PROJECT WW2
We are very proud to advertise that our Association has been awarded a Local Heritage Initiative
Grant of £ 25,000 for one of our projects known as "Project WW 2".
LHI is a partnership between the Heritage Lottery Fund, Nationwide Building Society
and the Countryside Agency.
This project aims to use teams of volunteers, guided by a specialist in the field, to track
down, record, photograph and assess for statutory protection, around 100 defence works,
built to protect the towns and villages of Basildon and Castle Point from an expected
invasion on the shores of Britain in 1940.
After a period of training in WW2 search and recording techniques, achieved through
teaching seminars, the teams will use rare and uniquely surviving wartime documents,
1940's aerial photographs, wartime maps and the archive of local memory to trace and
visit each site.
The project will culminate in two comprehensive reports, one for each district, of
Basildon and Castle Point. The reports will include an individual record of each site as
an historical overview with methodology. Where appropriate an assessment will be done of
importance and recommendations for preservation of selected sites. It is anticipated that
following completion of the project the disseminated knowledge gained will enable the
production of trail guides, leaflets and interpretative boards, and that the volunteers
will have the expertise to further increase public awareness of our local defence heritage.
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