West Tilbury

West Tilbury
West Tilbury  West Tilbury shown within Essex
OS grid reference	TQ665785
Unitary authority	Thurrock
Ceremonial county	Essex
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	GRAYS
Police	Essex
Fire	Essex
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	Thurrock
List of places: UK • England • Essex

West Tilbury is a village situated on the top of a river terrace overlooking the river Thames. The modern town of Tilbury is mainly in the traditional parish of Chadwell St Mary.

Location and administration

West Tilbury is a former Church of England parish in the unitary authority of Thurrock, Essex, England. West Tilbury is one of seven conservation areas in Thurrock.

The Parish

Bede's History of the English Church talks of a minster church established by St Cedd at Tilaburg. A case has been made that this was West Tilbury, however, majority opinion favours East Tilbury. The West Tilbury parish church was dedicated to St James (The Great) whose saint's day is 25 July, upon which the West Tilbury fair was held annually. Most of the windows appear to be 14th century. It is now a private dwelling. William Laud, later Archbishop of Canterbury, was appointed rector of West Tilbury in 1609.

St. James' Church

The queen confirmed the scheme for redundancy on 11 April 1984. The building was subsequently converted to a private dwelling house, with use of parts of the burial ground as garden premises. It retains various memorial floor slabs in the sacrarium and various mural monuments, including that to 14 parishioners who died in the armed forces in the Great War 1939-45. It was unveiled May 1920 by Capt. Loftus. The 5 Bells of post-medieval date were removed and distributed to other churches of the Orsett Deanery. During the Rev. James Fellows incumbency (in 1919) West Tilbury had already been under the charge of a single cleric with East Tilbury, its neighbour parish. They remained distinct, however, till 1977, when a new unified parish of East and West Tilbury and Linford would be created (Linford being a late Victorian residential estate name (formerly Muckingford), a westerly hamlet of Mucking).

The church is a Grade II Listed Building, initially of late 11th or early 12th century date in local flint rubble and imported Kentish rag, with various other limestone and tufa dressings to the fragmentary early window positions. A north aisle once existed, said to have been removed in the early 18th century, save for one piece which was retained as a porch. There was a stone tower and pointed spire, shown upon the Walker survey of 1584, described as being an important navigational feature for mariners upon the river – (such alignment marks – another was Hawksbury hilltop at Fobbing – were used to steer vessels through the various shoals or mudbanks in the channel).

A tradition of St. James’ Church being defiled and used as horse stabling by General Fairfax’s troopers on their march from Maidstone and Rochester to Colchester in June 1648 was long prevalent but is now usually disregarded. The victorious army crossed the river on Sunday, 11th after morning service and were at Lexden close to their target the following night. Such a forced march with 1000 horses could hardly have allowed any lingering. But Tilbury district was under parliamentary control anyway and some vandalising may have ensued through this wartime period.

There may have been damage in the great storm of November, 1703 causing decay in the rubble fillings. There were found to have ‘mouldred’ in February, 1711 when the nave of the church suddenly collapsed, ‘the pillars and part of the Outside Walls ... giving way’. A ‘brief’ – a countrywide appeal for charitable donations – was eventually organised and, in about 1712 or the year following, parson William Philps, began a rebuilding at an estimated cost of £1,117. The chancel appears to have been least affected, but the nave required much renewal, while the old stone ‘seamark’ tower was entirely replaced by a timber frame, lath and plastered structure, in which was housed the ring of five bells.

St. James’ had been referred to in the parishioners’ petition at this time as the garrison church for nearby Tilbury fort. Although the fort had its own Protestant chapel and a retained chaplain, it was evidently to the village that the military resorted for regular church service. A wooden gallery especially for the troops had been added during the early 19th century, referred to in the Ecclesiastical Census of 1851 as being still present.

With 1879, during the early incumbency of the Rev. James Bonamee Dobree an entire restoration began (part of the Victorian revolution in refurbishing the English parish church) over a period of 4 years, giving the building the outward appearance which is familiar today. The tower was entirely rebuilt in flint with stone dressings and a clock. The spire, which had been a feature for several centuries, was omitted. This final stage was completed in 1883 in memory of James Burness, lord of West Tilbury manor.

