Tilbury Fort

I’m guilty of spending far too much time on Google Maps, looking for interesting photo opportunities and planning projects in my head that will likely never come to fruition. For some people, researching to this extent can ruin the sense of exploration and surprise when you visit somewhere new and to an extent I agree. However sometimes while searching for these opportunities I come across something that I wasn’t expecting, in this case a rather interesting military fort. Now I’m no history buff and quite frankly most things to do with war I find a bit depressing, as a child I was dragged around numerous castles and historic sites by my parents which quite frankly wasn’t my idea of fun at the time. So while perusing Google Maps around the Thames area and letting Uy Hoang do all of the walking for me, I came across Tilbury Fort.

Reading further into the history of Tilbury, it was one of many fortifications built under King Henry VIII to defend England against an impending invasion. At this point ol’ Henry was trying to get an annulment on his first marriage and apparently this was a major no no at the time and ultimately led to the Pope encouraging his wife’s father, the King of Spain, to team up with France and invade England. Henry was probably shitting bricks at the prospect of war and so commissioned a bunch of new coastal defences, the order of which was known as a ‘device’, hence Tilbury and the other fortifications became known as ‘Device Forts’.

Naturally, Wikipedia has an exhaustive list of these forts and it’s fascinating to see how different each of them are, both in size and design. Seeing them juxtaposed against contemporary structures creates a feeling of foreboding, buildings designed for battle alongside car parks, lighthouses and ice cream stands. Tilbury was quiet when I visited and it had a still, calming atmosphere, a busier day might have had a vastly different feeling but I found it extremely peaceful to wander around, sharing the space only with four or five others.

I was immediately drawn to the enormous lawned areas which surrounded the centre of the fort grounds, kudos to the team that do the mowing as the grass was so well kept and the undulating ground created some lovely waves which kind of became the theme in a lot of the photos I took. The contrast in natural greenery against the hard edges of walls and buildings was really enjoyable to make use of and the few people who were wandering around may have been wondering why I was so interested in taking photos of walls rather than absorbing the history. Another aspect of the fort which I found a pleasant change was that the perimeter wall was much higher than the rest of the grounds, offering an elevated view and a different angle to capture. I’m almost always taking photos at ground level of other things on the same plane but I enjoy the use of a slightly elevated point of view in other peoples work and it was great to have an opportunity to try it myself. As always I see things in the photos that I wish I’d paid more attention to at the time, such as the image a little further down overlooking what would have been the officers barracks and the tower blocks in the far distance. I should have moved a few steps to the side and given each tower block some space around it and the same for the chimneys on the terraced houses. These are the sorts of things which I find I forget to think about at the time but maybe its just me overthinking as usual.

The area surrounding the fort is equally interesting and I’ll certainly be heading back to have an explore if I get the chance. On the way I saw a lot of industrial facilities, some horses roaming freely in the fields and most notably, a pig wandering next to the road. As always there was no where to pull in with the car which is always a tad frustrating so perhaps next time I’ll wander up on foot. These ‘edgeland’ type places fascinate me, I love how empty and purposeless they are and yet beautiful in their own way. Naturally they often become targets for antisocial activities such as fly tipping, but the unspoiled, undeveloped landscape is a welcome change from the continuously sprawling housing and industrial areas around London. All it needs is a flyover to complete the aesthetic.

I’ve been really impressed with the colours that have come out of the Canon 5D, usually I would apply an edit to all my images but aside from some sharpening and minor highlight/ shadow adjustments all of the photos from this trip are ‘unedited’. I particularly like the image above, dare I say it looks a bit film-like..forgive me I'm beginning to sound like I’m about to share my presets in exchange for money. I’ll probably write something about the 5D at some point but it’s definitely been a refreshing change from 5 years predominantly with the Fuji X100F as my everyday camera.

I imagined I would write a lot more but I’m trying to be more regular with these blog posts and I feel like if I make them too long I won’t want to do many! I’ll definitely do a bit of a review on the 5D and maybe a roundup post of my favourite photos taken with the X100F as it’ll be five years since I bought it at the end of the month.

Thanks for reading!