Silk River Souvenir Programme

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.
24