As part of my residency with Metal Southend, I’m digging into the history of the Salvation Army farm colony at Hadleigh. I grew up on the boarder of Hadleigh and Leigh, on land that was part of the Salvation Army farm. The land is rich with low-fire clay which was dug for brickmaking at three different brickworks that the SA ran since William Booth purchased the land in the 1890s.
William Booth at Hadleigh Farm Colony
His scheme, laid out in his book In Darkest England and the Way Out, is heavily influenced by the colonization of large parts of Africa, aka the ‘dark continent’ that was happening in the late 1800s. He drew parallels between what British people saw as lawless, uncivilized peoples in need of saving, and the entrenched poverty of the lower classes in the UK and particularly in London. This was in the era before the welfare state, when all social support came through charities. He devised his scheme as a solution to the poverty, starvation, and disease experienced in London, so that people who couldn’t find employment, particularly men but later also women and children, could be ‘saved,’ physically and spiritually by giving them work and training.
Men at work forming bricks at the Hadleigh Farm Colony brickworks.
The first phase was a city ‘colony’ at which men would be given room and board in exchange for a day’s work. If deemed suitable, they would then go to the farm colony in Hadleigh to be trained in brickmaking, growing food, and animal husbandry. Having acquired these new skills, the idea was to then send them to the ‘overseas colonies’ of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand where they would be given land to start their own farms.
Men labouring at one of the brickfields. This souvenir postcard is stamped with the ‘Darkest England’ title.
Digging clay.
Another clay pit. Could be at Bricks 3 if that’s Hadleigh castle in the background. You can see the tracks for carting the clay to the brickworks.
The Kiln at the Brickfields.
Women working in the fields at the farm. Agricultural work was often done by women, while men primarily operated the brickworks. The farm had a large market garden which supplied fruit and vegetables to the town.
In the 1890s Canada was a fairly new country, and settlement, particularly in the West, was in full-swing. The British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada joined to form the Dominion of Canada in 1867, with British Columbia joining in 1871. There was great concern from England that the ‘British character’ of Canada be preserved, and a massive wave of government-sponsored emigration was facilitated through the Salvation Army. But the Darkest England scheme was less successful, as new Canadians were not excited to welcome the formally destitute residents of East London, even with Salvation Army training.
Army emigrants leaving Liverpool for Canada, early 1900s.
The S.S. 'Letitia' sailing from Liverpool to Canada in 1930. Besides the Darkest England scheme, the Salvation Army operated a government-sponsored emigration program to encourage the continued British settlement of Canada.
The land was, of course, already populated when colonizers from Europe arrived, and displacement of Indigenous peoples from their land went hand-in-hand with continued settlement by British and other immigrants. After confederation, the Indian Act placed Indigenous land and finances under federal control, and funded the residential school system, a horrific program designed to separate children from their families, culture, language, and—importantly—their land. The goal was to end the existence of ‘Indians’ by assimilating Indigenous people into Canadian society through any means necessary. Many Indigenous children endured abuse and terrible conditions at residential schools, and as mass graves are uncovered today, we are seeing that of the number of children who died at the schools was wildly underestimated.
I grew up next to the Hadleigh site of Christian industry, and had a religious upbringing myself. My family has various personal connections to the historical and continued Salvation Army project at Hadleigh that I’ve discovered through this research. My own migration to Canada follows a well-worn path mirroring that of Salvation Army migrants before me, and through which I continue the settlement and colonization of Indigenous land. I currently live in Vancouver, on stolen, unceded, and ancestral Coast Salish homelands, including the territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Through this research I hope bring together history with the physical materials of the land to critically engage with the Christian and colonial ideologies that facilitated historical migration, and my own continued presence on stolen lands.
Looking up to Hadleigh Castle from the site of Bricks 1 at Hadleigh Farm Colony. The castle was built in 1215 by Hubert de Burgh from Kentish ragstone and Reigate stone, and cemented by a mortar made of cockleshells from the cockle beds of Canvey Island. It was a popular picnicking spot throughout my childhood.
Looking down towards Hadleigh Marsh and Canvey Island from Hadeligh Park. Hadleigh Park was the site of the Olympic mountain biking course in 2012. In WW2 it was used for an anti-aircraft battery, and in farm colony times this was the site of Bricks 2.
Looking from Hadleigh Castle down to the C2C line. This is the railway line from Southend into London. There is no stop in Hadleigh, possibly due to some friction between the Salvation Army and what was the then the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway Company (LTSR).
Looking up across Salvation Army land towards the castle from the marsh. The Salvation Army built its own tramway to bring bricks from its brickworks down to the marsh to be loaded onto boats and sent up to London.
The bridge to the wharf. A bridge had to be built to cross the LTSR track in order to access the wharf. Only the butresses on either side of the tracks still remain, but the adjoining field is full of bricks as well as glass bottles and ceramics, brought as trash from London and used as hard core to build up the embankments.
The C2C line and old Salvation Army bridge. The Salvation Army might have resisted having a station on the LTSR out of a desire to avoid direct access to London, given that the colony aimed to keep its residents away from the ‘temptations’ of their former lives.
The remains of the jetty at the wharf, looking across to Canvey Island. After transporting bricks down to the jetty via the Salvation Army tramway, they would have been loaded on to boats and sent up to London.
Clay-rich mud. The salt flats of Two Tree Island (formerly Leigh Marsh) next to Hadleigh Marsh and the jetty site was originally used for farming but is now a nature reserve.
Low tide crossing. It’s possible to access Two Tree Island from Hadleigh Marsh when the tide is low, but the mud is thick!
Leigh Old Town by the cocklesheds, looking towards Southend. At one time Salvation Army land encompassed the cocklesheds in Leigh-on-Sea, where I grew up.