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Tilbury Fort, Essex

Historical Description

Tilbury Fort, a fort, with a railway station, in West Tilbury and Chadwell parishes, Essex, on the Thames and on the London, Tilbury, and Southend railway, opposite Gravesend, and 2½ miles SE of Grays Thurrock. It occupies the site of an ancient chapel, seems to have originated about 1402, took the form of a blockhouse in 1539, was soon strengthened and enlarged, first by Henry VIII., next by Elizabeth, was the place where Elizabeth harangued her army in 1588, was enlarged again and made a regular fort in 1667, underwent extensions with erection of outworks in years following 1861, has formidable batteries on its ramparts and the largest bastions in England, and forms one of the main defences for the entrance of the Thames. Tilbury has a ferry steamboat which plies regularly to and from Gravesend, and during the summer season steamboats ply between Tilbury and Margate and Ramsgate.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Essex is available to browse.

The Essex pages from the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 is online.

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