Coalhouse Fort
Ahh...Coalhouse Fort! By far
the largest and best-preserved of the Thames forts, Coalhouse is situated on the
north bank of the river in East Tilbury. The fort today is well-managed,
but in the 1970s when I used to visit it, things were a bit different. The
structure was in a state of poor repair, but on the plus side, you could easily
climb up on the roof. These first eight photos are of me doing
just that, and are the first pictures I ever took in Coalhouse Fort, on a lovely
Spring morning, when I'd swear I was the only person in the grounds.
The camera had what looks like a
lens problem when the sun was in the wrong direction, hence the peripheral
blurring in several shots.
Over the next couple of years I found
my way into the courtyard and took more photos of the interior. I could
have got hold of a torch and explored the subterranean tunnels, but quite
frankly I wasn't interested. Ruins were what I liked, not damp and dark
passageways. Besides, although I was only about 14 I was probably sensible
enough to realise that going into underground passageways on my own, when no-one
knew I was there, was probably a bad idea. By the way, that isn't a smudge
on the 2nd photo along below...it's a bird in flight.
3D Coalhouse
I've always been interested in Stereo
photography, having the ability to "freeview" by going cross-eyed.
Unfortunately I only took 5 stereo pictures of the fort. They link to
stereo pairs which you can freeview on-screen. Hence the left picture is
for the right eye, and vice versa. If you want to create your own stereo
pairs, links to the individual pictures are below.
