Gunners Park and Shoebury Ranges is a 25 hectare nature reserve in Shoeburyness in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. It is managed by the

Essex Wildlife Trust The Essex Wildlife Trust (EWT) is one of 46 wildlife trusts which cover the United Kingdom. The EWT was founded in 1959, and it describes itself as Essex's leading conservation charity, which aims to protect wildlife for the future and the people ...

(EWT). Part of Gunners Park is

Shoeburyness Old Ranges Shoeburyness Old Ranges or Shoebury Ranges is a 6.4 hectare Local Nature Reserve in Shoeburyness in Essex. It is part of the Foulness Site of Special Scientific Interest, and of the Gunners Park and Shoebury Ranges nature reserve, which is ma ...

Local Nature Reserve (called Shoebury Ranges by the EWT), which is itself part of the

Foulness Foulness Island () is a closed island on the east coast of Essex in England, which is separated from the mainland by narrow creeks. In the 2001 census, the usually resident population of the civil parish was 212, living in the settlements of Ch ...

Site of Special Scientific Interest. At the eastern end of Gunners Park is the

Danish Camp Danish Camp is an Iron Age fortified settlement in Shoeburyness in Essex. It is a Scheduled Monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, list number 1017206. The site is in the Gunners Park and Shoebury Ranges nature res ...

, a

Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. Shoeburyness Old Ranges has flora unique in the county, on a habitat of unimproved grassland over ancient sand dunes. There are areas of grasses and sedges, while rushes are found in damp hollows. Rabbits graze the grassland, and close cropped areas have many lichens. Gunners Park, which is named from its former military use, has over twelve habitats, including coastal grassland and ancient sand dunes. Rare insects include sandwich click beetles and

cuckoo wasp Commonly known as cuckoo wasps or emerald wasps, the hymenopteran family Chrysididae is a very large cosmopolitan group (over 3000 described species) of parasitoid or kleptoparasitic wasps, often highly sculptured, with brilliant metallic colors ...

s, while there are unusual plants such as bulbous meadow-grass. There is a wide range of migrating birds. Danish Camp is an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

fortified settlement which got its name because it was wrongly believed to have been built by the Danish Viking leader

Haesten Hastein (Old Norse: ''Hásteinn'', also recorded as ''Hastingus'', ''Anstign'', ''Haesten'', ''Hæsten'', ''Hæstenn'' or ''Hæsting'' and alias ''Alsting''Jones, Aled (2003). ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society: Sixth Series'' Cambridge ...

. There is access from Ness Road, Mess Road, Magazine Road and Warrior Square Road. Shoeburyness Old Ranges is closed to the public. Parts of the site were formerly part of

MoD Shoeburyness MoD Shoeburyness is a military installation at Pig's Bay near Shoeburyness in Essex. History In 1849, the Board of Ordnance purchased land at South Shoebury with a view to setting up an artillery testing and practice range (until then, Plumst ...

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References

{{coord, 51.523, 0.785 , type:landmark_region:GB-BNE, display=title Essex Wildlife Trust Buildings and structures in Southend-on-Sea