Beyond the Point is an award winning organisation dedicated to revealing the unseen history of South-East Essex. Their mission is to archive and record the historic remains in the local area and to enlighten local residents on their local history. Their direct and hands-on approach sees the ‘BTP Boys’ adventure out and about to film, photograph and discover the local area. Their excursions cover many areas within Essex and beyond, discovering old structures and surviving remnants from the past. In addition to these unseen areas, they also have a keen interest in going behind the scenes and covering unique perspectives of better known historic sites. 

Beyond the Point was founded in 2011 by Canvey Island born and bred teenagers Joe Mander and Liam Heatherson. Aged 14 at the time, they enjoyed discovering and learning about local history and wanted to share their discoveries with others. Within two years of running the site, they were awarded with the prestigious titles of ‘Best Online Community Website’ and ‘Best National Archive 2012′. Four years on they have done numerous presentations for community groups, held stalls at several community events and have even been involved in the campaign launch for ‘Explore Your Archive’ which was held at the Houses of Parliament.

They are enthusiastic to get other teenagers involved and work hard towards their digital media approach. They produce documentaries on the locations that they visit, entirely shot and edited themselves and also heavily photograph the sites to keep a permanent recollection of them.

Beyond the Point is entirely non-profit so any revenue generate is invested back into BTP. The website has mainly been self-funded over the past 5 years.

Joe and Liam are excited to announce the launch of a brand new looking Beyond the Point (BTP) to mark 5 years of running the non-profit organisation. On July 17th 2011 a Wordpress blog entitled ‘Beyond the Point’ was setup which changed things for Joe and Liam. A year into running the website it was named the Best Community Archive in the UK and has continued to flourish ever since.

To mark five years of documenting historic remains the BTP boys are launching a brand new fresh look. Since February this year, extensive work has been going on behind the scenes to create a brand new, fresh looking, interactive website to showcase the dozens of local history sites in the South-East.

In addition to the new looking website, a new logo and slogan has been generated.

‘Unearth, Explore, Enlighten’

At the heart of the new website is an interactive map, allowing website visitors to explore all around them to see the historic hotspots which can be filtered by era, type, status and area. Over 150 locations have been added across Essex, London and Kent. Also new to the website is an ‘Adventuring Outdoors’ section which includes guides on exploring outdoors and the technology that we use.

Our highly acclaimed digital media is more prominent on the website with a dedicated section to all of our documentaries, high quality photographs with retina display and Facebook and Instagram integration. 

Rebecca Harris commented: "The work they do is wonderful and I would encourage more young people to get involved in discovering their local history"

To find out more visit: www.beyondthepoint.co.uk