The Churchyard

The apsidal form of the eastern churchyard, upon a considerable lynchet edge, may suggest that originally the church was positioned upon an oval mound of earlier (perhaps religious) importance. On the west it abuts the manor hall grounds, and was almost certainly separated during the medieval by a (now infilled) moat. The soil here is deep gravel, which quickly disposes of organic remains. Fragments of the 1883 period oakslat fence survive upon the east and north and there is a Victorian timber lych gate, recently retiled with interesting red terracotta dragon finials, aptly reminiscent of Elizabethan (Tudor Welsh dragon) Armada connections here. The burial yard in that period was enclosed by a stone wall, referred to in the parochial returns of 1565 as somewhat ‘broken down’ and to be repaired. It may have been plundered for materials for later church repairs. Its flint base has recently been revealed during clearing operations. The ground is the traditional acre, with a good range of 18th and 19th century headstones, many in imported limestone. A few are of military interest, and several notable village farming names occur: COLE, TALMASH, ASPLIN etc. The burial area was extended downslope upon a piece of agricultural land given by George Burness, of the Hall, consecrated in December 1921 and partly planted round its perimeter with cherry-plum saplings. These are now pleasantly fruiting trees.

Rectors

The identities of the earliest (Norman period) rectors are not known, but were doubtless nominated by the current manor lord. A parson of Tilbury called Richard is named in a property transaction of 1223-4 and in 1228 William, rector of Little (West) Tilbury is recorded. The first rector for whom we have a surname is William de Hareworth who was presented by the King (Edward 1st).

The last rector of the separate parish of West Tilbury was the Rev. Dudley A. Whitwham, who held office from 1954 to 1971. Thereafter a priest-in-charge, Leonard James Middleton officiated at St. James’ until 1977, in which year the aforesaid uniting of parishes took place.

The Parsonage House

Otherwise known in recent centuries as ‘The Rectory’, the medieval priests’ dwelling was situated in the Glebe field area, to S. East of St. James’ churchyard, close to the foot of what is now Cooper Shaw Road. Pottery of the 13th century onwards has been recorded on the site together with roofing tile from the house and buildings. It was here also that the 18th century ‘Rectors’ Well’ for medicinal water was pumped.

For a short while under the incumbency Rev. David Evans in the 1780s, a house on the Green (Well House) was used as the parson’s home, and about a decade later, the Rev. Adam Gordon purchased the ‘New King’s Head’ public house at the Gun Hill corner, converting it into a handsome parsonage house. This gave its name to Rectory Road, and served as the home of West Tilbury’s future rectors from about 1799 until the mid 20th century, when it was sold off and demolished. Some elements of its old garden remain amongst wooded scrubland on the site today (2011).

Archaeology

The 30 metre gravel terrace within the parish produces numerous examples of pointed handaxes of the Lower Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age); some evidence of Mousterian (Neanderthal) tools have been found close to the village centre. A massive presence of post-glacial peoples Maglemosian along the northern stream valley abutting Mucking parish is indicated by the finding of flint production-cores and blades, together with the characteristic tranchet axes of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Occupation continued through the Neolithic, doubtless closely associated with the nearby Orsett causewayed enclosure. These early farmers appear to have been more prevalent upon the upper slopes (gravels) above the aforesaid valley than their Middle Stone Age predecessors. A continuity of field systems throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages is apparent. A Claudian period rectangular defensive enclosure on Gun Hill was excavated in the late 1960s (finds at Thurrock Museum). A most important migration period (c.600 AD) grubenhaus - a sunken floored hut - was examined, also in the late 1960s during gravel extraction. It indicates the early Anglo-Saxonisation of the area from c.450 AD onward and is similar to the numerous other grubenhauser 2 kilometers away on the Mucking hilltop.

Landscape and geology

West Tilbury lies in the extreme south of Essex, fronting the Thames. About half of its land surface is Thames alluvium (clay), the inland portion rising as a dramatic gravel ridge (about 30 metres OD). Upon its northward border with Mucking parish there are limited sandy loams. The substratum is Thanet Sand, which in turn overlies a considerable depth of chalk. A post-glacial stream valley transects the gravel ridge along the north parish edge, revealing slight surface yellow sands (Thanets), over a generally gravely agricultural surface. Some large nodules of flint, and erratic Bunter pebbles surface on the valley bottom. The rich soils of the southward Thames alluvium have been reclaimed from a former natural (tidal) saltmarsh state, being gradually embanked from the medieval onward. An Inquisition of 1362 refers to one marsh on the manor as already within a ‘wall’. The last major ‘inning’ or reclamation for agricultural land came in the 1720s. A significant creek once ran inland to near the Domesday manor centre at Hall Hill, but this was blocked off, apparently in the mid 16th century. Its inlet, known to rivermen as Bill Meroy Creek, allowed the access of small vessels to the Marsh Farm (near Tilbury Fort) to within living memory. Now sealed behind concrete tide defences, its course is easily traceable by the walker.

