Dickens World

The Raid on the Medway, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in June 1667, was a successful attack conducted by the Dutch navy on English warships laid up in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent. At the time, the fortress of Upnor Castle and a barrier chain called the "Gillingham Line" were supposed to protect the English ships. The Dutch, under nominal command of Willem Joseph van Ghent and Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, over several days bombarded and captured the town of Sheerness, sailed up the Thames estuary to Gravesend, then sailed into the River Medway to Chatham and Gillingham, where they engaged fortifications with cannon fire, burned or captured three capital ships and ten more ships of the line, and captured and towed away the flagship of the English fleet, HMS Royal Charles. Politically, the raid was disastrous for the war plans of Charles II of England. It led to a quick end to the war, and a favourable peace for the Dutch. It was one of the worst defeats in the Royal Navy's history, and one of the worst suffered by the British military. Horace George Franks called it the "most serious defeat it has ever had in its home waters."

St. George's Chapel at Chatham, Medway, Kent is a chapel in an area that used to be Chatham Dockyard known as HMS Pembroke, used by the Royal Navy for centuries. It is notable for its naval connections. It is Grade II listed and is built to a similar design to the chapel at HMS Drake, Plymouth. Now known as HMNB Devonport.The foundation stone of St. George's Chapel, Chatham within the Barracks was laid on 27 April 1905 and on completion, was dedicated by the Lord Bishop of Rochester John Harmer, as St George's Church on 19 December 1906.St. George's remains a naval memorial centre, managed by the Local Authority, and is rich with windows and memorials dedicated to naval personnel. One example is a stained glass window that was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth (then Princess Elizabeth) on 29 October 1950, to commemorate Chatham-based ships that were lost in World War II. On 29 March 2013, BBC Radio 4's Any Questions? was broadcast from the chapel. It was presented by Ritula Shah and guests include; Tom Newton Dunn, the political editor of The Sun newspaper, Clare Gerada (GP and medical director of the NHS Practitioner Health Programme), Lord Trimble (Irish Politician) and Angela Eagle (Labour Party MP).Meetings of Medway Council are now held in the chapel.

The Historic Dockyard Chatham is a maritime museum on part of the site of the former royal/naval dockyard at Chatham in Kent, South East England. Chatham Dockyard covered 400 acres (1.6 km²) and was one of the Royal Navy's main facilities for several hundred years until it was closed in 1984. After closure the dockyard was divided into three sections. The easternmost basin was handed over to Medway Ports and is now a commercial port. Another slice was converted into a mixed commercial, residential and leisure development. 80 acres (324,000 m²), comprising the 18th-century core of the site, was transferred to a charity called the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust and is now open as a visitor attraction. It claims to be the world’s most complete dockyard of the Age of Sail.

The Medway Tunnel is a tunnel under the River Medway linking Strood with Chatham in Kent, England. It forms part of the A289 Medway Towns Northern Relief Road. The Medway Tunnel is the first immersed tube tunnel to be built in England and only the second of this type in the UK, the other at Conwy, North Wales.

The Gillingham bus disaster occurred outside Chatham Dockyard, Kent on the evening of 4 December 1951. A double-decker bus ploughed into a company of fifty-two young members of the Royal Marines Volunteer Cadet Corps, aged between nine and thirteen. Twenty-four of the cadets were killed and eighteen injured; at the time it was the highest loss of life in any road accident in British history, until it was surpassed by the 1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash which killed 33.

HMS Gannet is a Royal Navy Doterel-class screw sloop-of-war launched on 31 August 1878. It became a training ship in the Thames in 1903, and was then loaned as a training ship for boys in the Hamble from 1913. It was restored in 1987 and is now part of the UK's National Historic Fleet.

Upnor Castle is an Elizabethan artillery fort located on the west bank of the River Medway in Kent. It is in the village of Upnor, opposite and a short distance downriver from the Chatham Dockyard, at one time a key naval facility. The fort was intended to protect both the dockyard and ships of the Royal Navy anchored in the Medway. It was constructed between 1559 and 1567 on the orders of Elizabeth I, during a period of tension with Spain and other European powers. The castle consists of a two-storeyed main building protected by a curtain wall and towers, with a triangular gun platform projecting into the river. It was garrisoned by about 80 men with a peak armament of around 20 cannon of various calibres. Despite its strategic importance, the castle and the defences of the Thames and Medway were badly neglected during the 17th century. The Dutch Republic mounted an unexpected naval raid in June 1667, and the Dutch fleet was able to breach the defences, capturing two warships and burning others at anchor in the river at Chatham, in one of the worst defeats suffered by the Royal Navy. Upnor Castle acquitted itself better than many of the other defensive sites along the upper Medway, despite its lack of provisioning. Gun fire from the fort and from adjoining emplacements forced a Dutch retreat after a couple of days, before they were able to burn the dockyard itself. The raid exposed the weaknesses of the Medway defences and led to the castle losing its role as an artillery fortification. New and stronger forts were built further downriver over the following two centuries, culminating in the construction of massive casemated forts such as Garrison Point Fort, Hoo, and Darnet Forts. Upnor Castle became a naval ammunition depot, storing great quantities of gunpowder, ammunition, and cannon to replenish the warships that came to Chatham for repair and resupply. It remained in military use until as late as 1945. The castle was subsequently opened to the public and is now an English Heritage property.

HMS Ocelot (S17) is an Oberon-class diesel-electric submarine which was operated by the Royal Navy.

HMS Cavalier is a retired C-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by J. Samuel White and Company at East Cowes on 28 March 1943, launched on 7 April 1944, and commissioned on 22 November 1944. She served in World War II and in various commissions in the Far East until she was decommissioned in 1972. After decommissioning she was preserved as a museum ship and currently resides at Chatham Historic Dockyard.

The Drill Hall Library in North Road, Chatham in Kent, England, was built as a military drill hall in 1902, for the Royal Navy as part of HMS Pembroke shore establishment and barracks. The barracks closed in 1984. The Grade II listed buildings of the barracks, which include the Captain's House (now a Solicitor's Offices), a Mess block (now University Offices and Restaurant), the Pilkington Building (now a cafe, student services and a lecture theatre), the four barrack blocks (now various lecture rooms), the Gymnasium, and the surrounding walls of barracks were then redeveloped as part of the Universities at Medway, a tri-partite collaboration of the University of Greenwich, the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University on a single campus. The three universities share use of the Drill Hall Library.

The Medway School of Pharmacy is a school of pharmacy in South East England. Established in 2004, the school is the result of a collaboration between the University of Greenwich and the University of Kent. Its campus is part of a shared facility on Chatham Dockyard in Medway, Kent.

The Royal School of Military Engineering (RSME) Group provides a wide range of training for the British Army and Defence. This includes; Combat Engineers, Carpenters, Chartered Engineers, Musicians, Band Masters, Sniffer Dogs, Veterinary Technicians, Ammunition Experts, Bomb Disposal Operators, and Counter Chemical Warfare experts, as well as Command and Leadership.