This week in Down Memory Lane we look at Tilbury ferry.
The service has run from Tilbury to Gravesend for hundreds of years.
It is understood that the ferry has been on operation since Roman times but the earliest record date goes back to 1304.
The Essex terminal was at one time within the Fort as show in the first picture, but was moved by the fort’s governor to the Ferry Inn in 1631, now called the Worlds End, because of drunks waiting in the fort for the ferry.
Then when the railways came 1854 the first railway station was built to connect with the ferry and take passengers to Gravesend so the ferry terminal moved again to where it is today.
Before the opening of the Dartford Tunnel the ferry carried motor vehicles but sadly closed shortly after as trade dropped right off when the tunnel opened. But the passenger ferry still runs today carrying shoppers and commuters across the busy Thames.
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