36 Regiment Royal Artillery​

By the early 1870s, the Station had been substantially completed.

From 1865 the Station was used also by the National Artillery Association as an annual competition

 range with well over 1000 military competitors. Tented accommodation to the rear of the Barracks

was provided and the area became known as Campfield. This was the last land to be purchased, in 1886,

and enabled the construction of Campfield Road, at that time a military road within the Station and

 not for public use, and the Sergeants’ Married Quarters (nicknamed the ‘Birdcage’, now Ash Court &

Beech Lodge, Rosewood Lane) north of the road. Additional terraces were built at the

rear in the early C20 (now ‘The Cottages’).

 

Offices, workshops, stores and quarters were built south of Magazine Road over the latter part

 of the 19th century and into the 20th, and echoed much of the architecture elsewhere at the

Garrison, but had no overall plan for their layout. Artillery training and experimental use of guns,

 rockets and explosives, and the testing of armour and defensive casements continued to grow

up to the end of the century. Experimental casements and an adjacent new pier were built in 1872-3.

 

The casements were adapted into the Light Quick Firing Battery twenty years later.

The Heavy Quick Firing Battery which still exists was also an adaptation of a previous structure

(the Old Battery). In general, however, many of the structures built for testing and practice were

 not intended to be permanent and few now remain. But there is substantial archaeological

 evidence of former structures, particularly close to the shore.

 

The Station played a central role in artillery development such as rifled barrels, breach loading,

Hale’s war rockets, Captain Boxer’s shrapnel, quick firing weapons including machine guns and

 the replacement in the 1890s of gunpowder with cordite. It had close links with William Armstrong whose

company became one of the main armaments innovators and manufacturers and many of that company’s

weapons were tested at Shoebury.

 

There was an inherent danger in the work at the Station and an accidental explosion in 1885

killed seven. A new Married Soldiers Hospital (now a public house) was built on Campfield Road in

1898 from public subscription to commemorate those who had been killed.

 

The continuous improvements led once more to the need for greater distances for firing ranges

 and purchase of the New Ranges, north of the present East Beach, extending eventually to

Foulness began in 1889. Experimentation and testing activities were increasingly carried out on the

 New Ranges, whilst the Old Ranges continued with various forms of training. It also led to the extension

of the railway to Shoebury in 1884, the construction of Shoebury railway station and the construction of

lines into both the Old and New Ranges.

 

The Station had connections with many well known people of the day who either trained there or were

involved in testing weapons. These included:

 

the Duke of Cambridge, the army C in C and a frequent visitor with foreign dignitaries

Louis Napoleon Prince Imperial of France, son of deposed Emperor and great grandson of Napoleon,

who was stationed there as an officer;

Godfrey Rampling, athlete and gold medal winner at the 1938 Berlin Olympics;

George Carpentier, world heavyweight boxing champion and Bombardier Billy Wells who both

trained at the Shoebury Hotel in the early 1900s.

 

The Garrison’s development had a profound impact on Shoebury and transformed it from a small

scattered rural community with a population in 1851 of only 350, into a Garrison town. Development was

 in two distinct areas in the High Street / Rampart Terrace / Hinguar Street area at the east gate and

 in Cambridge Town at the west gate in Chapel Road / Ness Road.

 

Development around the High Street entrance followed construction of the Shoebury Tavern,

 but on a fairly small scale until the arrival of the railway. Development of Cambridge Town started in 1883

 and effectively created slum conditions for its residents without made-up roads, sewers or water supplies.

 Married soldiers could only go on the list for married quarters at the Garrison when they were aged 26

 or older and so often had to find rented accommodation in the area.

 

Shoebury Urban District Council was formed in 1895, in part to provide improved roads

and living conditions, and continued until absorbed within Southend in 1933. Campfield Road and

part of Chapel Road was passed to the Council as a public road in the 1920s and a new west gate

created at the west end of the present Chapel Road. 101 Campfield Road, built in 1934,

 is believed to have been the new gatehouse.

 

The First World War saw increased activity at Shoebury including a new School of Anti-Aircraft

instruction and a War Dog School to train dogs for use in the war. The interwar period saw the

 final separation of experimentation and testing from artillery training at Shoebury and re-emphasised

 the different functions of the Old and New Ranges.

 

The period was one of relative decline until rearmament commenced in 1936. But from

 then and through the War, the Garrison saw significant structural work on new defences including

air raid shelters, command posts, new batteries, searchlight emplacements, and so on. Surviving features

are identified in the Survey of World War II Defences in the Borough of Southend-on-Sea. Outside

the Appraisal area but visible from it are two related features – the Cold War Defence boom at East Beach,

which replaced the 1939-40 timber boom, and the wreck of the Mulberry Harbour, which had been

built for the D Day landings in France. Both are under consideration for scheduling as ancient monuments.

And on the east horizon are forts built at the entrance to the estuary.

 

The War brought a permanent artillery Regiment (22) to the Old Ranges. Of the many soldiers

who passed through for war-time training, well known characters included Frankie Howerd

who started his entertainments career in the Garrison’s theatre and spent time in the guardhouse!

 

Post-war, the Garrison continued to house residential artillery units until 1976. Accommodation

on site remained inadequate and many families had to be housed elsewhere. Despite proposals

for housing development on the Old Ranges, the only ones built were the five officer’s houses facing the east

 side of the cricket pitch, and similar houses in Ness Road, in the early 1950s.

 

Following the departure of the last residential unit, the Garrison HQ was disbanded in 1976,

 properties in the vicinity of the west gate and Campfield Road were sold, many non-residential

structures were demolished, Gunners Park was formed and the rest of the site eventually sold in 2000.