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The Thames Boom
A Copy Free Feature
An eastwards walk along the cliffs at Minster on the Isle-of-Sheppey you can view shipping in the dredged approach channel to the River Medway, & beyond the Yantlet channel into the River Thames
1. Looking east, Minster beach from the Leas
2. Minster beach, Looking west towards the Leas
3. Remnants of the Thames Boom from the cliffs with Southend tower blocks & pier beyond
The inshore area known as 'The Cant' is channel is marked by beacons which run west to east & is littered with WWII debris, wrecks
4. Note: Offshore dredged Channel Buoys
Other remains include the Thames Boom, a defence made from old ships strategically sunk in a boom across the Estuary from Minster (Sheerness) to Shoeburyness
5. Wreck remnants of the Thames Boom from the cliffs
This was primarily to control shipping movement in the early years of the Cold War
6. Remnants of the Thames Boom from the beach
Surviving sections of the Boom extend seawards from the beach, in an emergency the open central channel section would have been blocked by old ships & hulks moored close by
7. Reinforced concrete sections, from shoreline WWII Pillar Box
8. Interior WWII Pill' Box
9. Original five hulk mooring poles go out from the shore for some distance
The Boom originally extended into the deep water shipping channel, across & slightly north of Shoebury East Beach, to the mean low water mark where around 2km of wrecks remain
10. Red Sands Fort on the horizon
11. Parts of an old Thames Lighter
12. Barges, redundant small craft, wooden hulks all were used to make the Boom
13. Shipping moving Westwards into the Medway
14. Return to the Leas
15. Minster foreshore at sunset
16. Yet more debris
With grateful thanks to Brian Adams for sharing these photographs from August 2008
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