Tilbury Fort

En un regard

Le château en bref

On the north bank of the Thames, opposite Gravesend, Tilbury Fort is regarded by Historic England as the most spectacular surviving late 17th-century coastal fort in England. Its pentagonal plan bristling with arrowhead bastions, surrounded by a double water-filled moat, illustrates the direct influence of Dutch fortification on English military engineering during the Restoration. The site preserves the memory of several layers of history: Henry VIII's blockhouse, whose remains lie buried; the nearby camp at West Tilbury where Elizabeth I addressed her troops in 1588 in the face of the Armada; and then the great fortress designed by Sir Bernard de Gomme from 1670. In the 18th century the fort became a major gunpowder depot of the Board of Ordnance and served as a prison for Jacobites captured after Culloden. Now managed by English Heritage, the fort is open to visitors: the monumental Water Gate with its decoration glorifying Charles II, the Landport Gate, the 1716 powder magazines, the officers' barracks and the gun lines reveal three centuries of defence of the estuary, up to the two World Wars.