Written by Kerry Greenaway
This thread all started with Darryl and a dream he had that featured a Steam Engine, this coincided with a toy Thomas the Tank Engine turning up in my next-door neighbour’s garden which hadn’t been there before.
Steam Engines were obviously a ‘thing’.
Around 6 weeks later we had a flurry of activity, first visiting All Saints Church in Horndon where we saw a Virgin Mary Icon which was referred to as ‘Our Lady of Walsingham. When we researched this, we discovered that it was Pilgrimage sight as well as a Steam Engine Railway not to mention the name referring to a prominent figure of Elizabeth 1st and if that wasn’t enough, a steam engine link had come up when we had looked at Beeleigh.
At the same time, I had looked on the map and seen a weird formation which started as a Steam Train that led to what looked like a key which led to a pond,
All of this was very random; the steam engine was popping up all over the place, but we had no clear lead on it. We did know that the engines that ran the old Mill at Beeleigh were steam run, so we had high hopes for when we visited. On that day the mill itself was shut so we could only just about see the boiler from outside the building, but nothing was presenting itself, so we carried on walking up the lane towards Beeleigh Abbey.
At a point on the pathway with open fields on one side and a hedgerow on another I was instantly called to stop and when I looked up I could see what looked like a fat man in the tree, holding a staff and with a cat on his shoulder, what that meant in that moment I didn’t have a clue all I knew was that it was a key.
Further down the trail the download came in about an elephant, and an on the spot quick google search turned up a contraption called an Electrophant, which was basically a battery powered mechanical Elephant that was a ride. This led us onto Goldhanger but again that is a tale for another day. On Beeleigh weir I first found out that one of the engines was Wentworth. This sent me down a rabbit hole, and I found out about the Wentworth family in Essex; they are one of the big families of Essex and in 1492 Roger Wentworth married Anne Tyrell from the Little Warley Tyrells but other than a few tantalizing titbits regarding Spanish gold nothing further was forthcoming.
It was only after Richard and Darryl had gone back to Beeleigh on a day that the Mill was open for public viewing that things got really interesting. Alongside the Wentworth steam beam engine was an Elephant Boiler! Well now you could have knocked me down with a feather. It was one of the defining moments that when you find out the information in the physical, it’s so awe inspiring. The skeptics out there would probably say that I had come across this information whilst researching and hadn’t really registered it at the time but when i was there that hidden piece of information in my brain triggered and popped to the conscious. All I can say to that is, whatever, however, this happens is not important, but the fact that it did happen is what matters. We just get led by the signs and synchronicities and allow things to unfold.
Once we left Beeleigh Abbey and Weir we moved onto St Peter’s in Wickham Bishop. This Church is now a privately owned Studio, the history of which I will leave in the capable hands of Richard. What was interesting to me on that day wasn’t so much the Church itself but the disused Railway bridge that you cross to get to the church. As we first crossed the bridge, Darryl noticed an indelible marker pen on the floor, and I remarked at how fitting that was, as it felt like there was a permanent energy marker on the area. On the way back, we had chosen to explore the underneath of the bridge. To be totally honest I can’t recall much of what impressions I was getting under there. Obviously, train lines were important as we had been looking at steam engines.
From this point, the quest threads took us off in a different direction. I started to try and consolidate all the information we had on the Quest which led me to take each thread individually and write how it started, how it progressed, the information we found out along the way and where it led to. I was hoping to try and bring some sense into madness.
Part of my own personal journey has been about relinquishing the need to control, so I made the decision to go out and to just go with what I was feeling. On the way the Spirit signs showed me a Canary, which my brain threw a mining link at me, and when I passed a miniature railway, the train lines were calling me, which I took to mean the train station was a possibility. On this day I was pulled in a different direction, but then I started to write.
It was when I had visited Marlene and the RMS Titanic thread came back on the table; I recalled an exhibition I had attended on the Titanic at Canary Wharf.
At the same time, I had been following the Oyster Thread which led to Billingsgate Market. The original Billingsgate Market was based on Lower Thames Street but has since relocated to Canary Wharf.
At this point I looked at the entire area on google maps just to get an overview of the area as I didn’t know much about it. I checked out the location of all the places that had been flagging up – Austin Friars, The Whitechapel Bell Foundry and Billingsgate (both sites) and it was whilst I was looking at the map, I realized that Canary Wharf was part of the Isle of Dogs, and that the other interesting place was Poplar. Now both have been very prevalent Spirit signs – The Poplar Tree significance has been an important part of my own personal journey and the sign of various breeds of Dog had been picked up by Richard.
This led me to having a general surf around the net to see what was historically important in the areas. After all, it helps to narrow the focus as it is a large area.
At the furthest point of the Isle of Dogs is the foundation remains of a jetty that was built to launch the SS Great Eastern which was built by J Scott Russell and Brunel.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a famous engineering figure of the 19th century, designed and built the Great Western railway and the transatlantic steamship, so steam engines were kind of Brunel’s specialty.
On the bank of the river Thames directly opposite Brunel’s launch jetty is the Cutty Sark. This is something that Marlene had picked up on the 24th of August, those recording I have yet to go through but I made notes;
The weird thing is that directly opposite The Brunel Museum is the Execution Dock at Wapping which leads us into a whole new thread territory; Pirates and Smugglers!