FOREWORD

In this book I take the reader on a journey up one of Britain’s greatest rivers, from its
mouth on the Thames Estuary to its source deep in a wood in the middle of Sussex. On the
route upriver we pass by the large urban sprawls of the Medway Towns, the historic towns
of Maidstone and Tonbridge and the beautiful countryside of the High Weald. Along the
way I explain some of the history of the places we pass, the environment and wildlife, the
opportunities for leisure activities and feature some nearby places of interest.
The River Medway changes direction a number of times along its course and so in
navigating the reader along the route I’ve followed the rules of boating, which designate
the right and left banks of a river as though travelling from the source down river, whether
you are navigating up river or down. Thus, as our journey takes us upriver, where I
describe somewhere as being on ‘…the right bank’ of the river it will actually be on our
left-hand side.
I would like to thank the following for their help and kindness in assisting me with
the compilation of this book: John Vaughan, Tony Grant, Ian Yarham and David Anstiss.
Clive Holden
February 2015

First published 2015
Amberley Publishing
The Hill, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 4EP
www.amberley-books.com
Copyright © Clive Holden, 2015
The right of Clive Holden to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN 9781445637921 (PRINT)
ISBN 9781445638034 (eBOOK)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without the permission in writing from the Publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Typesetting by Amberley Publishing.
Printed in Great Britain.
 CONTENTS

Foreword
Introduction
1: Sheerness to Rochester
2: Strood to Sandling
3: Allington Lock to Tonbridge
4: Haysden to Turners Hill
 INTRODUCTION

The River Medway runs for almost 70 miles from its source near Turners Hill in West
Sussex through Kent, entering the Thames Estuary between the Isles of Grain and
Sheppey. It has a catchment area of 930 square miles, the largest of any river in England,
and its extensive network of tributaries include the rivers Eden, Teise, Bourne, Len and
Beult. The river remains tidal from Sheerness to Allington Lock near Maidstone.
From Sheerness, the journey upriver passes the Hoo Peninsula on one side and the
Medway towns of Rainham, Gillingham, Chatham and the city of Rochester on the other.
Then, it carries on through the heart of the old Medway cement industry belt until it
reaches its first lock at Allington. From here it remains navigable until it reaches the Leigh
Barrier, just south of Tonbridge. This latter 19-mile stretch of the river is known as the
Medway Navigation. The Environment Agency is the authority responsible for the
navigation.
The upper reaches of the river pass on through Kent into the High Weald of Sussex,
past the sites of the watermills and iron works that once stood by its banks, to its source
deep in a wood in West Sussex.
The Medway has a rich and fascinating history. Early Bronze Age stone implements,
including a narrow ground flint chisel and a partly polished ground flint axe, were found
during the work on the extension of Chatham Dockyard in 1871. The first recorded
maritime visitors to sail up the river were the Phoenicians, an ancient Semitic civilization
who existed between 1200 and 300 BC and was centred on the coastline of modern
Lebanon. Phoenician artefacts have been discovered on the Hoo Peninsula. Ancient Greek
merchants also traded up the Medway, and at St Mary’s church – on the river at Chatham
– a Greek stone tablet was discovered built into the Norman wall of a chapel that once
stood on the site. The tablet can now be found built into the porch of the later church.
Romans, Jutes, Angles and Saxons all fought against local tribes along the river,
which formed a natural barrier against these early marauding invaders. It was the Romans
that established the first major crossing and settlement on the river at Rochester.
The Medway’s strategic importance increased with the establishment of Chatham
Dockyard in the sixteenth century. In 1667, the Dutch fleet sailed up the river and attacked
the English ships at anchor, the result of which was the considerable strengthening of the
river’s defences. In later centuries, the French and then the Germans were the major
threats, and in the Second World War the whole area around the Medway Towns teemed
with garrisons, forts, depots and gun batteries. The length of the river was dotted with
pillboxes and trench systems as part of General Ironside’s ‘GHQ Line’, a series of stop-
lines constructed to defend the approaches to London from any German invasion force.
Fishing has always been an important part of life along the river. Laws to control
fishing in the Medway probably go back at least to Norman times. The earliest
documentary evidence of the rules and regulations dates to 1446 in the form of a Royal
Charter issued in the name of Henry VI granting rights to the citizens of Rochester to all
fishing between Sheerness and Hawkwood, near Burham. London fishermen were also
allowed to catch only certain kinds of fish from waters near the north bank of the Medway
as far upriver as Lower Upnor. The river was abundant in oysters and these continued to
be a major part of the fishing industry, until the twentieth century when their numbers
steadily declined through pollution and disease. The final straw was the terrible winter of
1939/40 that killed off all the remaining oyster stocks in the Lower Medway.
The River Medway and its estuary form a complicated ecosystem with a wide range
of different habitats. In the estuary these include intertidal mudflats, salt marsh, grazing
marsh and sea walls. Further upriver there are many areas designated to be of Special
Scientific Interest such as the Holborough Marshes, the country park at Rainham and the
nature reserve at Cuxton.
The river played a major role in industrial growth during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, with many wharves, warehouses, factories, cement works, quarries, paper mills
and breweries dotted along its route. Most of these have now long disappeared and this,
along with the closure of Chatham Dockyard in 1984, means that heavy industry no longer
plays such a significant part in life and work along the river. Many of the old industrial
sites have been replaced with housing, retail parks, trading estates and leisure facilities
offering many new but different opportunities for employment. This regeneration has been
a long process and is still ongoing, but the fruits of it can now be seen along the length of
a river which, together with its beautiful rural upper reaches, still plays such an important
part in so many people’s lives.
1
 SHEERNESS TO ROCHESTER

The entrance of the Medway from the Thames Estuary lies between the Isle of Grain and
the Isle of Sheppey. The whole Medway Estuary has protection as part of the Medway
Estuary and Marshes Site of Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area. It also has
protection under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, an inter-government treaty that
provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the
conservation of wetlands and their resources. It is a very important habitat for wintering
ducks and waders, which thrive on the invertebrate-rich mudflats that abound here.
Because of the presence of the Royal Dockyards at Chatham and Sheerness, the river
entrance was kept very heavily defended until the mid-1950s. These defences included
two remarkable structures that are still very much in evidence today.
GRAIN TOWER & GARRISON POINT FORT
In 1848 construction began on a gun tower on a tongue of sand and shingle that projected
into the Medway from the Isle of Grain. Access across this tongue, known as the ‘Spit of
Grain’, was only possible at low tide. Over 200 30-foot timber piles were driven into the
sand to create a foundation of timber, concrete and stone paving. Work then ceased but
restarted in 1851 when tensions grew with France once again. The tower was completed in
1855 but remained unarmed for many years as the French threat subsided. Three guns
were eventually installed on it, by which time fixed fortifications like the tower had begun
to be considered obsolete.
From 1892 to the early 1900s, the guns were removed and the tower used as a mining
station. In 1911, with the threat of war with Germany looming, the decision was taken to
re-arm the fort with two modern 4.7-inch quick-firing guns. Two new emplacements were
constructed on the top level to accommodate these weapons and the interior of the tower
was modernised to suit the needs of the new guns and the thirty-one-man garrison.
During the First World War, the tower was also used as an anchor point for the
Medway Boom – a floating defensive boom stretching from the tower across the river to
Sheerness. It was anchored to the tower by a vast steel chain wrapped around its base,
which can still be seen today at low tide.

Grain Tower at high tide.

Grain Tower at low tide.

Installation of the six-pounder guns in June 1940.

Following the end of the war the tower fell into disuse and in 1929 the guns and
stores were removed. However, with the outbreak of the Second World War, it was
rearmed again with two Hotchkiss two-pounder guns, which were soon replaced with
more powerful six-pounder weapons for use against marauding German E-Boats. The
tower was completely renovated to house these larger weapons, with the top third of the
landward-facing wall removed to accommodate a four-storey observation tower, new gun
pits and blast walls. A new two-storey accommodation block was also constructed
alongside the tower, linked to it by a concrete bridge.
The tower remained in service and armed until 1956, when Britain’s coastal defence
artillery forces were disbanded.
To enable complete control of the entrance to the Medway a new fort was built at
Garrison Point, Sheerness, to work in conjunction with the defences across the river at
Grain. This new fort would also provide valuable additional protection for the Royal
Navy’s Dockyard at Sheerness. Construction began in the 1860s on the site of an earlier
dockyard battery and was completed by 1872.
It was originally armed with thirty-six guns of calibres ranging from 9 inches to 12
inches. Three ‘Brennan’ torpedo ramps were added in 1885.
In the First World War, the fort was the other anchor point for the Medway Boom and
was armed with two breech-loading 6-inch and two quick-firing guns. During the Second
World War two six-pounder guns along with a Bofors gun were added to the defences. The
fort remained in service until 1956 and is now an integral part of the Sheerness Docks

The fort in 1880.

Garrison Point Fort today.

Ro-Ro Ferry at Sheerness Docks.

Our journey upriver commences as we pass Sheerness and its docks on one side and
Grain with its power station and oil refinery on the other.
The commercial docks were formed after the Royal Navy vacated Sheerness in 1960,
and today the Port of Sheerness is one of the UK’s major car handling terminals, handling
the import and exports of over 400,000 vehicles a year.

Grain Power Station.

 Grain Power Station, on the Hoo Peninsula, opened in 1979. The original oil-fired
station was closed in 2012 and is due to be demolished, but a new liquid-gas-powered
station was opened nearby in 2010, so electricity will continued to be generated here for
many years to come.
The Hoo Peninsula is a rich mosaic of marshlands, mudflats, shingle beaches creeks,
lagoons and broadleaved woodlands and contains several areas designated as Sites of
Special Scientific Interest. Wherever you go on the Hoo, water is an integral part of the
landscape, providing valuable habitats for wildlife. The area is important for a large
number of breeding and wintering birds, including marsh harriers, redshanks, reed
buntings, grey plovers, dunlins, avocets and Brent geese. Other key species include least
lettuce, brown hares, water voles, great crested newts, shrill carder bumblebees, and
important assemblages of water beetles and it is an important area for serotine bats.
Many of the hollows in the tidal reaches were dug out in the nineteenth century when
Medway mud was loaded into sailing barges by labourers called ‘muddies’, taken to kilns
and mixed with chalk to provide the London building boom with cement. Many of the
skeletons of these barges can be seen rotting away in the creeks and reaches, as can the
remains of some German U-Boats surrendered after the end of the First World War. They
had been stripped of their engines and generators for use in Hoo’s cement works and their
frames left to rot.

