TheLondonLoop: London Loop-Purfleet to Rainham 16th January 2012

I drove to the car park at the RSPB Rainham Marshes and parked up,for what turned out to be a 10 mile walk. My dog Ben and I walked off towards Purfleet in the hope I cold walk down as far as the QEII Bridge.

We passed by the Purfleet Magazine which was built between 1761 and 1773, and supplied British Military establishments with gunpowder and ordnance until 1950.There were originally five magazines, of which only mo.5 survives; each one could hold 10,400 barrels (460 tons) of gunpowder. The magazines and other buildings,including barracks,headquarters,barrels stores and proofing house, were protected by high secuirty walls and a garrison of soldiers.
Magazine number 5 is now the Purfleet Garrison Heritage and Military Centre.In March, 1916, anti-aircraft gunners based at Purfleet shot down the German Zeppelin LZ15 - a first. As a result the gunners received a prize from the Lord Mayor of London.

However It seems you can't walk this far on the path, or at least it wasn't clear and the footpath I re joined wasn't part of the Thames path and was covered in rubbish that had been dumped and the whole area was horrible, so we doubled back to the RSPB centre to walk in the opposite direction.


Path towards the QEII Bridge.


Looking back down river.


Now heading back to where we started!

Walking backtowards the RSPB centre we saw one of many barges being towed up river.


The RSPB centre in the background.

Below are some views across the RSPB's Marshes..................

Now back onto the path looking towards Aveley Bay......... on the way so far I've seen flocks of Lapwings, Shelduck, Canada Geese, Greylag Geese, Stone chats, Redshank, Carrion Crows, Blue tits, Greenfinches, black headed gulls, Herring gulls, Pigeons, Collared doves,Starlings,house Sparrows plus loads more.


Looking back to the QEII Bridge.

Just after Aveley Bay, I saw my first ever pair of Avocets, I was well chuffed!!

Heading towards the place where the barges are loaded and unloaded of rubbish near the landfill site.

Heading past the Landfill now, there are large flocks of gulls that are making the most of a free meal from the landfill, you can really smell it now!

Now rounding the corner to where there is a sculpture of a diver made from steel and the concrete barges.
Concrete ships are ships built of steel and ferrocement (reinforced concrete) instead of more traditional materials, such as steel or wood. The advantage of ferrocement construction is that materials are cheap and readily available, while the disadvantages are that construction labor costs are high, as are operating costs. (Ferrocement ships require thick hulls, which means extra mass to push and less space for cargo.) During the late 19th century, there were concrete river barges in Europe, and during both World War I and World War II, steel shortages led the US military to order the construction of small fleets of ocean-going concrete ships, the largest of which was the SS Selma.^[1] Few concrete ships were completed in time to see wartime service during World War I, but during 1944 and 1945, concrete ships and barges were used to support U.S. and British invasions in Europe and the Pacific. Since the late 1930s, there have also been ferrocement pleasure boats.

'The Diver:Regeneration' sculpture by John Kaufman .
Described as the only sculpture standing in the River Thames, The Diver is made of galvanised steel bands on a steel frame and stands 15 feet (4.6m) tall and approximately 6 feet (1.8m) wide.