The transition from an explosives factory to a public country park is quite an interesting one. Wat Tyler Country Park has seen many changes throughout the course of the twentieth century.

1918

At the end of WWI demand for explosives dries up and the factory can’t make a profit.

1929

The explosives factory closes. The Ministry of War buys the site and sets up the Sea Transport Stores to store equipment
for troop and hospital ships. World War Two Sea Transport Stores rumoured to equip landing craft and troop ships for D-Day, the largest amphibian assault in history.

1956 – The Suez Crisis

The Government takes over the site to equip merchant ships in Tilbury and London heading to the Suez Canal in Egypt. In just two weeks the crisis is over and the Pitsea site is mothballed. Remaining stocks at Pitsea are transferred to other depots and the 100 or so workers who have worked the majority of their lives at the site are laid off.

Into the 1960s

The Land Reclamation company dump waste paper from London to try to raise the level of the surrounding marshes and reclaim land from the sea. Later household waste is brought to the surrounding marshes along the river first by barge, and then by lorries using an access road through what’s now park. Small industrial companies operate from the park site.

1969

Basildon District Council buy the site from the MoD for £99,600.

1977

Basildon Council draw up plans for a recreational space on the site.

Early 1980s

Wat Tyler Country Park opened to the public.

2000

The Country Park includes 125 acres of natural wilderness designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

2009

Wat Tyler Centre and park trails are opened.

2012

Vast amounts of excavated soil from the Olympic games construction sites is used to re-contour the surrounding land.

2016

The former landfill site to the East becomes part of the Country Park itself.