Reedbeds at Riverside Country Park.

On the opposite side of the river at Lower Rainham is the popular Riverside Country
Park. The park covers over 100 hectares alongside the estuary, with a variety of habitats
including mudfalts, saltmarsh, ponds, reedbeds, grassland and scrub. In the summer
months the reedbeds are a valuable breeding area for many birds, such as sedge and reed
warbler. To the north of the park, in Sharpe’s Green Bay, is Nor Marsh. Once enclosed by
a sea wall, this island was grazed by cattle and sheep. It is now owned by Medway
Council and managed as a nature reserve by the RSPB. As well as the birds, Riverside
Park offers some wonderful views and walks along the estuary. In springtime the ponds
are full of frogspawn and insects such as pondskaters and waterboatmen, and in summer
the grasslands are abundant with wildflowers and butterflies.

Bloors Wharf, where even the bases of the long-demolished buildings now provide inviting pools for the birds.

The riverside here also once boasted a bustling docks area. You can still see the
remains of Bloors Wharf, which had been a trading quay since 1566 and ended its
commercial life as a ship-breakers and scrap metal yard in 1996. Nearby was Rainham
Docks, a busy area with barges unloading clay for processing in the adjacent Motney Hill
Cement Works and other barges being loaded out with the finished product. Work ceased
at this site in 1936, but it was the 1990s before the last buildings left standing were
demolished and the whole docks area was incorporated into the country park.
Looking back across the river to Hoo is the imposing sight of Kingsnorth Power
Station and its vast chimney. This redundant coal-fired power station is also due to be
demolished and when it does the Medway Towns will lose one of its most enduring
landmarks.
Kingsnorth Power Station.

Further along the river we come to more evidence of Medway’s strategic importance:
Hoo Fort and Darnet Fort are Victorian fortifications built on separate islands in the river
(Hoo Ness and Darnet Ness) to defend it from incursions by enemy naval forces.
Opposite Hoo Ness, on the Gillingham side of the river, is Gillingham Strand. The
Strand has been a riverfront leisure park for more than 100 years. In its heyday, between
the two world wars, hundreds would throng here on summer weekends and bank holidays
to enjoy its facilities.
With its leisure pool, sports facilities, miniature railway, crazy golf course, picnic
areas and cafeteria, it is still a popular local attraction for the people of the Medway
Towns.

Hoo Fort.
Darnet Fort.

The beach and pool at Gillingham Strand in the 1920s.

The Strand Leisure Pool today.

Gillingham Pier and Light Vessel 21.

Nearby Gillingham Pier is home to the former Trinity House Light Vessel 21 (LV21).
Launched in 1963, she was the last lightship to be built in the UK and saw most of her
service off the Kent Coast. She was decommissioned in 2008 and is now hired out for
meetings, events and as a TV and film location.
A little further upstream, on the Hoo side, you come to Port Werbugh with its marina,
where some more decommissioned former Trinity House Light Vessels are moored and
now used as private accommodation.
The remains of another of the river’s fortifications can be seen at Hoo St.Werburgh –
Cockham Wood Fort, which was was constructed in 1669 but fell into disrepair during the
eighteenth century and was finally abandoned by the military in 1797.
Just past the fort, facing Upnor Reach, is the village of Lower Upnor. It is the home
of two sailing clubs, some Second World War pillboxes and the ‘London Stones’. These
stones marked the boundary of the charter rights of London’s fishermen to fish the
northern side of the Medway. The smaller stone dates from 1204 and the larger granite
stone from 1836. South of the river at this point lies St Mary’s Island with its modern
houses, apartment blocks, yachting marina and retail outlets.
Lightships at Port Werburgh
Cockham Wood Fort

Second World War pillbox in Lower Upnor, now used as a lookout for a sailing club.
The London Stones.

The brickfield from the north-west.

ST MARY’S ISLAND AND THE CHATHAM DOCKYARD

EXTENSION
Brick-making machine No.1.

No.1 Boiler Shop under construction.

In 1847, the Crown purchased 19 acres of the island with a view to the future expansion of
Chatham Dockyard. In 1854 a further 185 acres were purchased, bringing the whole island
into Crown ownership. A new convict prison was constructed on land to the south of St
Mary’s Creek and in 1862 work commenced on a massive expansion and modernisation of
Dockyard that would add 380 acres to its existing 97 acres. Most of the new work was
concentrated on St Mary’s Island, which lay to the north of the yard and the labour used
for this work was provided by the convicts from the nearby prison. The marshland was
drained and St Mary’s Creek was dammed and excavated, ready for the construction of
three huge new basins. The spoil from these excavations was spread over the island to fill
the marshland. A brickfield was then built on the northern end of the island to manufacture
the millions of bricks to be used in the construction works.
Massive timber piles were driven deep into the soft, marshy soil to secure adequate
foundations for the buildings. Two of those buildings came from the recently closed
Woolwich Dockyard where they had been slip covers. They were dismantled, transported
to Chatham and re-erected to become No. 8 Machine Shop and No. 1 Boiler Shop.
Only the ‘skeleton’ of the machine shop now remains but the boiler shop survives as
the Dockyard Outlet Centre visited by thousands of shoppers every week.

The Dockyard outlet centre, formerly No.1 Boiler Shop.

The skeletal framework of No. 8 Machine Shop.

No. 9 Dock under construction in 1902.

No. 9 Dock in 2013.

Five new docks were eventually incorporated into the expansion together with
numerous new workshops, pumping stations, storehouses and a railway system. The major
works continued into the early years of the twentieth century with the new No. 9 Dock
completed in 1903.
 In 1968 a specialised Refit Complex was opened in No. 1 Basin nearest the river to
refit and refuel the Royal Navy’s fleet of submarines. This complex continued in operation
until shortly before the dockyard’s closure in 1984.
It was then completely demolished along with most of the yard’s other buildings to
enable the redevelopment of the island site, which now boasts modern housing and
apartments, office accommodation and a retail centre. The three basins, where once the
might of the Royal Navy was moored, are now used as a marina, a water sports venue and
a commercial docks. Despite all this redevelopment there is still one preserved building
that stands out as a beacon of Victorian splendour among all the modernity: No. 5 Pump
House once provided the power that filled and drained four of the docks in No. 1 Basin. It
has recently been restored following over twenty years of neglect.
To the north, yet more military buildings can be seen along the river; Upnor
Ordnance Depot with its magazines, storehouses, piers and jetties supplied the Royal
Navy’s ships at Chatham with explosives and ammunition up until the 1960s. At the time
of writing it was still in MOD ownership but had been put up for sale for redevelopment.

No. 5 Pump House and No.1 Boiler Shop.

Upnor Ordnance Depot.

Upnor Castle was ordered to be built by Queen Elizabeth I in 1559 to protect

warships moored in the River Medway. By 1623 the castle held fifteen guns of various
sizes, but these failed to protect the fleet from a serious attack by the Dutch in 1667 in
which many ships were destroyed and the Royal Navy’s flagship, HMS Royal Charles,
was captured and towed away to Holland.

Upnor Castle.
 Later that year, a Royal Warrant ordered the castle to be strengthened. Then, in 1668,
following the end of hostilities with the Dutch, it was converted into a place of stores
holding hundreds of barrels of gunpowder. Barracks were added in 1718 and in 1891 the
castle was transferred from the War Office to the Admiralty, continuing in service as a
magazine and stores until 1945. It is now a major tourist attraction.
Upper Upnor, with its quaint, cobbled high street flanked by period homes and pubs
leading down to the castle and the river, is one of the most picturesque villages in the area.
Even the old barrack building at the entrance to the castle has a certain functional charm to
it. From the bottom of the high street, the view across the river takes in Chatham Historic
Dockyard and its impressive range of covered shipbuilding slips.

Upper Upnor High Street.

The barracks.
Chatham Dockyard building slips.
Stone marking the site of the old single dock where HMS Victory was built.
The double ropehouse.

Brunel’s sawmill.

CHATHAM HISTORIC DOCKYARD

Now one of Kent’s top tourist attractions, this was the site of one the Royal Navy’s major
dockyards for 370 years, having moved here from its original location further upriver at
the Chatham Gun Wharf in 1613. Dry docks, wharves, cranes, a sail loft, ropehouse and
officers’ residences were built here between 1619 and 1626, by which time the new yard
was fully operational and by the end of the century it extended to an area covering most of
what is now the site of the historic dockyard.
Among the vessels built at Chatham in the eighteenth century was HMS Victory,
launched in 1765 from the yard’s original single dock. She was later to become famous as
Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Between 1780 and 1830 many of the yard’s industrial processes were mechanised. A
new double ropehouse was constructed at the southern end of the yard and the famous
engineer, Marc Brunel, designed and built a steam-powered sawmill which, together with
its underground waterway and overhead rail system, automated the handling and sawing
of the 12,000 tons of timber that the yard consumed each year.
By the mid-nineteenth century, new technologies such as iron and steam had been
introduced into shipbuilding at the yard. New slips, docks, workshops and smitheries had
been built to handle these new processes, but with the ever increasing size of the Royal
Navy and its warships, the demands on the yard were rapidly outgrowing its facilities.
With the huge expansion of the yard into St Mary’s Island in the later years of the
nineteenth century, much of the work was transferred to the new facilities but the older
site still remained very active until the dockyard’s closure in 1983. On 1 April 1984, the
Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust became the new owners of the site and began work on
transforming it into the major attraction we see today.
As we move on upriver we pass Chatham Gun Wharf, which was the site of the
original Royal Dockyard established in the late sixteenth century. When the yard moved to
its new site in 1613, the wharf and storehouses were taken over by the Board of Ordnance
and used to unload and house guns, ammunition and other stores to be used by the forts of
the Chatham Line’s defences in times of war. Following its closure in the 1950s, the gun
wharf was sold off, together with the adjoining Royal Marine Barracks and, in time, most
of the buildings were demolished. The sites are now occupied by Medway Council Offices
and Chatham Library.
Overlooking the river on the Chatham side is Fort Amherst, one of a ring of forts
built to defend the dockyard. It was built in 1758 and strengthened many times over its
history and contained a redoubt, barracks, bastions, gun batteries and a network of tunnels.
Much of the fort has now been restored and is one of the area’s top visitor attractions.
As the river now winds its way around the Frindsbury Peninsula into Limehouse
Reach, we pass Sun Pier where pleasure steamers used to berth to embark and disembark
passengers to and from their days out in Southend.
Visitors’ entrance to the historic dockyard.

