The Medway Towns take their name from the river which runs through them.
Rising near Turners Hill in West Sussex, the river runs for 70 miles from the High Weald across West and East Sussex, then cuts through the middle of Kent to reach the Thames Estuary between Grain and the Isle of Sheppey.
As a river in its own right, it is the second longest in Southern England, as well as being the largest tributary of the Thames (which is incidentally, the longest river in Southern England).
The river has played a vital economic role for nearly two millennia; Kentish ragstone was quarried in the valleys to the south and west of Maidstone and was conveyed by barge to build the walls and buildings of Roman London.
For over 400 years, in Rochester, Strood, Chatham and Gillingham, there was a solid link between the river and the people who lived, worked and played along its shores.
Mighty warships, including HMS Victory and the “Billy Ruffian” (HMS Bellerophon) that were to go on and claim fame for themselves and their crews, were laid down and built here.
Contrary to popular belief, HMS Victory is a “Chatham” ship, whilst HMS Bellerophon was built by a commercial yard on the opposite side of the river at Frindsbury, near Strood.
As one of the royal dockyards, Chatham was a crucible of modern technology and played a key part of the birth of the Industrial Revolution. At one point in time the ropery was the largest single purpose building in the western world.
The association between the Medway towns, the river and the seas beyond is an insoluble link, but since the closure of the naval base and its dockyards in 1984, it is one which is in peril of diminishing with each passing generation.
Whilst the commercial port still plays a vital role in the economic life of the Medway towns, fewer people depend on the river for their livelihoods.
Our vision is to reverse this trend and restore the importance of the river to hearts and minds of the communities that live here today, by making it more accessible to them and enabling them to reclaim their heritage.