Earlier agricultural regimes over the parish embraced mixed farming (cattle, grasses, cereals, beans) upon the ‘upland’ gravel heights, where, before present demands upon the water table, numerous surface springs, brooks and ponds existed, and intensive marshland sheep husbandry (producing ewes’ milk and cheeses for the local and wider markets). In the 21st century, the agricultural picture is one of interesting variety within a wholly arable framework, with rotations which include oilseed rapes, barley, potatoes, springreens, salad onions and some maize corn across the high, lighter soils, and rape, potatoes and wheat upon the low lying clays. A few runner beans and small herbs such as coriander are cultivated on suitable loamy patches near the village centre.

Hedges and woodland

Upon the reclaimed marshland, the traditional division of fields (called ‘hopes’) was by drainage ditches (‘water-fences’). These soon develop effusions of phragmites reed, bramble, and wild sloe but are periodically redug and so do not grow into lasting hedges. The upland fields were formerly criss-crossed by lofty columns of elm. This tree is now decimated, but a continuously reviving (cloning) scrub prevails within hedgerows of more mixed character. In places, very ancient fragments of hedgeline survive, giving beautiful ranges of hazel, spindle, field maple, oak, ash and with representative ground flora such as red campion, stitchwort and bluebell. Regrettably, the introduced herb called ‘Alexanders’ (Smyrnium olusatrum) is now colonising most of West Tilbury’s lanes, to the detriment of the richer mosaic of small plants.

Several notable but very small and vulnerable areas of ancient woodland can still be seen. Known as Ashen Shaw, Rainbow Shaw and Shrove Hill, each adheres to the parish boundary, a noticeable feature of many ancient woodlands in the district. The former takes its name from its outline, being set on the northern edge of West Tilbury in a curve around the stony hill summit. In spring its canopy of wild cherries in blossom is a continuing delight. Its ancient coppice stools include Field Maple, Ash, Crab Apple, Hornbeam and Oak (Q.robur), while the woodland floor is prolific with violets, native bluebell and wild arum. Pignut is also present. Shrove Hill, upon the west boundary with Chadwell, is so called from ‘shrough’, an old word for rough woodland. Another tiny parcel of wood is Coopers Shaw – the latter an Elm thicket of more recent origin. The local word ‘shaw’ derives from a medieval term for woodland which was usually managed as coppice.

Field Systems

The field enclosures are well recorded over the past 400 years or more, beginning with John Walker’s manor survey of 1584, to more modern maps (James Asser’s complete parish, 1804, the Tithe Apportionment mapping, 1838, and subsequent O.S. coverage).

Added to these, a precious ‘terrier’ notebook (an account of land details) dating from the 1780s describes every West Tilbury farm and field with its crops; tallies of livestock etc. The present day field systems have developed as farming needs require from those which the above earlier maps describe, and, apart from hedge removal and general enlargement of the plots, show no marked difference (in some cases, the enclosure shapes of 1584 are still evident). They reflect a landscape which has for centuries been partly enclosed as smallish fields (called ‘several’), and partly farmed under the ‘open field’ system.

The Common Fields

Unique to this part of Essex, West Tilbury still has a large expanse of unenclosed (unhedged) land known as ‘Great Common’. This was one of the three medieval areas of strip field, on which the manorial farmers worked their individual copyhold ribbons of ground. It lies backing the village Green and public house. There was another similar area off Low Street Lane, known as the ‘Little Common’, where similarly the individual strips (called ‘dayworks’ here in the medieval period) were marked out by posts or other distinguishing features. The last of these posts – of cast iron – were re-erected in 1868 and bear the name of Sir John Cass, whose charity school at Aldgate owned an estate and strip plots here. The third large field of this type was almost certainly in the area to east of the Green, extending towards Low Street Lane.