Chatham Gun Wharf.

We now approach the area known as ‘Chatham Intra’ – Chatham Without. This
riverfront tract was once administered by the city of Rochester. It was originally
established by Bishop Gundulf in 1077 as a place of refuge for lepers and later also for
Jews, who had been expelled from within the city’s walls. By 1585, the treasurer (and later
controller) of the Royal Navy, John Hawkins, had acquired much of the land and
construction began of a large number of warehouses to store supplies for the Navy’s ships
moored in Chatham Reach. In 1695, the Treasury agreed to rent land at Chatham Intra for
the establishment of a victualling office to control these supplies. Eventually, the area
contained light industries, wharfing, chandlers, a brewery and various ship repairers. After
years of decline and neglect, many of the old buildings have been renovated and
converted, providing homes for a thriving community of artists and creative businesses.
By contrast, the Frindsbury Peninsula opposite was once the home of numerous
cement works, brickfields and barge builders. It is now the site of the huge, modern
Medway City Estate; a bustling mixed industrial and trading estate covering an area of
244 acres providing a home to over 600 businesses and over 6,000 jobs. It is Medway’s
largest industrial estate and was built using mainly Enterprise Zone funding from the
government.
The river now curves from Limehouse Reach into Bridge Reach and to the historic
city of Rochester.

The Lower Cornwallis Battery, Fort Amherst.

Sun Pier.
ROCHESTER – AN EARLY HISTORY

Chatham Intra.

Rochester Cathedral and castle across the river in 1905.

The cathedral city of Rochester is steeped in history. It was an oppidum, a large Iron Age
settlement of the Celtic Cantiaci tribe.
When the Romans invaded in AD 43, they established their own settlement here and
named it Durobrivae, where they eventually bridged the river to provide a crossing point
for their great Dover to London road, Watling Street. The layout of the settlement included
the route of the present-day High Street and Boley Hill. They also built a defensive wall
around the settlement and provided it with guarded gates.
Following the departure of the Roman Legions in AD 407, Britain fell into disorder
and chaos reigned. In 449 the Jutes, under their leaders Hengist and Horsa, took advantage
of the chaotic state of the country and landed on the Kent coast and swiftly advanced
inland. When they reached the Medway at Aylesford they defeated the Britons, and after
uniting themselves with the Saxons of West Kent, established the Kingdom of Kent with
the area around Rochester becoming the lathe of Cesterwara.
In 604 Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, despatched the missionary,
Justus, to Rochester to establish a cathedral, with King Ethelbert of Kent providing the
land. Augustine then canonised Justus as the first Bishop of Rochester. The bishop was
then required to establish schools for clergy and choir with the latter, eventually becoming
known as the Kings School.
In 676 Ethelred of Mercia invaded Kent and ravaged Rochester. So great was the
damage that Bishop Putta retired and his successor, Cwichelm, also soon gave up the see,
blaming its extreme poverty.
In 842 Rochester was attacked again, this time by the Danes, who returned in 884 to
lay siege to the town. However, it managed to hold out until it was relieved by forces
under the leadership of King Alfred. In 930 Rochester was granted the right to mint
coinage and in 960 the first mention is made of a wooden bridge across the river, possibly
using the original Roman piers.
Following the Norman invasion one of the greatest names in the city’s history,
Gundulf, was appointed Bishop of Rochester in 1077. He soon began to rebuild an earlier
earth and timber castle in stone, a task not completed until 1108. In 1080, with the 450-
year-old cathedral now derelict, he began work on a splendid new cathedral dedicated to
St Andrew, just to the east of the original site. It was completed in 1130 only for it to
suffer extensive damage when a terrible fire swept through the city in 1137.

Rochester Cathedral.

Meanwhile, the castle was further added to and strengthened and in 1127 King Henry
I granted it in perpetuity to the archbishops of Canterbury. The first archbishop to hold the
constableship of the castle was William de Corbeil, who built the magnificent keep. It
measures around 70 square feet externally at ground level and rises to a height of some
113 feet, with the four angled turrets extending the height a further 12 feet. In 1202, the
castle passed back into the hands of a royal constable, Reginald de Cornhill, Sheriff of
Kent, under King John. In June 1215 John signed the Magna Carta, in effect a peace treaty
between himself and rebellious barons, and as a result the castle was restored to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton. However, on 9 August letters patent were
issued in the King’s name which transferred the castle to Peter des Roches, a close
supporter of John, and in September a party of the rebel barons entered Rochester to hold
it against the king and block his approach to London. A lengthy and bloody siege ensued,
culminating in a mining operation by Royalist sappers, who tunnelled beneath the castle’s
bailey wall and undermined the keep’s foundations. Then, on 25 November, an urgent writ
was issued commanding Hubert de Burgh, the King’s justiciar, to ‘send to us with all
speed by day and night forty of the fattest pigs of the sort least good for eating to bring fire
beneath the tower’. The pig fat was required to fire the pit props, undermining the keep’s
foundations. The mining operation was a great success and a whole section of the keep
came down. The rebels held out for five more days before surrendering through lack of
food and water. Following the death of King John in 1217, peace was restored to the
kingdom and Rochester came into the care of the government of the young King Henry
III, John’s nine-year-old son. Over the next twenty years the castle was repaired and the
defensible limits of the city were extended to the south-west.

Rochester Castle.

During this period, the cathedral was also undergoing development. In 1227, a new
quire was completed, which replaced the earlier Norman one. Work continued westwards
along the nave, with its first two bays being completely rebuilt with Gothic arches
replacing the original Norman structures. In 1343, Bishop Hamo de Hythe raised the
central tower, capped it with a short, lead-covered wooden spire and hung four bells in it.
The winter of 1381 was a particularly harsh one. The River Medway froze solid and
when the ice eventually melted the ensuing flood waters carried away a large part of the
old Roman bridge. Up until then royal commissions had decided who was responsible for
repairs to the bridge and assigned duties accordingly, but the 1382 commission decided
that an entirely new stone bridge should be built. One of the members of the commission,
the wealthy landowner Sir John de Cobham, recruited another rich knight, Sir Robert
Knolles, and between them they paid for the construction of the new bridge – 100 yards
upstream from the remains of the Roman bridge. Construction commenced in August
1387 and was completed in September 1391, and continued to provide the only river
crossing at Rochester for the next 450 years.
Rochester is a very popular tourist destination, attracting thousands of visitors every
year who flock to see the castle, cathedral and to walk down its picturesque high street
with its multitude of historic buildings.
Every year it hosts a ‘Dickensian Festival’ to celebrate its long association with the
author Charles Dickens, who lived in and around the Medway Towns from childhood and
incorporated many local scenes and buildings into his novels. In a garden behind the High
Street stands a chalet that once stood in the grounds of Dickens’ home, Gads Hill House,
in nearby Higham. He used it in the summertime from 1865 until his death in 1870 and it
was in here he wrote the last of his novels.
Rochester High Street.
Charles Dickens’ summer chalet.
Rochester Bridge c. 1905.

ROCHESTER BRIDGE
The present Rochester Bridge dates from 1856. It replaced the late fourteenth-century
stone bridge, which in turn had replaced various earlier structures. It was originally
designed with a swing-bridge at the Strood end to allow vessels with masts over 18 feet to
pass through the bridge. However, in the late 1850s and again in the 1880s, railway
bridges were constructed immediately downstream of the road bridge, thus making the
swing-bridge redundant before it had opened. It was permanently closed and the winding
gear removed.
In 1909, following several major collisions that had damaged the cast-iron arches, the
decision was taken to extensively rebuild the bridge. On 14 May 1913, after an
expenditure of over £95,000, the bridge was once again opened for traffic.
The reconstructed bridge, known today as the Old Bridge, has three arched steel-truss
spans and a plate girder approach span with ramps at each end. The Strood approach at the
western end is constructed over brick arches. The carriageway, originally built for two
tramway tracks and third lane for overtaking traffic, is 7.93m wide. Today it carries the
two lanes of westward-bound traffic from Rochester to Strood.
Rochester Bridge in 2011.

In the 1950s, with the increase in motor traffic across the bridge, it was decided to
reconstruct the 1850s railway bridge, which had lain disused since the 1920s, as a second
road bridge. This plan was supported by British Railways and by the Ministry of
Transport, who provided the new approach roads. Parliament approved the Rochester
Bridge Act of 1965, giving the wardens and assistants of Rochester Bridge Trust the
powers to acquire the necessary land and to duplicate the roadway bridge. Construction
began in July 1967, and the new bridge was opened to traffic by HRH the Princess
Margaret on 15 April 1970. Today, it carries the two lanes of eastward-bound traffic from
Strood to Rochester.
2
 STROOD TO SANDLING

On the opposite bank of the river from historic Rochester lies the town of Strood. Rich in
history itself, Strood formed part of Frindsbury until 1193 when it was granted parish
status in its own right. King Henry II gave land here to the Knights Templar for the
building of a manor house in 1160 and it was from the Strood side of the river that Simon
de Montfort lay siege to Rochester Castle in 1264.
Just before Rochester Bridge is Strood Lock, which marks the entrance to the old
Thames and Medway Canal. Work to build this waterway, linking the Thames at
Gravesend to the Medway at Strood, commenced in 1800. It was opened in 1824 and,
when completed, incorporated the second longest canal tunnel in the country (2.2 miles
long) running between Higham and Strood Basin. From 1845, this tunnel was shared with
the railway. The single track was supported on one side by the towpath and on the other by
wooden stakes driven into the canal bed. A year later, the tunnel was sold to the South
Eastern Railway, who then filled in the canal and laid a double track through the tunnel,
thus cutting off Strood Basin and the Medway from the canal. The basin was back-filled in
1986 and housing built over the site. The remainder of the canal route closed to traffic in
1934.
In a quiet location on the riverside at Strood, in sharp contrast to the surrounding
modern warehousing, stands Temple Manor. Built around 1240 by the Knights Templar,
the manor was designed to provide suitable lodging for dignitaries travelling between
Dover and London. In the years that followed however, the building not only changed
functions, but on many occasions also hands, eventually falling into disuse and disrepair.

