River Tillingham

Tillingham
The river at Beckley
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationEast Sussex
MouthRiver Brede
 • location
Rye, East Sussex
 • coordinates
50°56′49″N 0°43′54″E / 50.946958°N 0.731703°E / 50.946958; 0.731703
 • elevation
0 m (0 ft)
River Tillingham
Springs near Staplecross
Sewage Treatment Works
Ellenwhorne Lane bridge
Watts Palace Lane bridge
A28 Arnold Bridge
tributary
Site of Beckley Furnace ironworks
Hundredhouse Bridge
B2089 Ferry Bridge, Rye
Marshlink line bridge
Tillingham Sluice
A259 Winchelsea Road bridge
Strand Wharf
River Rother
Rock Channel
Brede Sluice
Rye Harbour
River Brede to Winchelsea
Rye Bay, English Channel

The River Tillingham flows through the English county of East Sussex. It meets the River Brede and the eastern River Rother near the town of Rye. A navigable sluice controlled the entrance to the river between 1786 and 1928, when it was replaced by a vertical lifting gate which was not navigable. The river provided water power to operate the bellows of an iron works at Beckley Furnace, used to make cannons for the Royal Navy between 1578 and 1770, when it became uneconomic, and a water mill which replaced it, until that burnt down in 1909. The lower reaches supported a thriving shipbuilding industry from the early nineteenth century onwards, and although on a smaller scale, was still doing so in 2000.