West Tilbury Commons

Also survivals of medieval manor farming practice, these are the zones of grassland reserved for the commoners of the township – those who held the copyholds (or later freeholds) of the dozen or more farms within the parish. Each was allowed to graze a certain number of bullocks, cows or sheep upon the commons between spring and late autumn. By the 18th century, this regulation of the manor court was being abused, and various unauthorised villagers let their animals onto the grounds to feed. In 1895 an Act of Parliament finally set up a regulatory body known as the West Tilbury Common Conservators, which continues (2011) to allow the proper use of the several parts of the Commons.

The West Tilbury Commons at present cover above 100 acres of the parish, the smallest portion being the central area of village Green. This was originally (from about 1257) the market square (held each Wednesday) set up by Richard de Tilbury, the manor lord. Adjacent to it, was the manor pond, doubtless an important feature in an age when rural markets were supplied by pack-horses coming from considerable distances. The annual St. James’ fair also took place here, and Walker’s mapping of 1584 refers to it as the ‘Fayer Green’. The larger areas of common grazing lay farther off: Hall Common (south of the manor house) 13 acres; Parsonage Common (near the medieval parsonage house) 15 acres; Tilbury Fort Common 16 acres and 20 acres; Walton Common (close to the Tilbury Power Station) 24 acres; fringes of Fort Road 15 acres.

History

The original part of the village, around the old church of St. James, has been a site of human habitation for many hundreds if not thousands of years. In 1973, excavations at Gun Hill revealed paleolithic and neolithic flint tools, Bronze Age features, Romano-British finds and early Saxon grubenhaus. Further inland, a settlement was formed in 1257 when a market charter was granted to Richard de Tilleburi and a 'fair green' was laid out for use as a market.

Part of Tilbury Fort is in West Tilbury. The fort and hulks moored in the river were used for Jacobite prisoners after the failed "'45" rebellion.

Queen Elizabeth I reviewed her troops here in 1588, delivering her Speech to the Troops at Tilbury. (Many have mistakenly assumed that the Tilbury mentioned as the site of the speech refers to the town around the docks about a mile and a half to the south west. This is not the case as Tilbury town was not built until the docks were constructed in the late 1800s on what was open marshland.) It is believed that the main Spanish attack was expected in Essex, but ships were used to construct a bridge allowing troops to cross the river and prevent the attacking Spanish army from capturing London if it landed in Kent.

In the eighteenth century, water from West Tilbury was bottled and sold for its medicinal properties.

Agriculture

Unusually for south Essex, West Tilbury continued to operate some open field farming well into the 19th century. Although they were in the open field, individual holdings were freehold. There were occasional disputes as to the location of these holdings. In due course, the two institutional land owners - the Sir John Cass Foundation and the town of Henley on Thames - erected markers to define their holdings.

Earlier agricultural regimes over the parish embraced mixed farming (cattle, grasses, cereals, beans) upon the ‘upland’ gravel heights, where, before present demands upon the water table, numerous surface springs, brooks and ponds existed, and intensive marshland sheep husbandry (producing ewes’ milk and cheeses for the local and wider markets). In the 21st century, the agricultural picture is one of interesting variety within a wholly arable framework, with rotations which include oilseed rapes, barley, potatoes, springreens, salad onions and some maize corn across the high, lighter soils, and rape, potatoes and wheat upon the low lying clays. A few runner beans and small herbs such as coriander are cultivated on suitable loamy patches near the village centre.

Gervase of Tilbury

Gervase of Tilbury who was born in the 1150s, was the author of the ‘Otia Imperialia', a medieval work which enjoyed a wide currency in the later middle ages and was twice translated into French. Some thirty manuscripts of his writing survive, one of which (in the Vatican library), has corrections and additions in Gervase’s own hand. It was intended as a volume of instruction and entertainment for the Roman Emperor Otto IV (c.1182-1218), the son of Queen Matilda and grandson to Henry II of England.

The ‘Imperialia’ had however, been begun some 25 years earlier and was intended for the prince Henry, son of Henry II in whose circle Gervase, a learned scholar and cleric, was retained until the young man’s death, in his late twenties, in June 1183. Gervase of Tilbury next found service at the court of William II of Sicily, a move which would have been arranged due to the fact that the Sicilian monarch was himself son in law of Henry II (he married the Princess Joan, sister to Richard Lionheart and King John). His progresses after the King of Sicily’s death in 1189 to the court of the Emperor Otto was again a ‘family’ opportunity from within the circle of Henry II. Under Otto IV’s auspices, Gervase married (which bought him a palace) and was made judge of the Court of Provence and Marshal of Arles.