The cargo ship Bore V on the river at Strood in May 1965.

After the Second World War, the Ministry of Works restored the building and it’s now
under the care of English Heritage.
Today, the riverside at Strood is one of Medway’s key development sites, with plans
for up to 600 new homes, new public areas and leisure facilities that are all part of a very
ambitious long-term programme for the regeneration of the waterfront.
As the river approaches the M2 motorway and the HS1 High Speed Rail Link
bridges, it flows under the watchful eye of Fort Borstal, which commands the high ground
to the south.

Temple Manor.

Built with convict labour from the nearby prison and completed in 1883, it formed
part of the ‘Outer Ring’ chain of forts defending Chatham Dockyard. In the Second World
War it was the home to an anti-aircraft artillery battery with four 4.5-inch guns mounted in
emplacements along the ramparts. The fort is now much in demand as a setting for TV and
film shoots.
On the left bank of the river we pass the village of Cuxton with its bustling marinas
offering moorings, repairs, brokerage and many other services for the boating fraternity.
Further inland at Cuxton is the Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve with its ancient
woodlands, arable fields and chalk grasslands providing home to countless species of wild
flora and fauna. The reserve is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and
attracts thousands of visitors who enjoy walks among the beautiful countryside and wild
flowers.

View across the Medway and HS1 railway from the ramparts of Fort Borstal.

The Casemated Barracks at Fort Borstal.

Cuxton Marina and the M2 Medway Bridge.

The area around this stretch of the river lies at the heart of the once thriving Medway
cement industry of which little now remains.
THE MEDWAY VALLEY CEMENT INDUSTRY
Chalk quarries have existed in the Medway Valley for centuries. The Romans first
quarried chalk to make quicklime. These quarries, together with a copious supply of river
sand and excellent transport links via the river, combined to make the area an ideal home
for the cement industry.
The cement was made from chalk and Medway mud. It was called Portland cement
because when it was dry it looked just like top quality Portland stone. It could also set
underwater. The ingredients were mixed at the factory and then heated in a kiln to form
lumps of ‘clinker’. This was ground into powder. At first, the chalk was dug out by hand.
Chalk workers would let themselves down the cliff by a single rope and hammer at the
face of the rock. In later years explosives were employed to extract the chalk. Digging of
the mud was undertaken by teams of ‘muddies’ who went out at low tide to fill the barges.
The leader of the team would often taste the mud to find out if it was smooth enough to be
used to make cement. They had a special way of loading a barge. One muddy, the fastest
worker, would load the front of the barge so that the weight did not rest on the rudder.
Although muddies were well paid, arthritis and other illnesses were common. They wore
flannelette shirts, tough corduroy trousers, a flat cap and thick boots. They could earn
around 35s (£1.75) per barge, which was divided among the eight or so men in a team. A
really quick team might be able to load two barges every low tide. By comparison, at this
time a farm worker would earn about 15s (75d) a week. They worked by cutting the mud
into blocks with the edge of a special spade called a ‘fly tool’. They then threw the blocks
up and over the side of the barge into the hold. Everything got covered in mud and some
parts of the barge were protected with sheets.
Many barges were needed to carry the finished cement to the London markets. On the
trip back they carried the coal needed for the cement kilns. Each company also had four or
five barges bringing in the mud from the lower parts of the River Medway. Sometimes,
when stocks were low, they would send an extra boat out. The barges were flat-bottomed
to allow them to sail through the narrow creeks where good quality mud could be found.
Between 1877 and 1900, 115 barges were launched in Rochester. The average size was
just less than 50 tons.
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a whole series of cement works
grew up along the banks of the river from Frindsbury to Burham, each with its own pits,
industrial railways, works, wharfs and barges. The earliest group, based at North Halling,
began in 1799. A map of 1823 shows the beginnings of the chalk workings on the
Halling–Snodland boundary (which eventually extended to Upper Halling). In 1837 a new
lime works was established in Halling, which was supplemented in 1878 with the opening
of the Halling Manor Lime and Cement Works.
On the opposite side of the river, Wouldham Court Cement Works had opened in
1847, but by 1855 its owners had been made bankrupt. In 1856 the plant was taken over
by the Wouldham Patent Portland Cement Co. They leased the additional land necessary
to build a tramway to connect the works to their quarry, which was 1,380 feet away.
Eventually, six tramway engines operated on it.
By the late nineteenth century, ten large chalk quarries, known as the Medway
Carvings, were in operation. They were linked by railway lines to the various riverside
cement works where the chalk was processed into cement before transportation by barge
along the river to London and other destinations.

The storage silos at Halling Cement Works, still standing by the riverside in 2015.
The site of Wouldham Bridging Camp.

Today, none of the old quarries and cement works are active, and most have become
redundant and vegetated. However, their mark on the landscape is obvious, and some have
developed their own importance as wildlife refuges and are of such value that they are
now designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Others have been developed for
housing and the creation of new villages in the valley. Interestingly, the next decade is
likely to see the resurgence of cement production in the Medway Gap with creation of
Lafarge’s (formally Blue Circle) new Medway Cement Works at Holborough, which will
be the largest in Europe.
In 1865 land was purchased by the War Office on opposite sides of the river at
Halling and Wouldham for the army, who held summer bridging camps here for many
years. Bridging exercises and training continued on the sites during the Second World
War. Bridging units of the American Army also used the camp to train for the Normandy
landings. Apart from a few concrete hut bases no sign of the camp remains today and the
land is used for grazing sheep.
For over 600 years a public ferry service ran across the river between Halling and
Wouldham.
From 1898 it was operated by the members of one local family, the Stevens who
lived at Halling. The ferry continued to operate until its closure in 1964. The only break in
service was during the Second World War, when the Royal Engineers built a Bailey
Bridge across the river there. The steps down to the short wooden ferry pier at Wouldham
can still be seen, as can the stairs on the Halling side of the river.
In 2009, an exciting new community project was launched in Wouldham. Funding
was available for eight communities within the Medway Gap to create a community trail
by using existing footpaths to provide people with a safe and well-maintained trail to
explore and enjoy the surrounding countryside. The funding was used to improve the
physical condition of the footpaths, install benches, picnic tables and interpretation panels,
all to enhance the enjoyment for users of the trail. An information leaflet about the trail
was also produced. The local community, including the school and other groups, were
involved in the launch of the trail in June 2010.
The Wouldham to Holborough Marshes nature reserve is situated on the floodplains
of both banks of the river between Halling and Snodland and incorporates Burham Marsh.
The reserve contains a superb range of wetland habitats with tidal brackish reed beds,
freshwater marsh, marshy grassland, scrub, woodland, freshwater and saline dykes. It is a
very important site for birds; the reed beds, scrub and woodland provide suitable nesting
sites for reed bunting, reed and sedge warblers, and nightingales. In autumn, large flocks
of swallows and sand martins roost in the reed beds before migrating south. Winter
visitors include teal, gadwall, redshank, snipe, water rail and the rare Cetti’s warbler. A
variety of plant species are found on the reserve, including marshmallow, early and
southern marsh-orchid. The reserve has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific
Interest.

View of the ferry route from Wouldham across to Halling.

The ferry steps at Wouldham.

Burham Marsh.
The Battle of the Medway commemorative stone by the river at Burham.

The river makes a big loop past the marshes with the village of Burham on one side
and the small town of Snodland on the other. Burham is reputed to be the site of the
‘Battle of the Medway’ in AD 43, where an army, formed from the combined British tribes
under the command of King Caratacus, attempted to halt the advancing Roman legions. A
specially trained detachment of Batavian auxiliaries from the Roman army swam the river
in full armour, taking the defenders by surprise. They had not thought a crossing possible
in the absence of any bridge. In the ensuing chaos the main part of the invasion force led
by Vespasian (the later Emperor Vespasian) crossed the river unopposed further west and
eventually put the Britons to flight. A large commemorative stone has been placed near the
bank of the river, which marks the reputed site of the battle.
Also nearby can be seen some remains of the old West Kent Portland Cement Works
in the form of a row of around twenty huge concrete pillars, which are thought to have
been used to support a tramway for loading the kilns.
Across the river lies the large village of Snodland where in 1964, during clearance
operations by the South Eastern Gas Board, traces of a Roman settlement were uncovered.
An emergency archaeological rescue operation was undertaken and the remains of at least
two buildings were discovered. It was eventually determined that the settlement stretched
for several hundred feet along the west bank of the river, giving it excellent
communications with the major Roman settlement at nearby Rochester
West Kent Portland Cement Work’s tramway support pillars.

The Snodland Paper Mill following the fire on 12 August 1906.

Snodland Paper Mill in 2014.

As well as its cement works, Snodland has also long been a thriving centre for the
papermaking industry with the first mill opening there around 1740. The owner of the mill
was John May, a wealthy landowner from nearby Birling. The mill passed through several
hands until 1854 when it was purchased by the Hook family. Thanks to new
manufacturing techniques and the coming of the railway, Charles Townsend Hook and his
father, Samuel, soon increased production at the mill from 5 to 70 tons per week. This
production was mostly made up of straw-based printing and writing papers. By 1862,
Hooks had established a reputation for quality and reliability for themselves which was
rewarded that year with a medal for the quality of its paper. By 1887, when the company
went public, the mill was producing over 5,000 tons of paper a year. Disaster struck when,
on Sunday 12 August 1906, the mill was destroyed by fire. This was unquestionably the
most dramatic event in Snodland’s history. The cost of the damage caused was almost
£200,000 and over 400 people lost their jobs which, in turn, forced thirty-one families
from their homes.
Brooklands Lake.

