Tilbury

In Tilbury we have a great industrial heritage with working docks, as does our partner Kidderpore. Arrivals and departures, immigration, emigration, the moving of goods and materials and Industry have been at the fore of our thinking when developing ideas for the stories and artwork for the Tilbury Scroll.

In 1909 Tilbury became part of the newly established Port of London Authority with extensive facilities for handling the importation of paper, cars, grain and bulk cargos. Talking with ex-dock worker, Les Morgan, children from the Gateway primary schools and locals learned about the changes in the docks over the years from physical man-handling goods with special hooks, sacks and trolleys along with tea chests from India to the now familiar huge containers that bare no sign of what is inside and very few workers needed by comparison.

We have celebrated the movement of peoples by the reference to The Windrush - on which, in 1948, the first immigrants arrived in Tilbury from Jamaica and the £10 poms heading for Australia left from here in the 1950/60s.

The defensively positioned Tilbury Fort provided a direct link with India in that it is almost identical to the Fort William in Kolkata. The surrounding marshland supports many rare wild-life species and also supplies grazing for several horses.

Walkers will have the opportunity to experience the Gravesend/Tilbury Ferry which links Tilbury with Kent and is the first passenger crossing upstream from the Thames Estuary.