Isle of Grain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the peninsula sometimes mistakenly called the Isle of Grain, see the Hoo Peninsula.
The Isle of Grain, (OE Greon meaning gravel) is in north Kent, England at the eastern end of the Hoo peninsula. The Isle, even today in the northern part, is almost all marshland. The Grain Marshes are an important habitat for birdlife. The Isle constitutes a civil parish, which according to the 2001 census had a population of 1,731.
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[edit] Location
The Isle of Grain is the easternmost end of the Hoo Peninsula.
[edit] History
The following extract is taken from the Topographical Dictionary of Great Britain and Ireland by John Gorton, 1833:
Graine, Isle of
A parish in the Hundred of Hoo, lathe of Aylesford, opposite to Sheppey at the mouth of the Thames; it is about 3.5 miles long and 2.5 miles broad and is formed by Yantlet Creek running from the Medway to the Thames. The Creek was filled up, and had a road across it for 40 years until 1823, when the lord mayor ordered it to be again reopened, so as to give about eight feet navigation for barges at spring tide; thus saving a distance of fourteen miles into the Medway, and avoiding the danger of going round by the Nore.
The closure of the road caused considerable anger among the residents of the Island and it was later reopened. The problem of reaching London by a less circuitous route was later to be addressed by the Thames and Medway Canal, which plan, too, was not a success.
In 1855, as part of military defences guarding the Thames, Grain Tower, a fort, was built. It remained in use until 1946, having been used during both World Wars. In earlier times the incidence of marsh fever (Malaria) was extremely high. 1918 saw Britain's last recorded outbreak of the disease.
[edit] The Isle today
The south of the Isle is an important industrial area. Until 1982 it was home to a major oil refinery. Construction of this facility for BP took from 1948 to 1952, and it suffered flooding almost immediately when the North Sea flood of 1953 breached the sea wall. The site is now part-occupied by Thamesport, the UK's third largest container port. The remainder is allocated for industrial and warehousing use under the Thames Gateway project.
Next to the BP site is Grain power station, built in the 1970s, which burns oil. It was mothballed in 2003, but reopened in 2006 and as of 2006 provides up to three percent of the National Grid supply. There are plans to build a new, gas-fired power station alongside to replace Grain power station when it reaches the end of its design life.
Another major instillation is a new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import facility. Segments of the Channel Tunnel were also manufactured in the area.
A suggestion to site a new London international airport to lie west of the Isle on the Cliffe Marshes aroused a lot of local opposition, as well as from environmental groups such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It is still not completely written off.
The Isle of Grain also has many tunnels running underground. People are not permitted to enter these tunnels as they are dangerous. They go into the centre of the village and out to the martella tower.
The martella tower was used during the war. There used to be a chain with a huge net on fitted to it. This went from straight across the two rivers stopping any u-boats getting through.
[edit] Settlements
The ancient village of Grain, at one time, as shown on an 1801 map, called Grain, or St James in the Isle of Grain. Like others in the Hundred of Hoo, the village was called after the dedication of its parish church - cp Allhallows (= All Saints), Hoo St Mary, Hoo St Werburgh.
Wallend is the other settlement, and is almost entirely industrial.
[edit] Port Victoria
Local historian Alan Bignell gives this description of the new port and accompanying railway:
In the late 1870s the South Eastern Railway decided to promote a line through the (Hoo) district, with a view to competing for the traffic from London to Sheerness, formerly an almost unchallenged stronghold of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. For some years past a steamer had been running from Sheerness to Strood, whence South Eastern trains gave a connection to London. ... the journey was of some length, along the rather tortuous course of the Medway. In 1879 the South Eastern obtained an act for a branch leaving their North Kent line at a point about (3.5 miles) from Gravesend ... to Stoke ... In the following year powers were obtained for an extension, (3.5 miles) long, to St James, in the Isle of Grain, where a deep-water pier was to be built on the Medway. A ferry was to connect the new pier with Sheerness ...
The railway was opened throughout on September 11 1882. The pier was built for passenger traffic and Queen Victoria was indeed a passenger. Bignell records that: she "... took a rather curious fancy to Grain as a chosen departure point for trips to Germany" and there are claims that Port Victoria "was built essentially as a railway station at the end of a line from Windsor".
The project was not a success and the ferry service was withdrawn in 1901, and the pier fell into disuse. It was closed in 1951, and the 1.75 miles of line taken up. The site is now occupied by the industrial sprawl.
From about 1912 a seaplane station was positioned at Grain by the Admiralty. From the beginning of World War I regular patrols were made along the Thames estuary from this station, as part of English channel defences. In 1914 Port Victoria became an Royal Navy air plane repair depot, adjacent to the station. Activities at these bases declined after 1918, until in 1924 defence cuts saw their closure. See also under Stoke, Kent: large airship base.
But soon the course of the ship opens the entrance of the Medway, with its men-of-war moored in line, and the long wooden jetty of Port Victoria, with its few low buildings like the beginning of a hasty settlement upon a wild and unexplored shore. The famous Thames barges sit in brown clusters upon the water with an effect of birds floating upon a pond. —Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea
[edit] References
- "Government decision holds key to Grain's £350m future" (15 Jan 2006) Kent on Sunday p15
- Medway local government Plans for site of former BP oil refinery
- Historic Kent More about Grain
- Bignell, Alan (1999). The Kent Village Book
[edit] External links
- Multimap Satellite photo of the Isle of Grain
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The unitary authority of Medway in Kent, South East England with its suburbs, villages, towns and parishes: |
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Allhallows • Borstal • Brompton • Chatham • Chattenden • Cliffe-at-Hoo • Cliffe and Cliffe Woods • Cliffe Woods • Cooling • Cuxton • Frindsbury • Gillingham • Halling • Hempstead • High Halstow • Hoo St Werburgh • Isle of Grain • Lordswood • Luton • Park Wood • Rochester • Rainham • Rainham Mark • St Mary Hoo • St Mary's Island • Stoke • Strood • Twydall • Upchurch • Upnor • Wainscott • Walderslade • Wigmore • Wouldham |
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| The borough of Medway List of places in Kent |
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