Within two years, the mill was rebuilt and papermaking continued in Snodland until
the present day. Today, the Townsend Hook Mill is owned by the Smurfit Kappa Group
and continues to thrive as a recent £98 million investment programme nears completion.
As the river meanders past the mill, progressing upstream towards New Hythe, we
pass a series of lakes that stretch westwards, almost to West Malling. These former gravel
workings encompass Brooklands Lake, a very popular 28 acre angling lake and Leybourne
Lakes, a 230 acre country park with spectacular views across its series of lakes and
flower-rich grasslands to the North Downs beyond.
The park attracts hosts of walkers, cyclists and picnickers to enjoy its views and
wildlife. It also has its own water activity centre providing windsurfing, canoeing and
facilities for scuba diving.
Our journey upriver now continues through another small industrial belt. New Hythe,
once a village community in its own right, but nowadays absorbed into the much larger
neighbouring Larkfield conurbation, is home to a large trading estate. The stretch of the
river here is known as ‘the Middle Cut’. It was constructed to straighten the river to cope
with the increased traffic when Albert E. Reed established a paper mill here after the First
World War. The mill occupied a huge 500 acre site along both sides of the river and with
its loading berths and gantries was responsible for importing many hundreds of tons of
wood pulp, board, coal and china clay.
The mill eventually closed in 2009 with the loss of many jobs. However, Aylesford
Newsprint continues to operate on the site recycling newspapers and magazines. Much of
the rest of the site was demolished and new industries moved in including a large metal
recycling plant.
The Middle Cut joins ‘the Upper Cut’ just north of the village of Aylesford. As the
river approaches the village, on the east bank can be seen the Carmelite Aylesford priory.

Leybourne Lakes.

The redundant paper mill footbridge and quayside at New Hythe.

The Aylesford Newsprint recycling plant.

AYLESFORD PRIORY
Aylesford priory was founded in 1242 by Carmelite hermits who had been driven from the
Holy Land by the Saracens. They came under the patronage of Richard de Grey, a
crusader, who donated some land to them from his manor holdings at Aylesford.
In 1247, the Bishop of Rochester, Richard of Wendover, officially recognised the
Carmelite foundation at Aylesford and the First General Chapter of the order outside of the
Holy Land was held there. This event changed the Carmelites’ lifestyle from hermits to
that of mendicant friars.
One of the early priors of the Order, St Simon Stock who died in 1265, was purported
to have had a vision of the Virgin Mary promising her protection to the Carmelite Order.
Some believe this vision happened at Aylesford.
In 1348, the Bishop of Llandaff, John Pashcal, blessed the site of a new cemetery and
church at the friary but it was not until 1417 that the church was consecrated, the delay
possibly caused by the Black Death, which had affected so much of the population. The
new church was dedicated by Richard Young, Bishop of Rochester, on 4 May 1417, and
an indulgence of forty days was granted to all true penitents who came to the church on
the day of the dedication and the following week and who contributed to the support of the
house. The bishop also consecrated various altars in the church: one in honour of St John
the Baptist; another in honour of St Thomas the Martyr; and a third, next to the choir, in
honour of the apostles St Peter and St Paul. A provincial chapter was held here in 1489 by
Friar Richard of Maidstone, Doctor of Divinity at Oxford University, confessor of John of
Gaunt and a writer of some distinction, who was a brother of the friary, when he died in
1396 and was buried under a marble stone in the cloister.
Riverside view of the priory.

The gatehouse.

In 1538, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the friary was taken over by
Sir Thomas Wyatt of Allington Castle. The Wyatts lost their lands under the reign of
Queen Mary and later, under Queen Elizabeth, the property, now known as ‘The Friars’,
passed into the hands of Sir John Sedley who made considerable alterations to the
buildings.
In 1633 The Friars was purchased by Sir Peter Rycaut, a Dutch financier. The
Rycauts took the Royalist side during the Civil War. During the war, The Friars was taken
over by the Parliamentary forces and served for a while as the meeting place for the
Parliamentary Committee of Kent.
In 1653 Sir Peter died penniless and his wife, Dame Mary, and son, Sir Paul Rycaut,
a writer and traveller, struggled to pay off his debts. Eventually, in 1657, they were forced
to sell The Friars to Sir John Banks, a businessman, who turned it into a Caroline mansion
in the 1670s. Following Sir John’s death, the property was inherited by his daughter
Elizabeth, whose husband, Heneage Finch, had been created 1st Earl of Aylesford in 1649.
They lived at The Friars for a time before moving away to Packington Hall in
Warwickshire, never to return.
The Friars remained in private ownership until 1949 when it was put up for sale, and
was purchased by the Carmelite Order, enabling them to return to their motherhouse. The
first prior, Fr Malachy Lynch, began the work of restoring the property to a place of
pilgrimage and prayer. These works included the creation of an open-air shrine, which was
rededicated in 1965 by Archbishop Cyril Cowderoy in the presence of Cardinal Heenan.
The Friars now serves as a centre of prayer for all Christians in Kent and a place of
peace open to all visitors.
Aylesford village has a rich history with its medieval bridge and centuries-old
buildings. It was also the site of the Battle of Aylesford in 455 when the Germanic
brothers Hengist and Horsa led an army of Angles, Saxons and Jutes against the Britons
under the Welsh warlord Vortigern. Following the battle, in which Horsa was killed,
Hengist became the first King of Kent.
The riverside at Aylesford was once a hive of industrial activity with wharves on both
banks handling sand, aggregates and fuel oil from the nearby quarry and storage depot.
Although the riverside industrial activity has all but ceased and many of the
associated sites demolished and given over to housing, Aylesford today is still an
important commercial hub. The main activity now centres along the Forstal Road towards
Sandling and includes a major supermarket distribution centre, builders’ merchants, tyre
fitting depots and various wholesale and retail warehousing. The former Maidstone
Waterworks Co.’s Forstal pumping station also stands alongside the river here.
Constructed in the 1880s, this impressive building, which once housed pumps to extract
water from the Medway, has now been converted into commercial office accommodation.
As we continue upriver to the outskirts of Sandling, there stands the Museum of Kent
Life. An open-air heritage farm spread over 28 acres, it celebrates Kent’s rich agricultural
history and is a major visitor attraction for the area. Crowds flock here to see the animals,
historic farmhouses and buildings together with many static and interactive exhibits
evoking the homes and lifestyle of Kent’s rural past.
The open-air shrine.

We now approach Allington Lock and the tidal limit of the river. Henceforth, we will
see the landscape along the river slowly take on a much more rural nature.

Aylesford in the 1940s.

Aylesford in 2014.
Aylesford Sand Co.’s wharf in 1948.
Forstal pumping station.

Oast Houses at the Museum of Kent Life.

3
 ALLINGTON LOCK TO TONBRIDGE

This 19-mile stretch forms part of the river known as the Medway Navigation and comes
under the authority of the Environment Agency. There are eleven locks along the
navigation, capable of handling craft up to a size of 80 feet by 18 feet. Until 1746, the
river was impassable above Maidstone. Up to that, point most villages on the river had
their own wharf, or wharves, such as those at Halling, Snodland, New Hythe and
Aylesford. Cargoes included corn, fodder, fruit, stone and timber. In 1746, improvements
to the channel meant that barges of 40 tons could reach East Farleigh, Yalding and even
Tonbridge; the channel was further improved to Leigh in 1828. The lowest lock opened in
1792 at Allington. The others are East Farleigh, Teston, Hampstead Lane, Stoneham Old
Lock (disused), Sluice Weir Lock, Oak Weir Lock, East Lock, Porter’s, Eldridge’s and
Town Lock in Tonbridge. The locks will take craft up to 80 feet by 18 feet, and vessels
with a draft of up to 4 feet can navigate the river.
At Allington Lock the tidal river meets the non-tidal river. It is situated at the lower
end of a pretty, winding reach of the river and, with its attractive Victorian Gothic Lock
House, moored-up brightly painted houseboats and other leisure craft, the site attracts
many visitors.
Beside the lock are a set of large electrically operated sluice gates, which were
installed in 1937 to protect Maidstone and Tonbridge from flooding. Immediately above
the lock on the opposite bank stands the Malta Inn – a pleasant riverside pub and
restaurant. The many moorings along the river from here accommodate more houseboats
and some unusual sailing barges.
Allington Lock, 1941.

Allington Lock, 2013.

A little further upriver, on the right bank, you can glimpse the crenellated grey stone
walls of the thirteenth-century Allington Castle through the treeline. Originally a manor
house, in 1281 it was fortified by Stephen de Penchester, Lord Warden of the Cinque
Ports, after a ‘License to Crenellate’ was issued by Edward I. Following a fire in the late
sixteenth century, it lay derelict until 1905 when it was restored and used as a home by Sir
Martin Conway. In 1961, the castle was taken over by the Carmelite Order who turned it
into a convent. It is now once again a private residence.
Located next to the castle, Allington Marina, with its two basins and slipway,
provides moorings and launching for numerous craft. It also has a chandlery and
provisions shop and a fuelling wharf. The marina and its facilities offer the perfect base
from which to cruise the river.
Above the marina, at the turn of the river are the buildings of South East Water’s
Maidstone pumping station and then Ford’s Wharf Boatyard, which offers yet more boat
repairing facilities and moorings.
The river now reaches the outskirts of Maidstone, the county town of Kent.

Allington sluice gates.

Houseboats moored at Allington.

