THIS week,I recall the importance of coal, both at home and for industry.

The distribution of coal in earlier years to London was mainly by shipping (colliers) from Newcastle, and Thurrock played an important part in the co-ordination of delivery from just outsideTilburyFort. Here, until the new sea defence walls were built in the Seventies, stood the Coal Factor look-out post.

The type and tonnage of coal on each ship was recorded by the lookout, who contacted the London Coal Factor Society to see which wharf or jetty in the Thames it should discharge its load. In the 1953 floods, the look-out was stranded in his hut for a few days, but luckily it stood on a sturdy concrete military searchlight emplacement from the Great War.

The society was established in the first half of the 18th century, for people engaged in the wholesale coal trade in London. In 1832, the society was re-founded, for “friendly intercourse and mutual protection” of members of the trade.

The archives of much of its work are preserved from 1702 and consist of minutes, attendance books, letter books, rules and regulations, a n account of market dues at the Coal Exchange, an alphabetical list of ships giving gross and net tonnage , and a Tilbury signal code book.

The collection also includes a register of names, destinations and owners of ships.

By 1875, five million tons of coal were being brought to London each year by rail and three million tons by sea. Thousands of workmen were employed to move the coal from the ships, with “coal-whippers”

carrying sacks of coal by hand from a ship to a coal merchant’s lighter, and they were then taken onshore by “coal-backers”.

The coal was sorted by “coalsifters” and put into sacks by a “coal-filler ”, then transported by “coal-waggoners ” and delivered by a “coal-trimmer”.

Another place in Thurrock also associated with coal is at East Tilbury, where the Asplin family carried out a business from the jetty at Coalhouse Point.I wonderif this down-river position beat the coal boundary for tax purposes. Later on in Grays, the Seabrookes Brewery also supplied coal to Grays households.

DOWN MEMORY LANE is written by local historian JONATHAN CATTON, in partnership with Thurrock Museum. Memories, photographs or objects relating to Thurrock’s past will be gratefully received for the museum collections. Contact by letter at Thurrock Museum, Thameside Complex, Orsett Road, Grays, RM17 5DX, make a personal visit, or email Thurrock.Museum@thurrock.gov.uk