The Dictionary of National Biography, (Banks S. E. 2004) states ‘he presumably came from Tilbury in Essex’, which must appear ambiguous to the modern enquirer. There are 4 Tilburys in the county; Tilbury (the dock town, founded from c.1883), East Tilbury and West Tilbury (both medieval manors and parishes) on the Thames shore and Tilbury juxta Clare in the north of the shire. However, the source of the matter goes back to William Lambarde, (1536–1601) county historian of Kent, who held the post of Keeper of the Rolls Chapel, 1597 and was latterly keeper of the records at the Tower of London. Lambarde spoke of Gervase as ‘a learned man ... who was kindred to that Kinge (Henry II) and wrote divers learned Woorkes’. He adds that Gervase came from West Tilbury – ‘he was born theare’.

Whether born in the manor or not, it seems substantially correct that West Tilbury is the legitimate placing for him, for the following reasons. Firstly, it was into Henry IIs hands that the manor of West Tilbury Hall was taken, after its tenant in chief, William of Essex, defaulted in the King’s service against the Welsh at the battle of Conseyeth in 1163, when Gervase would have been about 10 or 15. Also, in 1165 a family of the surname of ‘de Tilbury’ was present in the district – Robert de Tillebury held 2 Knights’ fees at Childerditch, about 5 miles off. This same land (Tillingham Hall manor) continued to be tithable to West Tilbury Hall manor until the 18th century. Gervase is therefore convincingly one of this family (of which DNB suggests nothing is known, though it confirms she was related to Patrick, earl of Salisbury). Wright’s ‘History of Essex’ 1834 calls Gervase ‘a nephew’ of Henry II. A favoured bastard line from Henry II offers a plausible solution to the de Tilbury house, which would explain the unusual circumstance – referred to in an inquisition dated 1362 – of the de Tilbury’s private chapel at West Tilbury’s river edge (dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen) being a place where the chaplain was to ‘celebrate daily for the souls of the predecessors of the King and the ancestors of the lords of the manor ...’.

West Tilbury Medicinal Waters

During much of the 18th century, the village was noted for its medicinal springwaters, the most famous of which was pumped from under the Hall Farm kitchen area. It was discovered when the new owner, a gentleman farmer called John Kellaway, sank a well on the premises in 1724. The water was soon observed to cure various cattle complaints and was eventually sent for testing by some notable London chemists, (1736). One of these was Dr. John Andree, one of the founders of the London Hospital and who remained its physician for many years. Among his several publications on the cure of cancer, epilepsy etc. he also wrote a pamphlet outlining the efficacy of the ‘Tilbury Water’ dedicated to Sir Hans Sloane, the King’s personal physician. Numerous testimonials were made to its value, especially in the relief of ‘bloody fluxes’ and various enteric disorders. It was sold both at the village and from the London warehouse of John Ellison, whose initials appear upon the only known complete surviving quart glass bottle (Thurrock Museum). With the 1780s, competition arose when the current rector of St. James’, the Rev. David Evans, began to market a springwater from his rectory house yard (which stood upon the same hill as the Hall). This was sold from Owen’s warehouse in Saville Row near Temple Bar. The attempt to impose this ‘inferior’ substitute on the public probably lasted less than a decade (the Rev. D. Evans died early 1795), by which time the West Tilbury springs were in any case falling from public awareness. In 1803 it was described as ‘occasionally resorted to’ and the parish rate records do not refer to the main well-site after 1807.

Development and Industry

Remarkably, within an area of past industrialisation, West Tilbury has remained more or less intact as an agricultural parish. This is largely due to the influence of the (now) major landowner, the C. H. Cole and Sons farming estate, which is based at the Mill House Farm. Present in the parish since the mid Victorian years, previous family representatives resisted the influences which saw surrounding areas urbanised. A minimal piece of the parish near Tilbury Town was developed for housing with the arrival of the East and West India Co. docks, c.1883, and the ancient Marsh Farm (Meroys) was utilised for the nearby town’s sewage works. To east of Tilbury Fort (which stands partly on the W. Tilbury marsh and partly in the next-door parish of Chadwell) the 1950s saw the building of the first of two giant power stations, the later of which still dominates the parish foreshore. Random surface destruction in the form of scattered gravel workings (‘ballast-holes’) either open or infilled, is evident in places, one of the 19th century quarries being now overgrown and serving as a pleasant scouting camp-ground. The alluvial marshgrounds were transected by a railway line (London, Tilbury and Southend Railway) in 1854-55, with a small station being erected at Low Street a half dozen years later. It was demolished under the Beeching cuts in 1969. West Tilbury is one of the three proposed sites for a new Thames bridging scheme and motorway link within the next decade.

