reflect the light upwards towards the sky.The experiment was not successful however as on cloudy nights the light 'bouncing back' to ground illuminated the surrounding area and would have proved to be a perfect navigational aid to the invaders.The project was,apparantly, abandoned in March 1940.
I am assuming (yes i know it can be dangerous) that this is where the mirrors were mounted.
This was not the best time of year for a visit to this site as without the aid of a machette or flame thrower we couldn't penetrate far enough to see what remained of the floodlight or mounting so a revisit in the winter maybe on the cards !!! According to the Essex website where most of this gen was lifted --
http://unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk/custom_pages/monument_detail.asp?kids=1&monument_id=1034282
as of Aug 2009 they had visited 41 of the named sites and nothing was found (except concrete base remains at 5 sites) so whether Kit's Hill was the only one completed we can only contemplate. !!!!
Time for something different !!! Just to the North of North Fambridge railway stn in deepest Essex lies a strange,rusting,overgrown structure that was once part of our defence against invasion from the enemy !! Very little is known about it except that it was one of 50 sites (in Essex) that were earmarked to receive a floodlight surrounded by large mirrors to illuminate the night sky in the event of an aerial invasion.
The structure is a steel enclosure 50 feet across and 7 feet high in which the floodlight was centrally mounted and surrounded by twelve large (9'6"x5'6") mirrors which would obviously reflect the light upwards towards the sky.The experiment was not successful however as on cloudy nights the light 'bouncing back' to ground illuminated the surrounding area and would have proved to be a perfect navigational aid to the invaders.The project was,apparantly, abandoned in March 1940.
I am assuming (yes i know it can be dangerous) that this is where the mirrors were mounted.
This was not the best time of year for a visit to this site as without the aid of a machette or flame thrower we couldn't penetrate far enough to see what remained of the floodlight or mounting so a revisit in the winter maybe on the cards !!! According to the Essex website where most of this gen was lifted --
http://unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk/custom_pages/monument_detail.asp?kids=1&monument_id=1034282
as of Aug 2009 they had visited 41 of the named sites and nothing was found (except concrete base remains at 5 sites) so whether Kit's Hill was the only one completed we can only contemplate. !!!!