Allington Castle.
Allington Marina.
Maidstone pumping station.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF MAIDSTONE

Evidence of settlement in Maidstone can be found dating back to prehistoric times, and
Maidstone Museum holds many locally found Mesolithic and Neolithic artefacts.
The Romans increased the importance of the area and paved the way for the
development of Maidstone when they created one of the most famous Roman roads in
Britain, a road that became known as Watling Street. This road ran from Rochester to
Hastings on the South Coast and passed through the site of modern-day Maidstone, where
two villas have also been found dating back to Roman times. It appears that the Romans
were the first to extract the local sandstone, known as Kentish Ragstone, which was then
transported down the road to Hastings and to other parts of the country via Watling Street.
It emerged as a Saxon village during the tenth century and became part of the
possessions of the See of Canterbury and remained so even after the Norman Conquest.
By the time of the Domesday Book it had a population of 250 and five corn mills that
were powered by the waters of the River Medway.
By the thirteenth century, Maidstone had grown from a village into a town. The
Medway provided the ideal means for transporting the locally grown fruit and vegetables
to the markets of London. The archbishops of Canterbury had a large influence on the
early history of Maidstone, being lords and patrons of the whole town. Archbishop
Boniface founded a hospital here in 1245 and in the fourteenth century Archbishop
Courtenay obtained permission from Richard II to carry out alterations to the parish
church of All Saints to make it more in keeping with the importance of the place.
Courtenay was also responsible for the founding of the nearby college of secular canons
whose first master, John Wootton, was buried in All Saints churchyard. To the north of the
church beside the river stands the Archbishop’s Palace. Completed by Archbishop Islip
around 1350, it was substantially renovated and improved during the reign of Henry VII.
In 1381, Penenden Heath (a traditional meeting place since the time of the Jutes) was
the assembly point for the Peasants’ Revolt led by Wat Tyler. Almost 100 years later
another historic but violent assembly took place in Maidstone, this time in Mote Park.
During the War of the Roses, the Yorkist King Edward IV had married Lady Elizabeth
Grey. Edward conferred many honours upon her father, Lord Rivers of the Mote, and other
members of her family. This enraged the King’s enemy, the Earl of Warwick, who was
plotting to restore the Lancastrian Henry VI to the throne. During the course of the plot a
group of Warwick’s friends attacked Mote Park and ransacked the house and, following
the restoration of Henry to the throne, Warwick had Lord Rivers beheaded. Rivers’ son,
Sir Anthony Woodville, succeeded to his father’s title and, after the death of Edward VI,
he became guardian to his nephew and heir, Prince Edward, who was soon to become one
of the famous but ill-fated Boy Princes of the Tower, who mysteriously died when interred
in the Tower of London by their uncle, Richard of Gloucester.
In the early fifteenth century, a quasi-religious guild of local traders, the Corpus
Christi Fraternity, was founded to regulate business, observe religious ceremonies and
raise funds to care for its infirm and elderly members. It was based in its hall near the river
just off Earl Street, which also contained a refectory chapel and cloisters. The hall was
seized by the Crown during the suppression of religious guilds in 1547, and in 1548 it was
bought by the recently incorporated town of Maidstone. In 1549, the corporation reopened
the hall as Maidstone Grammar School to educate those children who could write their
name and read Latin.
Two years later, the people of Maidstone rebelled against the Crown in support of
local MP and prominent soldier Sir Thomas Wyatt’s endeavour to prevent Mary Tudor’s
marriage to King Philip of Spain. Local forces massed at Penenden Heath and marched on
London. However, in the face of considerable Loyalist forces, his troops gradually melted
away and Wyatt was arrested and subsequently executed. During this time, Maidstone had
its Charter of Incorporation revoked, but in 1556 a new charter was established when it
was created a borough.
As it approaches Maidstone, the river flows under the Downstream Bridge – one of
three new river bridges built as part of the Maidstone Riverside Park Project, the largest
millennium project in Kent. The park stretches from Teston at the west of the town to
Allington Lock. Lying at the heart of the project at this point is Whatman Park. Just half a
mile from Maidstone town centre, this 18-acre site on the river’s left bank combines a
natural landscape of woodland and wildflower meadow. It has adventure play areas, a
treetop walk, skatepark and the Riverstage open-air performance arena, offering a retreat
with countless activities for all the family. The park was opened in 2001 by Terry Waite
CBE and the then Mayor of Maidstone, Paulina Stockell.
Corpus Christi Hall.

The Downstream Bridge connects Whatman Park with Monktons Lane on the
opposite bank, where you can see more remnants of the river’s Second World War
defences in the form of four huge concrete cubes that acted as anti-tank roadblocks. At the
southern end of Whatman Park another one of the Millennium bridges, the Kent
Messenger Bridge, connects the park to the Gallagher Stadium, home of Maidstone United
Football Club.
As the river bends around to the left it brings into view the high-level truss-girder
bridge which carries the mainline railway from Maidstone East station to London Victoria.
The East station is one of three serving the town; the other two, Maidstone West and
Maidstone Barracks, are on the Medway Valley cross-county line. Maidstone East was
opened as ‘Maidstone Station’ by the London, Chatham & Dover Railway in 1874 and
was originally the terminus of a line running from Otford, near Sevenoaks. The line was
extended eastwards to Ashford in 1884.
Downsteam Bridge.
Whatman Park.

As the river passes under the railway bridge it emerges into what was once the
riverside industrial heart of Maidstone. Thriving breweries, mills, gas and coke works and
various factories occupied both banks of the river. Most of the industrial buildings on the
left bank were demolished to make way for a new retail park, apartments and a hotel.
Sharps Toffee was still being made in their factory here up until 1998 and, on the opposite
side of the river the Whitbread Brewery in Earl Street was demolished in 2003 to make
way for the Fremlins Walk shopping centre and car park.
The one major waterfront industrial building remaining is the former Tillings-Stevens
commercial vehicle factory on Baltic Wharf. Built in 1917, in the American ‘Daylight’
style, this is one of the riverside’s most prominent buildings; it served as a munitions
factory during the Second World War. A Grade II listed building, it has lain empty and
dilapidated for many years. Recent proposals to partially demolish it as part of a
redevelopment of the site have been refused and its long-term future is still undecided.
As the river now takes a sharp left-hand turn, ahead stands Maidstone Bridge, which
carries traffic from the A20, A26 and A229 roads across the river and is a notorious
‘bottleneck’ during peak times. Also known as the Broadway Bridge, it was built in 1879
by the distinguished Victorian engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who was most famous for
building London’s sewer system. The bridge was widened between 1926 and 1936. The
cost was partially met by a £17,000 contribution from the Rochester Bridge Trust, who
had also been a major contributor to the 1879 construction costs. In 1977, a second bridge,
St Peters Bridge, was built a short way downstream and enabled a gyratory one-way
traffic system across the river using both bridges.

Second World War anti-tank roadblocks.

Millennium Bridge.
The railway girder bridge over the river at Maidstone.

As we pass under the bridge, the law courts loom into view on the left bank of the
river. Opened in 1983, this impressive building houses the crown, county and family
courts as well as the Maidstone probate sub-registry.
On the opposite bank lies the heart of historic Maidstone with its fine range of
buildings – the mellowed grey ragstone walls, russet roofs and brick chimney stacks
comprising the long river frontage of the Archbishop’s Palace.
Hotel complex on the left bank at Maidstone.

The Fremlins Walk shopping centre.

The Tilling-Stevens building, Maidstone.

The 1879 Maidstone Bridge.

The 1977 St Peter’s Bridge.

Maidstone Law Courts.

THE ARCHBISHOP’S PALACE

The building of the ancient Archbishop’s Palace at Maidstone commenced by order of
Archbishop Ufford in 1348 and was completed by his successor, Archbishop Simon Islip,
around 1350.
In June 1381 the preacher and orator John Ball had been imprisoned in the palace
dungeon for his part in fomenting a riot. He was released from here by Wat Tyler, the
leader of the Peasants’ Revolt, and later preached to the rebel army at Blackheath.
In 1486, Archbishop Morton extensively enlarged and improved the building. It was
this splendid palace, together with its range of stables, huge tithe barn and spacious
gardens, that was surrendered by Archbishop Cranmer to King Henry VIII at the time of
the Dissolution of the Monasteries in exchange for other properties. The King then granted
the property to Sir Thomas Wyatt, but it was forfeited back to the Crown in 1554
following the rebellion led by Wyatt’s son, Thomas Wyatt the Younger.
The palace then passed through several hands including those of Thomas Astley, who
in turn passed it onto his brother, Sir John, who was Master of the Queen’s Jewels and
who had already been granted Allington Castle by Queen Elizabeth I. John Astley
extended the palace building and much of the structure can still be seen today. On his
death in 1639 it passed to Jacob, the 1st Baron Astley of Reading, a famous Maj.-Gen. in
the Royalist Army during the English Civil War. Following the collapse of the Royalist
cause, Cromwell graciously allowed him to return to the palace on parole, where he lived
quietly until his death in 1651.

The left bank above Maidstone Bridge in the 1930s.

The riverfront of the Archbishop’s Palace.

The palace tithe barn and stables.

The palace remained in the Astley family until 1720 when it was sold to Robert
Marsham, 1st Baron Romney, who lived at nearby Mote House. The palace chapel was
demolished in 1730, and by the 1800s the main building had been divided into two houses.
It fell into disuse, and by 1887 was considered to be derelict and was slated for total
demolition to make space for warehouses. A public subscription was launched to save it,
which was successful, and the palace was presented to the town to mark Queen Victoria’s
Golden Jubilee. In the early years of the twentieth century it was used as a Territorial
Army medical school.
Today the palace is managed by Kent County Council and is used primarily as a
registry office, with many of its rooms used to host marriage ceremonies.
Just south of the palace stands the church of All Saints, Maidstone’s parish church,
with its great bell tower dominating the skyline and on the higher ground are the buildings
of the old college. Originally an ecclesiastical college attached to the establishment of the
nearby palace and church, it was closed in 1546 and sold together with its lands. It passed
through the ownership of a number of local aristocratic families and the lands farmed until
the late nineteenth century. The remaining buildings are currently owned by Maidstone
Borough Council and are leased out for various uses.
It is at this point that the river is crossed by the Lockmeadow Footbridge – another of
the Riverside Park Project bridges. This was also once the site of College Lock – one of
the original Medway Navigation Locks, which was demolished in 1881.
On the right bank backing onto the Old College is the Hermitage Millennium
Amphitheatre, built as part of the Millennium River Park and opened by Dan Dailey, the
mayor of Maidstone, in 2001. It is an open-air performance arena, built of brick and
Kentish ragstone to blend in with its medieval surroundings, with a central stage encircled
by rows of terraced seating. It provides a venue for a variety of outdoor events from
summer jazz concerts to Christmas fireworks displays.
The palace entrance frontage.

