Tilbury Fort (Tilbury)
Tilbury Fort is an outstanding military building in Tilbury in Essex, beside the River Thames.
It was built in 1682, as protection against the Dutch and French fleets, and is widely regarded as England`s finest example of military architecture from this period.
The Gateway, built about the same time, is in the form of a triumphal arch. It is said to have been designed by Inigo Jones.
The fort is on the site of an earlier one built by Henry VIII in 1539. It was here that Elizabeth I gave her stirring speech to her troops before the arrival of the Spanish Armada in 1539 ("I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman ....").