Second World War camp cinema, HMS ‘St Mathew’, Creeksea Place (EHER 81326)

A large Nissen-type building built of mainly corrugated iron with brick at the West end. The building has a two-storey brick-built tower at the East end with two rooms on each floor. One of the upper rooms has four holes in the wall, suggested to be for projecting film into the main building, and the structure is reported to have been used as the camp cinema at HMS 'St Mathew', a combined operations training base (EHER 21281). A remarkable survival, the cinema is thought to have originally been used as a motor transport shed, and is currently in use as a farm facility.

May 2009. World War Two Defences in Maldon survey: desktop research and site visit. HMS ‘St Mathew’ was a Combined Operations training base at Creeksea Place, West of Burnham-on-Crouch (see EHER 21281). <1> An aerial photograph, undated but clearly taken either during the war or shortly thereafter, shows what appears to be rows of Nissen huts, around 20 of them, NW of Creeksea Place, between the house and Ferry Road. A 1960 aerial photograph shows this same area as a caravan park. <2> <3> During a site visit in 2009, it was noted that the area of the huts is now Creeksea Caravan Park. Immediately North of the caravan park, at the side of the track which leads from Ferry Road to Creeksea Place Farm, a building that is reported to be the camp cinema still stands. It is a large, mainly Nissen-type building measuring about 75 ft long by 24 ft wide, with a height of around 20 ft. The structure is orientated E/W with tall double doors halfway along the South side measuring about 11 ft wide by 12 ft high. The construction is of curved corrugated iron sheeting sitting on low brick walls. There are a number of wide windows along the North and South sides at a high level. The floor is of a compound material over concrete. The West end of the building is of brick; high up on the inner wall there are two steel struts which are said to be where the screen was hung. At the East end there is a two-storey brick-built tower, approximately the same height and width as the main Nissen section. There are two rooms on the ground floor of this tower which lead into the Nissen hut. The upper level is accessed via an exterior steel ladder. Here there are two more rooms, the main one of which has four holes in the wall clearly for projecting film through. These look out over and along the inside length of the body of the Nissen hut towards the far end, the size of which would have allowed hundreds to be seated at any one time. It is probable that the building was originally a motor transport (MT) shed. The large double doors would allow a lorry to easily enter. Tyre marks in the compound floor support this. However, it was apparently converted at a later date into the camp cinema, the brick tower with its projection rooms being added at this time. The exterior ladder would have been the easiest way to give access to the upper level. Local memory, passed on to the current generation, recalls the use of this cinema. <4> <5> 21 photos. <6> Site Assessment. The building is, after 64 years, in very good condition, used today as a spacious farm facility. A finely surviving element of HMS St Mathew, it is part of the history of the site. However, it has not been possible to confirm its original MT function, nor to trace a similar conversion elsewhere, although the remains of a Nissen cinema with two-storey end projection rooms still survives in the Orkneys (Canmore ID 104533, Site No. HY22SE58.2). With little, if anything, still remaining of HMS St Mathew the survival of this building, in such good condition, is important to local heritage. As such, every effort should be made to ensure its continued survival. <5> Note: this monument was originally recorded under EHER 21281, and is attributed to this record in <5>. As it is the only remaining extant feature of the camp, it has been here given its own record.