Way back in the 17th century, forts were built to act as coastal defences and Tilbury Fort is one such example.
You begin your tour starting off in the old Guard House which is now the gift shop where you purchase your entrance ticket. The is a great example of a Victorian cast-iron fireplace in the the guard house which you will pass as you exit outside. If you look closely at the fireplace you will see the letters B and O – which stands for the Board of Ordinance.
The BO is the government body that used to give out the weapons and supplies to the army.
As you move out on to the parade ground you can see some examples of the guns that would have been used at the fort.
To the left you can see two buildings with carved roofs, these are the gunpowders stores. To the right you can see what were once the officers quarters and at the bottom you can see what remains of the soldiers barracks.
The foundations that you can see in the photograph are all that remain of the soldiers barracks. Each section (separated by a curtain) would have had two beds in it. Each bed would then have had two soldiers in it and if they had a wife and children then they would also share these tiny quarters.
As mentioned previously, the two buildings with the curved roofs are where the barrels of gunpowder were stored. If you look closely you will notice that fixings such as the door and even the rain water downpipe outside are made of materials that don’t spark! Even the floorboards inside are secured with wooden pegs instead of nails to reduce the risk of a spark.
If you take a wander around to the north-east Bastion you can wander through the underground passage and see where artilery was once stored. As you enter you will pass a wooden gate, this was where is soldier would have changed in to some special clothing that minimised the risk of sparking.
The officers quarters are now privately owned so unfortunately you can not wander around them. However, even from the outside you can see they were significantly better than the soldiers barracks.
When you arrived at Tilbury Fort you will have walked through the Water Gate (so called as it faces the water). At one stage there would have been two sets of wooden gates and not just the one that remains today. This was so they could perform security checks on all who entered the fort.
As you leave Tilbury Fort, take a look at the zig-zag type of wall on your left. This is where the water once used to come up to, but as with most rivers it slowly changed course over time.
