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History of East Tilbury

Tilbury, Fort Grounds c1960
Reproduced courtesy of The Francis Frith Collection.

History of East Tilbury >> White's Directory 1848

White's Directory of Essex 1848

TILBURY (EAST) is an ancient village on the north bank of the Thames, at the east end of Gravesend Reach, and at the south end of that broad bend of the river, commonly called The Hope; about 2½ miles East by North of Tilbury Fort, and 16 miles East South East of Romford. Its parish contains 311 inhabitants, and 2031 acres of land, and includes parts of New Kingsford, about a mile from the Church. The Roman road called Higham causeway, of which some traces yet remains, between Rochester and Higham, points in the direction of the ancient ferry, of East Tilbury, which is believed to have been the place where the Emperor Claudius crossed the Thames in pursuit of the Britons, as related by Dion Cassius. Before the Conquest this parish was held by a freeman, and at the Domesday Survey, Tedric Pointel, and his under-tenant, Hunald, held it. The land is now nearly all freehold, and William Cotton, Esq., one of the Governors of the Bank of England, is the principal owner. It is in five manors or estates, viz., East Tilbury, St. Clere's, Gobions, Gossaline, and Southall. The latter is vested in trust for the repairs of Rochester Bridge. Another estate here was purchased in 1729,for the endowment of Limehouse Rectory.

The Church (St. Katharine,) is an ancient structure, consisting of a nave, north aisle, and chancel. Its tower, which stood at the south-west angle, was beaten down by the Dutch, in the reign of Charles II. In 1389, John Lord Cobham appropriated the rectory to his new college, at Cobham, but on the suppression of chantries, etc., it passed to the Crown, with which it still remains, but it is held on lease by E. Williams, Esq., who has a neat seat here, called the Rectory. The discharged vicarage, valued in K.B. at £13.6s.8d., and in 1831 at £174, is in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, and incumbency of the Rev. W. Goodchild, M.A., who has l½A. of glebe and a neat residence, erected in 1835. The vicarial tithes were commuted in 1841, for £244 per annum. The Poor's Land is about a rood of building land, let for £1.11s.6d. a year, which is distributed in coals, together with a yearly rent-charge of 20s., out of Folly Field, left by an unknown donor. Two rent-charges left to the poor, viz., £5 by William Towers and £2 by William Hansworth, have not been paid since 1815, being void by the statute of Mortmain.

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