Heritage Buildings

Most notable is TILBURY FORT (English Heritage), a mid-late 17th century star-fort commanding the narrow (900 metres wide) passage of Thames. It is well documented in available guide books, though these concentrate largely on the fort’s strategic concept, layout and architecture. The military men’s social life is less accentuated. Public access is year-round and there are useful exhibitions within.

Other heritage buildings are either central or peripheral to the inland village itself and, taken as a group, demonstrate admirably the local vernacular, plan and style of the late 15th to mid 19th centuries within the locality. WEST TILBURY HALL, CONDOVERS (now WALNUT TREE COTTAGE) and MARSHALLS are all early Tudor timber framed (oak and elm) hall-houses with crosswings. Of these, WEST TILBURY HALL is the largest, with fine Tudor brick cellars under its rear projection. This is the only moated site within the parish, one fragment only of the wide dry ditch remaining at the south garden edge, next to the churchyard. POLWICKS at Low Street represents the newer Renaissance house of the early 17th century (about 1620), again timber framed but of double-pile arrangement (two houseframes side by side), while MANOR FARM (currently called THE WHITE HOUSE), is of the late 17th century, being essentially one pile or houseframe of double length to the previous. It reflects foreign softwood timbers coming in from Scandinavia (Norwegian Fir) and is largely weatherboard clad.

The move to brick which became a village feature from the 18th century is represented in THE KING’S HEAD (c.1770s with additions) but this, like the POST OFFICE of c.1810 has been stucco faced. The upper windows of this important building above a pleasant shopfront bow, have been atrociously replaced in the late 20th century. THE OLD BAKERY on the Green is therefore the best example to seek – a compact yellow stockbrick home of small scale and with appropriate windows, built in the 1830s. A little outside the village, at GUNHILL FARM and the MILL HOUSE FARM, are two characteristic early Victorian villa-type residences, erected for prosperous farming and milling families, the first in 1839 and the latter in 1850. They reflect the comfortable style of town-influenced architecture which replaced outdated farmstead homes throughout the district over much of the 19th century.

The Schoolhouse

Situated to one side of the Memorial Hall, the schoolhouse is a gabled slate-roofed building of yellow stock brick with red courses, a typical example of late Victorian ‘board-school’ architecture. Currently it stands empty, its final use having been a council depot for storing and repairing grasscutting equipment. The iron railed and tarmaced playground looks onto Rectory Road. It opened in 1876 with capacity to take 66 children from infant stage through to school-leaver age, an average attendance in the mid 1880s being 55 scholars. The 1891 census indicated a considerable gipsy camp had arrived on the West Tilbury common and the presence of this population together with new docks overspill led to the extension of the schoolhouse in 1894. In 1913, it was interestingly described in the local newspaper as a ‘comprehensive’ and as late as the 1930s, under the charge of a headmistress and 2 teachers, as many as 118 children were on its register. Closure came with Friday, 22 July 1960 when transfer to the newly formed Torrells school, some distance off at Little Thurrock, commenced for seniors, the younger children moving mainly to Chadwell. The headteachers’ log books are not present in any known public archive – a significant loss to the social story of the village.

Village Hall

West Tilbury Village Hall was opened in 1924 by Captain E. A. Loftus, in remembrance of those local men who gave their lives in the Great War of 1914-1918. The names of these men are recorded on a memorial tablet in St. James's Church, in the village hall and on the village hall website (see below for web address). Located in Rectory Road and on the southern edge of the great common field, the hall was built using funds raised within the village and by donations from local landowners. The hall is available for hire and thereby continues to serve the wider community to the present day as the hub of village activity. West Tilbury Village Hall is a registered charity supported by local residents and their fund raising activities.

External links

Media related to West Tilbury at Wikimedia Commons