Site of 1930s light railway, Dengie Flats (EHER 16011)

Now destroyed. The site of a light railway which provided access to the bombing platforms and targets at Bradwell Bombing Range (EHER 46141). It was dismantled in 1963 and is now only visible as an earthwork at low tide.

A dismantled tramway on OS 1:10,000 sheet. <1>-<5> January 2009. World War Two Defences in Maldon survey: desktop research and site visit. A railway to the target platforms for Bradwell Bombing Range (EHER 46141). The bombing range closed in 1962 and the following year the rail trackway and the target platforms were demolished. The bombing targets were fixed wooden structures, pyramidal in shape. There was one to the North of Sandbeach and one to the South. They were located some way from the sea shore at TM 0456 0361 and TM 0479 0688 and accessed via a narrow gauge railway, with bogeys. The railway ran across the saltings from the seawall at TM 0338 0520, and branched to both the North and South. <6> The tramway has two spurs; the top spur runs NE for approximately 2km and the bottom spur SE for approximately 1.75km. At each end of the two spurs there lies a deliberately placed shipwreck (see EHER 81342 and 81343). The wreck at the end of the Northern spur lies approximately 1km off the coastline; and the wreck at the end of the Southern spur just short of 1km off the coast. Both wrecks are of similar dimensions and appearance, and each are associated with a larger scuttled ship nearby. The ship associated with the wreck at the end of the Northern spur lies at approximately 4 o'clock to it; and the shipwreck associated with the wreck off the Southern spur lies at approximately 2 o'clock to it. Both of the larger wrecks lie roughly 1km away from the terminals of the railway. The railway is already in a state of deterioration by the time we see it in the 1960s vertical aerial photographs; by the 1970s it is in a sorry state indeed; and by the late 1990s it is all but gone, washed away by the tides. It is now only visible as an earthwork at low tide. <1> - <5>