IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Thundersley Church Road, BENFLEET, SS7 3ER

The road running across the image, just below centre, is the A13 (London Road). At the left there is an incline known as the Bread-and-Cheese Hill. This hill can be seen from the bottom in Image The roads running north from the London Road are Spencer Road (extreme left), Stanley Road, Downer Road North and Rhoda Road North. The roads to the south are (from the left) Felstead Road, Downer Road and Rhoda Road (unmade, amid scrubland). The road running obliquely from centre-left to above centre is Thundersley Church Road. The woodland at centre-left is Coombe Wood.

A road named after me! (Joking, of course.) The building with the skip in the car park is an eye clinic.

Coombe Wood occupies the bottom and right of the picture here. It sits on the Claygate and Bagshot beds. The built-up areas to the left lie on the lower-lying London Clay. There is an escarpment between these running from the lower left of the image to the upper right. The road running from the lower left (Rhoda Road North) lies approximately at the top of the slope. The road from the mid-left running parallel (Downer Road North) is approximately at the bottom. St Peter's Church lies in the upper right, with the churchyard below and left.

This churchyard (graveyard) sits on the brow of a hill, then slopes down to the west. The start of this can just be seen to the right of the picture. The north (here) and south ends are wooded to varying amounts.

In Essex, the eclipse of August 11th was only partial. Near the maximum, the sun was filtering through the foliage of trees in my garden to create a series of images of the partially eclised sun.

Butcher's broom is a member of the lily family despite its appearance. The spiky-looking leaves are actually flattened stems (cladodes). It is a characteristic species of ancient woodlands (rather than suburban gardens), so I was rather surprised to find it growing in the rather stony soil between our house and next door. I would like to think that it was there as a hangover from the days when south-east Essex was covered in ancient wildwood. However, it probably was bird-sown, the birds being fond of those juicy-looking berries. There are ancient woodlands within a few hundred metres of our garden.

This is a similar view to that of Image, taken in Summer 1987, before the hurricane. Many of the conifers visible then came down, and since then other trees have grown up. Image shows an aerial view including the churchyard, taken in the spring of 1987.

Near cross roads junction of Kent's Hill Road.

This is the open central section of the churchyard, set on the brow of a scarp slope to the left. In the background (north) are a number of planted conifers. The church itself is behind the trees to the top left.