West Tilbury Blockhouse
This is one of the five artillery ‘blockhouses’ built by King Henry VIII along both the north and south banks of the river Thames estuary. At that time, fortifications were constructed to defend London against warships potentially sailing upstream into London. This was a fractious period in English history following the English Reformation, when Henry VIII made himself head of the church of England and severed all Catholic control from the Pope in Rome.
The blockhouse grew into a fort following the restoration of Charles II and the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17th Century and then again, due to threats emerging from France over the 18th and 19th Centuries.
During the First and Second World Wars the fort was used as an army barracks and supply base.
West Tilbury Blockhouse
This is one of the five artillery ‘blockhouses’ built by King Henry VIII along both the north and south banks of the river Thames estuary. At that time, fortifications were constructed to defend London against warships potentially sailing upstream into London. This was a fractious period in English history following the English Reformation, when Henry VIII made himself head of the church of England and severed all Catholic control from the Pope in Rome.
The blockhouse grew into a fort following the restoration of Charles II and the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 17th Century and then again, due to threats emerging from France over the 18th and 19th Centuries.
During the First and Second World Wars the fort was used as an army barracks and supply base.
English Heritage
