Pig's Bay on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Pig's Bay is a coastal area in East Shoebury, a small beachland area in the suburb of
Pig's Bay is a coastal area in East Shoebury, a small beachland area in the suburb of Shoeburyness
Shoeburyness (; also called Shoebury) is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. east of the city centre. It was an urban district of Essex from 1894 to 1933, when it ...
in the City of Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...
, in the ceremonial county of 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 G ...
, England. The main entrance to the site is at Blackgate Road, Shoeburyness. This is also the gateway to the island of 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 C ...
, the fourth largest island off the coast of England.
The bay is the site 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, Plumstea ...
, a military installation established in 1849 and which is still used as a firing range.
One of the other uses of the site is the storage and scrapping of old railway vehicles. It has its own private railway network, stretching for around six miles, linked to one of the sidings at Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...
's Shoeburyness electrical multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number ...
depot by means of two unmanned level crossings across Shoeburyness High Street and Blackgate Road, respectively.
The site has also featured in a few episodes of the Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
series ''Scrapheap Challenge
''Scrapheap Challenge'' is a British television show where teams of contestants build a working machine that can perform a specific task, using materials available in a scrapyard. The series features teams of four or five members who are given ...
''. The front locomotive of the passenger train involved in the 1997 Southall rail crash
The Southall rail crash occurred on 19 September 1997, on the Great Western Main Line at Southall, West London. An InterCity 125 high speed passenger train (HST) failed to slow down in response to warning signals and collided with a freight trai ...
– when an InterCity 125 train collided with a freight train, killing seven people – was scrapped here, being cut up by Serco
Serco Group plc is a British company with headquarters based in Hook, Hampshire, England. Serco primarily derives income as a contractor for the provision of government services, most prominently in the sectors of health, transport, justice, i ...
three years after the incident once the inquiry had been completed.
References
Southend-on-Sea (district) Coastal environment of Essex Buildings and structures in Southend-on-Sea {{Essex-geo-stub