TV show highlights village's rich history (From Thurrock Gazette)

TV show highlights village's rich history

7:00am Friday 8th February 2013 in News

THE architectural history of East Tilbury has been thrown into the spotlight in recent weeks.

Last Tuesday Jonathan Meades, pictured, a renowned food and architecture writer, presented a BBC Four documentary called Joys Of Essex, part of which was filmed in East Tilbury.

He was filmed outside part of the Bata shoe factory, detailing the village’s rich and interesting modernist history as part of the programme that aimed to paint Essex in a different light to the “bling-filled” stereotype, with which it has become associated with thanks to programmes such as The Only Way is Essex.

Meades discussed the history of the Bata town, which was built for workers by company founder Thomas Bata and designed by Czech architects.

Meades said the town did not look English and appeared “exotic”. He also said the town was “cultish” and “autonomous”.

Bata moved out in the 1980s. To finish his piece, Meades said: “It was a miniature single industry town and a single industry is a precarious foundation.”

Two weeks ago, 29 architecture students from Brighton University came to visit East Tilbury as part of a five-month project, where they will be asked to re-imagine a new, hypothetical, use for the factory buildings.

The aim of the visit was for students was to see the factory and associated buildings and give them an insight into how the place used to be compared to how it is now.