Hornchurch Country Park - RAF Hornchurch

Hornchurch Country Park is on the site of RAF Hornchurch which provided a base for interceptors protecting London from bombers from 1915 through to 1962. During the Second World War it was home to eleven squadrons of Spitfires, Bristol Blenheims and Bristol Beaufighters.

Today it is home to all five of the Tett Turrets still in existence. These were concrete one-man turrets which rotated on top of a concrete pipe sunk into the ground. The gunner sat or stood in the concrete pipe and could rotate the turret on a ball race to bring a heavy machine-gun to bear on paratroopers attacking the airfield.