western end of the section of the Thames known as Lower Hope Reach, was fortified long before the building of Coalhouse Fort due to its vulnerability to seaborne attackers. Settlements on both sides of the Thames were raided by the French in 1379 during the second phase of the Hundred Years' War. The attack prompted the building of Cooling Castle on Kent's Hoo Peninsula between 1380 and 1385 but there was initially no corresponding move to improve the defences of East Tilbury. Appeals from the local people led to the Crown agreeing in July 1402 to build an earthen rampart and towers to protect the settlement. The site of these early defences is not known but might have been near where St Catherine's Church now stands. A ditch of unknown date in that vicinity may represent a fragment of the medieval defences. Henrician defences Henry VIII ordered the construction of an artillery blockhouse at East Tilbury in 1539–40 as part of a major scheme to fortify the coastline of England and Wales. It followed his break from the Pope and the Catholic Church, which led to fears that the Catholic powers of Europe would seek to invade so as to reimpose Papal authority. Five blockhouses were built along the Thames between Gravesend and Higham – two on the north bank at Tilbury and East Tilbury and three on the south bank at Gravesend, Milton (near the present New Tavern Fort) and Higham. The East Tilbury Blockhouse was built partly with stone taken from St Margaret's Chapel in Tilbury, which was dissolved in 1536. Its form is not known but it probably consisted of a brick and stone structure, perhaps in a D-shape, with a rampart and ditch to enclose its landward side. It was recorded as having fifteen iron and brass cannon of various calibres in 1540; these had been increased to 27 by 1539–40. It had a small permanent garrison, consisting of a commander and his deputy, a porter, two soldiers and four gunners. The blockhouse may have been altered in 1545 but in 1553 it was disarmed. Although the corresponding blockhouse at Gravesend continued in use and that at Tilbury was eventually incorporated into Tilbury Fort between 1670 and 1683, the one at East Tilbury seems to have been abandoned before the end of the 16th century. By 1735 it had been inundated by the river and was