The first record of occupation in Shoebury has been found from the
Mesolithic period, with
Neolithic and
Bronze Age stone tools and
Beaker pottery having also been discovered. The
Saxons re-established a settlement in the 6th century, which at this point that the name Shoebury, or in Anglo-Saxon Scobrih, or in Danish, Scabivig was first documented. A
Camp was built by the Dane
Hastein in circa 894, but little remains as the Artillery Barracks were built over part of the site. The parish church of South Shoebury, St. Andrew was originally constructed in the 12th century under the control of
Prittlewell Priory, with the West Tower being added in the 15th century and the South porch in the 16th century. The church was restored during the 19th century by renowned architect
Sir Charles Nicholson. The manor house, known as South Shoebury Hall, is a medieval timber-framed house with an 18th-century brick frontage and other alterations. South Shoebury has also been called under is parish name of
Shoebury Magna (in Latin
Magna Shoberi) or
Greater Shoebury. South Shoebury was prone to flooding and Marsh fever, and in 1530 the parish had to sell St Andrew's bells to pay for repairs to the sea defences. and in 1899 the land owner, Colonel Burges handed the Common to the Shoeburyness Urban District Council
for the recreation and benefit of the inhabitants of South Shoebury and others. By 1851, the population of South Shoebury stood at 158, but just ten years later the census had shown the population had grown to 1,502. The growth in population was caused by the opening of nearby
brickfields by the Knapping family, and the construction of the Artillery Barracks that was the start of
Shoebury Garrison. Prior to the Garrison's arrival the land had been home to several warrens, after the
Normans had introduced rabbits to the area. In comparison, North Shoebury's population in 1894 was just 184. The village of South Shoebury had been built up around the High Street and Rampart Street, but it was not until the 1920s and 1930s that the town grew, with the area known as Cambridge Town being established. The area was named after a local public house called the Duke of Cambridge. The town was described by the military historian Patrick Barry as It was home to the last recorded case of indigenous
malaria in the British Isles during the 1930s. The council was created in 1894, separating the civil and
ecclesiastical side of the parish, until it was absorbed into
Southend Borough in 1933 which also absorbed the former North Shoebury parish. In between the two World Wars, Shoeburyness became a popular holiday resort, with a blacksmiths sitting next to the beach until the 1930s being a regular source of entertainment. The heroic recovery of an intact mine on 23 November 1939, by Lieutenant Commanders Ouvry and Lewis from
HMS Vernon made it possible for the Navy to study it and devise countermeasures to neutralise it; among these were the
degaussing cables installed in merchant ships in
Allied and British fleets, and, of course, wooden
minesweepers. East Beach is the site of
a defence boom, built in 1944, to prevent enemy shipping and submarines from accessing the
River Thames. This replaced an earlier, similar boom built east. After the war, artillery and other regiments continued to be garrisoned at Shoebury until 1976 when the garrison headquarters closed. Before any development took place, Essex County Council Archaeology Section of the Planning Department and Southend Museum started the North Shoebury Project in 1980 under the guidance of
John Wymer, whose digs established that the area had continuous human habitation from the Mesolithic period. The planned store became an Asda supermarket, which opened in 1981, while one of the former farm barns became the
Parsons Barn public house. This was joined by the Bishopsteignton housing development, that was completed between 1981 and 1988. The site was the former farm of listed building, the White House, which had been sold in 1919 to Southend Estates Company. Following the closure of the Old Ranges in 1998 the old garrison land and buildings were sold, and in 2000 redevelopment of the site to housing started. ==Description==