Cruising Notes:
If you’ve ever wondered what that stocky little stone tower
is that sits out on the ooze at the mouth of the River Medway, in 2013 I took a
closer look...
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Grain Tower Battery - a solitary sea-building |
Grain Tower, mentioned in my book Sea-Country, chapter ‘The Ton’,
can be found offshore of the Hoo Peninsular, on Grain Spit, an area where the
waters of the River’s Medway and Thames meet and directly opposite Garrison
Point which is on the Isle of Sheppey. The tower, which has just recently came
on the market and is for sale at £500.000, is privately owned and stands empty
with bare window openings and doorways, almost as it was left after WW2.
This is also the area earmarked for the Thames Estuary Airport ‘Boris Island’
which at a cost of up to 90billion has just recently been dropped.
Originally built to counter the threat of Napoleon in 1855 the
tower was mounted with guns and used in conjunction with Sheerness batteries in
Essex, just across the wide mouth of the River Thames. Since then it has been
added to and re-armed for use in both World Wars to guard the Mouth of the
River Medway and the Thames. For seafarers this interesting relic of 19th
century Britain makes a decent object for taking bearings and there are a
couple of navigation buoys very close to the tower, one of them Grain Hard, a
green starboard lateral mark. In 2013 I re-commissioned the building to serve us
as a very useful navigation mark while crossing the potentially hazardous
shipping lanes of the estuary between Essex and Kent in Shoal Waters.
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The stone causeway - still in good condition despite the wearing sea |
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A look back from the base of the newer addition to Grain chimney |
A peep inside reveals some very ornate stonework, bomb-proof
thick, with some narrow window openings of the 19th century military
era, with a more cubist, concrete 20th century addition which stands
to the back of the building and is interlinked with concrete a stairway, all presently
decorated in ultra-modern graffiti.
The position and height of Grain Tower means it is a
fantastic vantage point and anything attempting an advance up the Thames from
the open coast would have had the odds stacked against them to survive the
encounter. Its position and heritage would be an obvious draw for a potential
buyer today who, after spending a fair few quid or more to make it habitable,
would be the owner of a unique home.
If one comes close to the tower by boat there is about ten
feet of water at its foot at high-tide but if you could be persuaded it might
be best to avoid drying out near to the building as there are rocks, metal
pieces and the remains of a hard perilously nearby. All is not lost for the
persistent (insistent even) boater as smooth mudflats are just to the west and
reach close to the concrete of the seawalls. A stone causeway about half a mile long spans
the mudflats from the seawall out to the tower and though mud is deep for the
first fifty feet, and the path has perished in places, perhaps surprisingly what
remains is in sound condition where one can find a sure footing. However, in
light of the many obstacles surrounding the tower it is much safer to arrive on
foot and use this path via the seawall. In this respect, a closer look at Grain
Tower is as much a proposition to ramblers as it is boaters. This could be said
of many of the places I visit in Sea-Country.
The tower is presently overlooked by neighbouring Grain
power station chimney, one of the tallest in Britain, and further up the
Medway, Kingsnorth chimney, built on a former WW1 airship base. The tall
chimneys of Grain and Kingsnorth have been useful landmarks in themselves but of
the two Grain is a more prominent feature of the whole area, particularly if
viewed from the Essex shores, and can be seen from almost everywhere around.
Readers take note: Work to demolish the two smoke chimneys began in 2014 therefore
when demolished the Kent skyline will be changed forever...
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A concrete stairway links 1850s old and 1940s new |
A few other sites that are visible from the tower are Southend
to the north and the Mulberry Harbour Phoenix Unit, a portable concrete harbour
built for D-Day landings in France, which broke its back after grounding on the
sands in a fierce south-westerly blow while being towed in 1944, is clear to
see as well as the Red Sand Towers; these can be clearly seen to the east and
are another place I have sailed around in Shoal
Waters. There are the masts of WW2 ammunitions carrying Liberty ship SS Richard Montgomery to be seen (and
avoided) on a clear day.
A look toward the seaward end of the Thames can awe, inspire
and fill a person with wonder. It is a fascinating part of the river, a
‘metropolis water’ busy with international shipping and awash with rewards for
those willing to poke at its banks and inlets that are teeming with industry
and forgotten history seen in structures like Grain Tower that can keep an
enquiring type busy for decades.. Enjoy your cruising, Tony