Early settlement There is evidence of
Romano-British settlement in what is now East Tilbury, with three hut circles dating to the 1st and 2nd centuries discovered on the East Tilbury foreshore in 1920. Remnants of a prehistoric track from
Hangman's Wood in
Grays to the
parish church and river bank of East Tilbury suggests the use of a
ford river crossing over the
River Thames with
Higham on the
Hoo in
Kent from the
prehistoric period until
BC, when the Thames was much lower and narrower than it is today due to lower sea levels. This crossing may have seen later use during the
Roman conquest of Britain by
Claudius, with the Roman historian
Cassius Dio suggesting that the Britons forded the river here to flee the advancing forces of
Aulus Plautius. The exact location of Cedd's church is not known, but it is believed to have been on the same site as the current East Tilbury parish church of St Catherine's which was then surrounded by tidal
marshland, or alternatively further towards the East Tilbury river front or in what is now the neighbouring settlements of West Tilbury or Tilbury Town. During the Anglo-Saxon period, East and West Tilbury likely formed a single
manorial estate, with East Tilbury as the namesake village of Tilbury. Following the
Norman Conquest, Tilbury was split between different lords of the manor, which at times included
William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey and
Robert fitz Swein of Essex. in East Tilbury was built in the 1860s and remained an active part of the defences of London up to and including
World War II For much of the Middle Ages, East Tilbury regularly fell victim to foreign raids along the River Thames because of a lack of suitable defensive fortifications. The factory has since closed down. The
Bata company developed not only a factory, but also a village for workers, built in the
modernist style, and a sizeable estate of
listed buildings remains. A sizeable
Czech workforce was relocated here, and has merged into the local community after connections were lost with
Czechoslovakia after
World War II. The father of arts administrator
John Tusa, also called John (Jan), was managing director of the factory in the late 30s.
Administrative history East Tilbury was an
ancient parish in the
Barstable Hundred of Essex. When elected parish and district councils were established in 1894, East Tilbury was included in the
Orsett Rural District. The civil parish and the rural district were both abolished in 1936 when the area became part of the new
Thurrock Urban District. At the 1931 census (the last before the abolition of the civil parish), East Tilbury had a population of 353. The parish of East Tilbury has also been abolished for ecclesiastical purposes, and the area now forms part of a Church of England ecclesiastical parish called "East and West Tilbury and Linford", with St Catherine's Church at East Tilbury serving as the parish church. ==Education==