Unlike Tilbury Town the Bata Estate was built above the marshlands, on 670 acres of former farmland, approximately three miles northeast of Tilbury.

The Bata Estate followed in the tradition of "Garden" villages and towns such as Port Sunlight, Bournville, and Letchworth. Created by the Czech shoe manufacturer Thomas Bata in 1933, the layout and buildings of the estate were based on those of his first major project in Zlin, Moravia. Both were designed to be completely planned settlements centred around the Bata Shoe Factory site. Zlin is believed to be the only entirely "Constructivist" town in the world. The architects for Zlin and then East Tilbury included V. Karfik and F. Gahura.

The Factories
The first factory building opened in 1933 during a period of world depression. By 1939 as a result of a planned programme of development, four, five storey buildings were constructed – leather and rubber factories, administration and service departments, and a hotel / “Community House”.

The Company had its own building department, which placed emphasis upon cheap, standardised, rapid construction. Construction methods consisted of welded steel frames filled with concrete or brick.

Inside the factories the production formula was based on a concept of high productivity through careful planning, internal competition, rigorous quality assessment, and a philosophy of complete control over the workers.

Each factory gate each had a clock and tannoy. Rousing marching music was piped to the arriving and departing workers - absenteeism and lateness were not tolerated.

To counteract demands for union representation, a Managerial Advisory Committee was set up. Elections were held for worker representatives who would attend weekly managerial meetings.

The company strategy was to provide a large amount of good quality affordable footwear, and the Bata Empire became hugely successful with shops, estates, and factory sites across the world. The Bata factories in East Tilbury mainly provided boots to the armed forces, Wellington boots, and also the “Wayfinder” shoe, designed for scouts, with a compass hidden in a compartment in the heel.

Estate Housing
The first houses to be built were the flat roofed semi-detached houses along Thomas Bata Avenue.

A “Community House” provided accommodation for young single factory workers, and part of the top floor provided a private suite for Thomas Bata Junior.

Larger houses for managers were built around the roundabouts at the end of the Avenues. These had an extended frontage incorporating a first floor balcony.

Apart from bricks and mortar, all fixtures, fittings and materials used in the construction of the buildings were imported from Czechoslovakia.

The last houses to be built by the Company were the semi-detached dwellings along Princess Margaret Road, which were completed between 1959 and 1966.

Social Facilities
Social facilities centred upon the area surrounding the Community House. The ground floor housed shops, a French restaurant, a ballroom, a social club, a kitchen and canteen for up to six hundred people.

Thomas Bata’s ethos of a well-housed healthy workforce being a productive workforce meant that the estate plans also included the construction of extensive sporting facilities. These included tennis courts and pavilion, an open-air swimming pool, playing fields and children’s playground. Workers paid weekly subscriptions for the use and maintenance of the facilities.

The weekly paper the Bata Record (sold at one penny in 1936), kept workers up to date with all developments competitions, and social events.

A cinema seating four hundred offered screenings three nights a week until the last performance in 1965.

Not all the workers at the Bata factory lived on the estate, but those that did had the advantages of the amenities and purpose built housing. They also had the disadvantages associated with lack of privacy, strict rules, and the watchful eye of the company.By the early 1980’s British Bata had scaled down its operation in East Tilbury, most of the factory buildings were closed, leaving only a small factory site, which is still operational today. The houses were offered for sale to tenants, and those left unsold became part of an independent housing association. The majority of Bata’s production is now carried out in developing countries, and the majority of East Tilbury’s residents are now commuters.