The eerie plane ‘graveyard’ where huge aircraft are left to rot and grow old

Essex is home to all sorts of exciting and interesting locations and one such place is an eerie plane graveyard where huge aircraft rot and grow old. The specific site is not far from Southend Airport and will certainly be of interest for aviation enthusiasts.

Tucked away on a section of land behind the Skylark Hotel, on Aviation Way, is an area of overgrown greenery littered with abandoned planes. The large metal 'birds' could date back more than 50 years.

The site can't be explored from public roads but some urban explorers have captured exclusive footage of the area. Two large planes can be seen using Google Maps' satellite view although nature is doing it's best to conceal them.

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The aircraft, which can just about be spotted from a distance, are large in size and look similar to passenger planes that arrive and depart from nearby Southend Airport on a regular basis. The aircraft are not the only thing dumped on the land though with previous explorers discovering broken TVs and furniture left among the vegetation.

Paul Edwards saw the planes on Google Earth and decided to take his partner to see the large metal birds. The explorer said: "We tried to get in every way possible, we tried through a church and a dentist but there were so many cameras. We didn't want to get caught and we would have been seen straight away.

"It wasn't worth the risk and its nice to get permission because otherwise we would be trespassing. We eventually just went into the hotel and asked to see the planes."

Paul says he was given permission and told not to get too close by hotel employees. "It was so surreal," Paul, from Rochford, said.

"At the end of the car park there were two gates which were padlocked shut, and to the left there was a gap you could squeeze through or on the right there was another [locked] gate. I wanted to look inside but we kept our distance. It was surreal to see all the growth around them, they had clearly been there for quite some time."

There are a number of posts on the Fighter Control forum about the abandoned planes which suggest what they could be. One post suggests the larger planes are ex-RAAF Hawker Siddeley HS 748s. For those who are not aviation experts, these are medium-sized planes originally designed and initially produced by a British manufacturer.

The exact reason as to why the planes are there is unknown. They don't appear to have crash-landed as the bodywork on the larger planes seems almost undamaged from afar- they are however rusting and have been targeted by graffiti artists. So the history of the planes may never be known.

The area is secured with locked gates and fences so you cannot just walk up to the planes. You can however see one of the larger planes from a distance if stand in the Hotel's car park.

It is always important to ask for the permission of the land owner before entering any private area. Entering someone's land or property without permission could land you in trouble with the law and you could be charged with trespassing.