Bill Meroy Creek is a small waterway flowing into the Thames to the east of Tilbury Fort in West Tilbury which from 1851 marked the eastern boundary of the area in which duty had to be paid on coal entering London.[1]
Location edit
Bill Meroy Creek is to the east of Tilbury Fort in West Tilbury (within the Thurrock unitary authority).[2]
Name edit
The name of Bill Meroy Creek is a corruption of the name William Millroy who was an 18th-century cattle farmer.[3] It has also been known as Bilmaroy Creek and Billmarry Creek. It is named on some maps as Ordnance Creek.[4] It was previously known as Pincock's Creek.[5]
Coal Duty edit
Coal sold in the City of London had been taxed since medieval times. With the coming of the canals and railways, the area in which duty was payable was extended and Bill Meroy Creek defined the eastern end of this area on the north bank of the Thames. To avoid paying this tax, wharfs were established at a number of places just outside the limits including what came to be known as Coalhouse point.[6]
1953 Floods edit
It was through a breach in the sea wall at Bill Meroy Creek that the flood waters inundated Tilbury Town in 1953.[7]
Notes edit
- ^ Nail, Martin. "The London District 1845-1861". City posts: the coal duties of the City of London and their boundary marks. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
- ^ Catalogue of Plans of Tilbury Fort, page 35 Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Bingley, Randal (2010). Behold the Painful Plough. Thurrock Unitary Authority Museum Service. p. 320.
- ^ Nail, Martin. "London district coal dues map". City posts: the coal duties of the City of London and their boundary marks. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
- ^ Randal Bingley, ‘Who Was Bill Meroy?’, Essex Countryside 26 No.373 (1988), 15.
- ^ Cracknell, Basil E (1968). Portrait of London river: the Thames from Teddington to the sea. Robert Hale. p. 152.
- ^ Grieve, Hilda (1959). The Great Tide. Essex County Council. p. 246.