At St Mary's we have very strong links and are very committed to our partnership with our local parish, Our Lady Star of the Sea.  The children regularly attend organised Masses and Liturgical events both in the Church and at School.      Father Anthony Cho, Parish Priest, regularly visits the school and holds Masses and other special events, including the Crowning of our Lady and Corpus Christi Procession.

History of our Parish

The real history of Tilbury effectively begins with the opening of Tilbury Docks in April 1886.   Seeing the potential for development, Cardinal Manning  bought a few acres of land as early as 1885, on which was to be built a school, a church, a presbytery and a convent.   The Tilbury Mission was served from Grays, but in 1887 Canon Keens was asked to take charge in Tilbury, to supervise the building programme and to look after the Catholic people there.

A school for two hundred and fifty children was opened in 1887.   Father Joseph Upton became the first priest-in charge in 1901, living initially in the school until the presbytery was built about 1902.    His successor, Father Van Meenan, organised the building of the Parish Church of Our Lady Star of the Sea, which was opened on Ascension Day 1907.   Meanwhile, in 1905 the Sisters of Mercy came to the parish and took over the teaching of the school's children, a task they carried out with distinction for most of the twentieth century.   Their convent was built in Malta Road in 1909, and it has been a haven for spiritual and social support ever since.

Extreme poverty in the area meant that the new parish was barely viable.   Although there were over 500 Catholics in the parish before the First World War they were unable to make a significant financial contribution and the parish was laden with debt.   On August 2^nd  1918, just before the end of the First World War, Our Lady Star  of the Sea became a parish in the new Diocese of Brentwood.

For more information please see the parish website. 

Contact details: 
Our Lady Star of the Sea
96 Dock Rd
Tilbury
Essex
RM18 7BT

tel: 01375 842309    email: tilbury@dioceseofbrentwood.org