The left bank with Archbishop’s Palace and All Saints church in 1960.

Moving on from the medieval splendour, the river now makes a right-angle turn and
we now pass through another former riverside industrial zone. On the left bank the area
known as Lockmeadow was once the site of Maidstone Livestock Market and is still the
home of the town’s general market. Nearby stands a large modern entertainment complex
with a multi-screen cinema, restaurants and a night club. Many of the industrial buildings
along this stretch of the river have long been demolished and replaced by modern
apartment blocks and riverside housing.
The industrial premises all along the right bank of the river once merged into the
outskirts of the parish of Tovil. The village has a long history of papermaking and used to
be home to a number of mills that were served by the Loose Stream, which enters the
Medway here near the site of Bridge Mill. Bridge Mill, together with Upper Tovil Mill and
Lower Tovil Mill, were also served by a railway branch line. The Tovil branch of the
South-Eastern & Chatham Railway’s Medway Valley main line was the only part of the
proposed Headcorn and Maidstone Junction Light Railway ever built. The Tovil Goods
Station opened in 1886 and connected to the main line via a substantial girder bridge over
the Medway. The proposed extension of the line through to Headcorn was eventually
abandoned in 1917. The goods line to Tovil continued to operate, serving the mills and
other goods traffic until its closure in 1977. The bridge over the Medway was demolished,
though some of the brick pillars still remain on the north bank of the river. The goods
station was also demolished and the site is now covered by housing.

All Saints church.

The old college gateway.

Lockmeadow footbridge.
The Hermitage Millennium Amphitheatre.

The Lockmeadow Entertainment Complex.

Apartment blocks at Lockmeadow.

Maidstone is now left behind and for the next couple of miles the river narrows
considerably, confined between steep banks with the railway line running alongside the
left bank of the river and Bydews Woods on the right. Emerging from the woods, the river
widens once more as it approaches the village of East Farleigh.
East Farleigh Lock, sluices and its medieval bridge can be seen ahead. The collapse
of the lock in 1909 halted navigation of the river beyond this point and signalled the end
of the Medway Navigation Co. The consequent fear of flooding resulted in the Kent
County Council promoting the Upper Medway Navigation and Conservancy Board. In
1914 new weirs were constructed in order to reduce flooding. The locks were rebuilt and
the navigation reopened in 1915. In the winter of 2014, following severe storms and
torrential rain, the water level rose, overwhelming the sluices and almost submerging the
lock completely.
East Farleigh Bridge is a beautiful structure of grey ragstone with ribbled arches. It
was built in the fourteenth century and is thought to be one of the oldest in Kent. Its main
claim to fame is that it provided the crossing point over the river for the Parliamentary
forces in the Battle of Maidstone during the Civil War. It is very unsuited to the demands
of today’s motor traffic, and passage across it is restricted to just one lane. The inevitable
traffic ‘bottleneck’ problems are compounded by the presence of East Farleigh railway
station and level crossing immediately to the north of the bridge. The bridge also has the
dubious reputation of causing more damage to river cruisers than any other obstacle on the
river. This is due to the fact that the exit from the lock and the navigation arch on the
bridge does not line up, necessitating a ‘dead-slow’ angled approach to avoid collisions.
The road, on the south side of the bridge, rises up a steep hill at the top of which stands the
twelfth-century parish church of St Mary. Two of the former vicars were the sons of the
anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce and both are buried in the churchyard here.
Two surviving brick pillars that once supported the Tovil Railway Bridge.

Modern apartments on the site of Bridge Mill.

The river at Bydew Woods.

East Farleigh Lock in 1910.

The lock when it was submerged in February 2014.

East Farleigh Bridge.

Leaving East Farleigh the river now follows a long reach to Barming.Wrens, jays,
herons, cormorants and moles can be seen along this stretch of the river and ramsons,
comfrey, horsetail and cobnuts can all be found growing on the banks. Barming Bridge,
also known as St Helen’s Bridge or Kettle Bridge, is a modern looking metal footbridge
that rests on the parapets of an earlier wooden structure. The earlier bridge was built in
1740 when work on the Medway Navigation necessitated the removal the original ford.
The bridge collapsed twice including in 1914 when a 10-ton traction engine attempted to
cross it and ended up in the river. It was replaced in 1996 with today’s structure.
 Above Barming Bridge the river sweeps around to Teston Bridge – another charming
medieval bridge. When the Medway was made navigable from Tonbridge to Maidstone in
the 1740s a lock was built here. The bridge was then widened in 1749 to cope with the
additional river traffic.
The current lock was built in 1913 and was completely restored in 2013.
Improvements incorporated into the restoration included the provision of a new canoe and
fish pass, better mooring systems and new access steps and footpaths. The stretch of the
river below the lock boasts one of the highest levels of fish stocks along the entire River
Medway. Pike, chubb, barbel, roach, perch and bream are all in plentiful supply. The area
around Teston Bridge and Lock is one of the most picturesque on the river. On the right
bank stand the ruins of the old Tutsham Mill – a linseed and cattle cake mill that was burnt
down in 1885.
The Teston Bridge Country Park combines 12 acres of grazed meadow, river walks, a
picnic park and children’s play area. The meadows are used to graze cattle, and because of
this are awash with the colours of native wildflowers in summer. The areas closest to the
river tend to flood in winter, creating a natural wetland habitat. The park hosts many
events throughout the year including the famous Kite Festival.

Barming Bridge, 1906.

The river now makes a number of wide sweeps through gently sloping meadowland,
with many private cruisers moored up along the towpath, until it reaches Bow Bridge at
Wateringbury. Wateringbury’s name is thought to come from the Saxon word
Wotringberia, meaning a ‘low and watery site’, and this position along the main River
Medway was an asset to the village. In 1820, this low and watery site boasted a brewery
and Jude Handbury and Co.’s blended whisky in later years. Here the railway station and
main road are close at hand, making access to the river easy for holidaymakers, day-
trippers and anglers alike and with its two marinas (Bow Bridge & Medway Wharf),
boatyard and riverside restaurant it is one of the most popular stretches of the navigation.
Barming Bridge, 2014.

The Medway Wharf Marina is the home of the Hampstead & Yalding Cruising Club,
who are responsible for one of the river’s oldest traditions.

Teston Bridge.
Teston Lock and Weir, c. 1910, with the ruins of Tutsham Mill in the background.

Teston Country Park.

Bow Bridge.
The river at Wateringbury.

THE ‘COURT OF SURVEY’ CRUISE

On 4 December 1559, Queen Elizabeth I issued a charter under which the Queen’s town of
Maidstone was granted liberties in the River Medway extending from East Farleigh to
Hawkewood in Burham. A court was held annually to inspect the condition of the river, to
redress any disorders and remove any nuisances. The town corporation used to attend in
their barges in what was then called the Mayor’s Fishing Court.
These liberties were augmented in a charter of King James I, dated 12 July 1619,
which granted the privilege of keeping swans and cygnets on this stretch of the river and
marking them. These additional duties were listed as, ‘To have liberty to keepe Swans
from East Farleigh Bridge to Hawkewood, and a Swan marke, and to alter and change the
same at our pleasure, And to seise and marke all white Swans as our own not lawfully
marked, And to preserve them straying, And to retake and rehave them.’
The tradition was revived in 1975 and the mayor of Maidstone’s Court of Survey
Cruise has been held annually since. A swan master was appointed and the swans are now
marked by a numbered ring around their leg. Since 1981 the event has been organised by
the Hampstead & Yalding Cruising Club.
Leaving Wateringbury, the river is wide and straight through to Nettlestead where the
valley narrows. This stretch is abundant in wildlife, with kingfishers and otters often
spotted along the banks. High up on the north bank stands Nettlestead Place, a lovely
medieval manor house with a fourteenth-century gateway. The house was extensively
refurbished and enlarged in the 1920s and since 1988 the gardens have been developed
and extended. Today Nettlestead Place, with its banqueting hall and huge barn, is a
popular venue for weddings and receptions. Situated rather conveniently adjacent is the
small and ancient parish church of St Mary, which is easily accessible from the riverbank
via a footpath which crosses the railway line and ascends the hill.
From Nettlestead the river winds its way upstream through several sharp bends and
high banks and then a long wide reach to Hampstead Lock Cut. At the head of this reach,
the river, just before the lock, divides. The main channel veers off to the east and forms a
long loop known as the Yalding Bend. This loop flows past Little Venice Country Park
and marina on one side and the tributary of the River Beult on the other, where the river
shallows rapidly around to the medieval Twyford Bridge. Navigation of the main channel
further than the bridge is impossible due to the extreme shallowness of the water and the
sluices that lay just beyond it.
Back at Hampstead Cut, the secondary channel of the river serves to form the basin
of Hampstead Marina and then passes through the lock, under the road bridge, and joins
the Hampstead Lane Canal. The canal was built, along with the lock, by the Medway
Navigation Co. in the 1740s. It sliced off the Yalding Bend, which enabled the company’s
barges to navigate the river beyond Twyford Bridge and the sluices. Today it makes for a
lovely quiet backwater for boats, anglers and picnickers. Towards the bridge end the canal
passes by the very popular and picturesque Anchor public house. The canal rejoins the
main river just beyond Twyford Bridge. At this point the river is joined by another
tributary, the River Teise, which flows past Yalding Lees – a wide expanse of common
land that once served as the village cricket ground but is now a car park and picnic area.
Between the Medway and the Teise lies Teapot Island, named after its famous teapot
museum. The museum grew from the personal teapot collection of owner Sue Blazye,
which started when her grandmother gave her a teapot in 1983, encouraging other family
members and friends to do the same. The collection now comprises over 6,700, teapots,
each with its own unique history. The museum also has a busy riverside café serving
cream teas, lunches and dinners.
Nettlestead Place.

