Photographs of Tilbury Fort
Click on an image to see the full picture
Tilbury Fort is on the north bank of the River Thames and was built
to defend London from attack from the sea, particularly during the Spanish
Armada and the Anglo-Dutch Wars.
The first permanent fort at Tilbury was built in 1539 by Henry VIII and first
called the 'Thermitage Bulwark', because it was on the site of a hermitage
dissolved in 1536. It was designed to cross-fire with a similar structure
in Gravesend, Kent. During the Armada campaign the fort was reinforced with
earthworks and a palisade and there was a boom of ships' masts, chains and
cables stretched across the Thames to Gravesend anchored to lighters. The
current fort was built in the 1670's.
The fort's sole military success
was in the First World War when anti-aircraft guns on the parade ground shot
down a Zeppelin airship. Bombing damage in the Second World War destroyed
the 18th century solders' barrack block but the officers' terrace still survives.
The day I was there, there was a memorabilia sale in the parade ground.
