Tilbury (2016 population 4,768) is a

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

within the municipality of

Chatham-Kent Chatham-Kent (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population: 103,988) is a Census divisions of Ontario#Single-tier municipalities, single-tier municipality in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is mostly rural, and its population centres are Chatham, Wallac ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It is located southwest of

and east of Windsor on

Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian prov ...

History

The nearby townships of Tilbury West and Tilbury East were named for the port of

Tilbury Tilbury is a port town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. The present town was established as separate settlement in the late 19th century, on land that was mainly part of Chadwell St Mary. It contains a Tilbury Fort, 16th century fort ...

in the English county of

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. A settlement, called Henderson (after the local postmaster), was established with the construction of the Canada Southern Railway in 1875. The name of the post office was changed to Tilbury Centre after the adjoining townships and the community was incorporated as a village in 1887. The name changed again to Tilbury a few years later, in 1895, and incorporated as a town in 1910. Tilbury is also home to the largest antique mall in its part of Southern Ontario. Tilbury is also famous for its murals which depict part of its history. In 1998, the town was amalgamated with the City of Chatham, the township of Chatham, Blenheim, Bothwell, Camden, Dover, Dresden, Erie Beach, Erieau, Harwich, Highgate, Howard, Orford, Raleigh, Ridgetown, Romney, Thamesville, Tilbury East, Wallaceburg, Wheatley and Zone to form the municipality of Chatham-Kent. The former town hall at 17 Superior Street is now Tilbury Municipal Centre and Chatham-Kent Police station. Tilbury Post Office

Transportation

Tilbury is served by

and Ontario Highway 2. Public transit is provided by CK Transit's interurban Route D Chatham-Tilbury-Merlin. The closest airports are Chatham-Kent Airport and Windsor International Airport. There are no trains servicing Tilbury directly; the closest is

VIA Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via (stylized as VIA Rail), is a Canadian Crown corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service in Canada. As of December 2023, Via Rail operates 406 trains per week across eight ...

's Chatham station.

Community

Tilbury is also home of the Titans of Tilbury District High School, with an attendance of around 300 students. There is also a French elementary school (École élémentaire Saint-Francis), a public elementary school (Tilbury Area Public School) as well as a Catholic elementary school (St. Joseph Catholic School with 120 students). Along with the former townships of Tilbury East and

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

, Tilbury is a designated

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

service area under Ontario's '' French Language Services Act''. Tilbury has an arena which provides free skating in the wintertime. Tilbury also has a splash pad near Tilbury Arena and Memorial Park has a skateboard park, a tennis court, an outdoor swimming pool, and a baseball field. Near the end of June, the organizers host a

Canada Day Canada Day, formerly known as Dominion Day, is the national day of Canada. A Public holidays in Canada, federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 1867, with the passing of the B ...

fireworks event around dusk at the park. Organizers host the Tibury Santa Claus Parade in late November or early December and the Canada Day Parade in late June. It also holds many pizza places.

Media

Tilbury has a weekly newspaper, the ''Tilbury Times''. The Tilbury Times had been publishing since 1884. It features local news, sports, and highlights. In some instances, news from Tilbury may be heard on CKSY-FM, CFCO and CKUE-FM on radio, as well as television stations CBC News Windsor CBET-DT and CHWI-DT.

Downtown renovations

In 2014, sidewalks in Tilbury were replaced, and new streetlights installed. In 2017, streetlights got new types of bulbs as LEDs are used for night illumination.

External links

References

{{authority control Communities in Chatham-Kent Former municipalities in Ontario Populated places disestablished in 1998