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Shearwater Avenue, TILBURY, RM18 8DQ

Bata-type houses were constructed at various times during the lifetime of the nearby Bata shoe factory between 1932-2005. These look as though they post-date the original houses.

Along with the shoe factory, Tomáš Baťa also planned housing, schools and shops for his employees. 4 and 6 Bata Avenue, seen here, is now a Grade II Listed Building and the Historic England website describes it thus:- "Semi-detached houses. 1930-33. Designed by Vladimir Karfik and Frantizek Gahura, and built by various local contractors. Flat roofed. Hybrid construction with concrete poured in lifts of roughly one metre in height to front and side walls; interior partition and rear walls of brick faced with concrete. Two storeys and two-window range to the pair; rectangular bay to each sitting room; entrances on the returns with one small window to each floor. Four-window range to the rear. Stack to party wall. International Style. Nos 2-34 (even) Bata Avenue form a group." Curiously only the houses on the north side of Bata Avenue merit Grade II Listing. The other one in the pair of gateway buildings and the odd numbered houses do not.

Along with the shoe factory, Tomáš Baťa also planned housing, schools and shops for his employees. 2 Bata Avenue, seen here, is now a Grade II Listed Building and the Historic England website describes it thus:- "House. 1930-1933. Designed by Vladimir Karfik and Frantizek Gahura and built by a variety of local contractors. Flat roofed. Hybrid construction, with front and side walls of concrete poured in lifts of about one metre in height; interior partition and rear walls appear to be made from brick and then faced in concrete. International Style. Two storeys and four-window range with half landing window on centre axis above main entrance. Entrances on returns. Thin projecting cornice. All openings flat arched. One of a pair of gateway buildings to Bata Avenue, their design was unique. Forms a group with Nos 4-34 (even) Bata Avenue." Curiously only the houses on the north side of Bata Avenue merit Grade II Listing. The other one in the pair of gateway buildings and the odd numbered houses do not. Judging by the signs stating "staff parking" on the building, it is not in residential use anymore.

This is a graphic illustration of industrial decline in South Essex, now the area destined to become the Thames Gateway. The BATA factory made shoes for decades and employed hundreds of people. It was part of a shoe-making empire that started in Czechoslovakia and eventually led to a chain of shops throughout the UK. The factory closed - and the jobs went with it. Now the area is waiting for the promised re-generation.

So says the sign at the left, but no obvious medical centre could be seen close by. The buildings beyond are flat-roofed houses on Bata Avenue, one of the original developments when the Bata shoe factory and the estate for its workers was established. Rigg-Milner was the name of a G.P. who was my family doctor 50 years or more ago, not very far from here - could it be the same person?

No shoes now in East Tilbury, the site is being reused for industrial units

The buildings of the former Bata shoe factory at East Tilbury seen across a fog bank on the river. Looking out of the mouth of Cliffe Creek.

Originally the Bata Hotel.