The Hampstead Canal.

The parish church of St Mary, Nettlestead.

Twyford Bridge.

Nearby there is Twyford Bridge Marina, providing berths for up to seventy-eight

craft and dry dock facilities for boat repairs. Yalding and other nearby villages along this
stretch of the river suffered terribly through flooding during the severe storms of the
winter of 2013/14. The river burst its banks in several places, submerging bridges, locks
and roads, bursting sewers and forcing hundreds of local residents from their homes over
the Christmas period and leaving those remaining without electricity or heating. For some
people it was several months before they could return to their homes and, at the time of
writing a year later, there are still a few living in temporary accommodation.
The Anchor.

Teapot Island.
The redundant Stoneham Lock.

The next bend in the river leaves Yalding behind and heads back into peaceful
countryside and then makes a series of sharp twists and turns until it reaches the disused
Stoneham Lock. When the commercial barge traffic on the river ceased in the 1950s, the
lock was considered unnecessary and the gates and machinery removed to save on costs
and repairs. The lock chamber still remains and any river traffic still needs to pass through
it.
Moving on through the next reach, the river widens again through peaceful woodland
and passing small creeks and under the girder bridge carrying the Maidstone–Paddock
Wood railway line and past aggregate workings on both sides, which are linked by a
conveyor that runs over the river. It then makes another wide curve to Branbridges – a
small village now virtually merged with its larger neighbour, East Peckham. Here the river
passes through the scant remains of Tumbling Bay Lock, which was removed when the
river was reconstructed, and then under Branbridges Bridge. This bridge was built by Kent
County Council in 1906, replacing an earlier stone bridge. The once small but busy
riverside industrial estate here now lies abandoned and derelict.
As we leave Branbridges the river narrows, the banks become much higher and the
depth of water diminishes as it winds its way towards Sluice Weir Lock. This lock is the
deepest on the river and the top gate sluices are well above the lower water level; a good
deal of silting takes place with the river here and needs to be dredged annually to maintain
a depth of 4 feet. A Second World War pillbox stands next to the lock – one of many built
along the river to defend it from the invader that never came. The lock is a very popular
leisure site and is often busy at weekends with anglers, campers and picnickers.

Aggregate conveyor over the river at Branbridges.

Branbridges Bridge.
Sluice Weir Lock and Second World War pillbox.

The weir at Sluice Weir Lock.

Just across the fields, to the south of the river, is the Hop Farm Country Park at
Beltring. This was once a huge working hop farm owned by the Whitbread Brewery. It is
now a leisure park and tourist attraction popular with families, with its features and
exhibits designed to appeal to young children. It is also one of Kent’s major event venues
hosting a variety of fairs, shows and concerts.
Above Sluice Weir Lock the valley is much more open and the scenery more
pleasant. Wagon Bridge footbridge can be seen, which carries the footpath leading to the
delightfully named hamlet of Snoll Hatch. The original bridge was washed away in the
great floods of September 1968 and was replaced by the present steel girder structure.
Immediately above this bridge, the River Bourne joins the Medway. This little tributary
springs from the North Downs near Wrotham and passes through the villages of Borough
Green, Plaxtol and Hadlow, before joining the Medway at this point. No less than twelve
watermills once stood along its 10-mile route.

The Hop Farm at Beltring in 1967.

Wagon Bridge viewed through the trees.

Moving on upriver we pass under a newer concrete footbridge (Stilstead Farm

Bridge), which carries another public footpath over the river and leads past the farm to the
hamlet of Little Mill, which was the site of one of the aforementioned River Bourne’s
watermills. Part of the building still stands and has now been converted into a house. By
the bridge on the left bank and almost hidden in the vegetation is another Second World
War pillbox .
As we move on upriver the banks become higher and another turn brings into view
the next lock on the river – Oak Weir Lock. The lock is situated in an attractive, peaceful
setting among the trees.
Both banks above the lock are wooded and the river makes several sharp turns before
happening into open meadowland as it approaches Ford Green Bridge – a rather
dilapidated footbridge, which carries the Wealdway footpath across the river on its long
route from Eastbourne to Gravesend. The meadows either side of the bridge have low
banks and provide popular moorings for craft using the river. Above the bridge the river
soon divides with the navigable channel leading to East Lock.

Stilstead Farm Bridge.

Pillbox guarding Stilstead Bridge.

Oak Weir Lock.

At East Lock the towpath changes from the right to the left bank. As with many of
the other locks along the river, East Lock has recently been provided with a new canoe
and fish passes. As if still standing guard on the lock, here are two more Second World
War pillboxes. So formidably built are these structures that they have proved more trouble
than they are worth to demolish; they have stood, along with all the others on the banks of
the river, for almost seventy-five years and who’s to say they will not still be here for
decades to come?

Ford Green Bridge.

East Lock fish and canoe pass.

A pair of pillboxes at East Lock.

From East Lock the river flows through mainly arable land and pasture and passes
under Hartlake Bridge – the only road bridge to cross the river between Branbridges and
Tonbridge. It carries the Hartlake Road from the hamlet of Tudeley Hale in the south to
the village of Golden Green to the north.
This modern concrete structure replaced an earlier wooden bridge that was the scene
of a particularly tragic disaster.
Hartlake Bridge.

THE HARTLAKE DISASTER

Memorial plaque under the modern Hartlake Bridge.

On 20 October 1853, a wagon carrying around forty migrant hop pickers and their families
back to their campsite in Tudeley from their day’s work at Thomson’s Farm in Golden
Green was crossing the old wooden bridge when one of its horses shied, causing one of its
wheels to crash through the side of the bridge. The wagon overturned tipping its occupants
into a flood swollen Medway. The accident, known as the Hartlake Disaster, resulted in
the death of thirty people. The victims were all either Romanies or Irish. An inquest into
the disaster held at the Bell Inn in the nearby village of Golden Green blamed the Medway
Navigation Co. for failing to adequately maintain the bridge. The deceased were buried in
the nearby St Mary’s church, Hadlow, where a monument in the form of an oast house has
been erected. The monument is a Grade II listed building. The full cost of the burial was
borne by the parish of Hadlow as the Medway Navigation Co. refused to contribute.

The memorial to the disaster in Hadlow churchyard.

The view upriver from Porters Lock.
Hadlow Tower.

The river now passes through woodland onto Porters Lock. This lock is in a very
attractive rural setting and is a popular spot for picnicking. Above the lock the river flows
through a very peaceful setting flanked by fields and woods. In early summer the woods
are carpeted with the white flowers of wild garlic, their pungent scent filling the air. In the
distance to the north can be seen the famous folly Hadlow Tower. The tower, also known
as ‘May’s Folly’, stands in the centre of the village of Hadlow and once formed part of a
grand, Gothic-style house, which was built in 1838. Most of the house was demolished in
the 1950s leaving just the tower standing. However, during the 1990s, it too became in
danger of collapse. The 40-foot-high ‘lantern’ that topped the tower was removed for
safety reasons and the rest of the structure had to be made safe; a campaign group was
formed to save and restore the tower. The ‘lantern’ has now been reinstated and the rest of
the structure fully restored and is used for holiday lets as well as being opened to visitors
on a regular basis. The magnificent views from the tower extend across the Medway into
the Weald of Kent.
Elridges Lock and Sluice.

View upriver from Eldridges Lock.

Cannon Bridge, c. 1900.

Cannon Bridge in 2014.

The redundant gasholder at the old Tonbridge Gasworks.

Modern apartment blocks along the Tonbridge riverside.

The Medway in flood at Tonbridge in 1909, with the gasworks in the background.

The approach to Town Lock and Sluice.

Town Lock.

Moving on upriver, you approach Eldridge’s Lock. Unusually, this lock has its sluice
channel running directly alongside it. Here again the surroundings are very pleasantly set
among open fields and orchards. Above the lock the surrounding countryside becomes
more open with arable land, water meadows and willow trees.
The river now makes several sharp twists and turns before widening again as more of
Tonbridge comes into view and the towpath changes banks once more at Cannon Bridge.
The old Cannon Bridge was swept away in the great flood of September 1968 when
the river burst its banks and swept into the town, submerging the High Street under 4 feet
of water. Its modern replacement carries a ring road around Tonbridge, which also serves a
large industrial and trading estate along its length. Above the bridge the river passes the
old Tonbridge Gasworks and the skeletal remains of its huge gasholders, and on past
modern apartment blocks, which have replaced many of the old riverside industrial
buildings that once stood here.
Two more sharp bends in the river brings us to Town Lock – the highest and final
lock on the navigation. The original lock was built using stone from the ruins of Tonbridge
Castle and the timber used came from the woodlands surrounding the village of Penshurst,
from where it was floated downstream to Tonbridge.
TONBRIDGE AND THE MEDWAY NAVIGATION CO.
The transportation of goods in England up to the mid-eighteenth century had been a very
difficult operation. In Kent and Sussex the roads were particularly poor with the majority
of them unsurfaced and little more than cart tracks. In winter they became almost
impossible to use for the movement of heavy goods, and it was written that a load of
timber for shipbuilding could take up to three years to be hauled from the forests of the
Weald to the Royal Dockyard at Chatham.
This sorry state of affairs severely hampered the development of trade and prosperity
in the counties and the obvious alternative appeared to be the development of river
transport. To this end, in 1739, the River Medway was surveyed with a view to improving
its navigation. In 1740, an Act of Parliament was passed that formed the Medway
Navigation Co. to make the river navigable as directed ‘From Forest Row in Sussex to
Mistress Edmund’s wharf in Maidstone’.
The formation of the company was organised by John Hooker, Lord of the Manor of
Tonbridge and owner of Tonbridge Castle. He was helped by several important promoters
including Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, who held the position of chairman of the
directors for many years. The initial aim of the company was to raise £30,000 capital by
the sale of 300 £100 shares. The first meeting of the company was held on 20 May 1740 at
the Rose & Crown in Tonbridge.
In 1741, work commenced on making the river navigable. Construction began in
Maidstone and continued in sections upriver towards Tonbridge. