Frederick Hester : A brief history in pictures - Page 19 : The Electric Tramway
Four 24 seat electric Trams were bought and delivered to Canvey in 1904 and one was later found to be marked 'Canvey Island Electric Tramways'. They were enamelled red with gold lines bearing the livery 'Venice on Sea and Canvey'. Due to problems landing the large 30 foot (3ft 6in gauge) rails and a certain property owner not allowing access to his land (no details to date) Peebles had to be compensated £1,000 for the delays and more cost was added by overtime inc Sunday work. They had been originally contracted to complete by 1st July 1904 but the plans had only reached the council in June. Only a 4878 metre section of the new rail was laid between Winter Gardens and the Lakeside corner area before the contractors started removing materials.
The type of Tram purchased by Frederick Hester for Canvey
On 7/4/1905 an auction was held at Chimney's Farm & all the seized rail materials including 1,000 of the 4,000 sleepers were sold. The new Trams were returned to Brush, two sold on to the Llandudno & Colwyn Bay electric railway in 1907 and the others cannibalised, one eventually becoming a cricket pavillion (where?). The 1915 photo below of the Brush works in Loughborough shows one of Hester's actual Trams stored in the background on the left.
Look to the left behind the Trolley Bus
Canvey lost its chance of having its own public tramway and all evidence of its existence has long gone, the tramway land being divided up and sold in 1918. In the sixties it was reported some of the 100ft apart pole concrete bases could be seen along Somnes Ave and one was being used to as a bird bath. A few parts of rail are hotly contested as remains, Fred McCave had a piece in his Riverside Cafe museum (what happened to this?), there is currently a piece at the Dutch Cottage Museum (See HERE) and a piece of rail HERE! There's also a rumour of some iron work including a railway turntable being dug up during development in the area and apparently a piece of the rail was used as a bridge across a dyke in Knightwick fields in the 1930's. Another account of the rail scheme can be found in "Tramway & Railway World" for March & April 1904 but I don't have access to a copy!