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.

Following extensive flooding, including the washing away of the church on 1271, a new town was established further to the west on a hill near Iham, just to the south of the Tillingham, in 1280.

[2] A major project of river engineering was carried out in 1596, when the course of the Rother was diverted around the northern edge of Rye to join the Tillingham.

[3] Another attempt at engineering the mouths of the three rivers began in 1723, when an Act of Parliament was obtained to authorise the construction of a new channel from the Brede near Winchelsea to the sea.

After great expense and 63 years work, the channel, called the New Harbour, was opened in July 1787, and the old outlet to the sea was closed.

A wet autumn caused extensive flooding of the hinterland, and in November 1787, after just four months, the New Harbour was abandoned, and the old channel from Rye to the sea was reopened.

[8] The River Tillingham rises from two springs near Staplecross, a small settlement in the parish of Ewhurst, East Sussex.

The northern spring is beside the B2165 road, and the southern one beside Beacon Lane, and once they unite, the river flows broadly to the east.

[9] Watts Palace Cottage, a two-storey, timber-framed building dating from the seventeenth century or maybe earlier, stands just to the south of the bridge.

Grade II listed timber-framed buildings dating from the seventeenth-century lie on both sides of the river, Maplestone Farmhouse to the north[11] and a barn associated with Conster Manor Farm to the south.

The course turns briefly to the north east, and passes a series of lakes near Marley Farm, once the upper limit of navigation.

[9] In 1872, there was a gasworks located on the north bank of the river just above the sluice, while the area below that was called The Quay, where there was a Custom house and a shipbuilding yard.

Like most rivers in the UK, the chemical status changed from good to fail in 2019, due to the presence of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) and mercury compounds, neither of which had previously been included in the assessment.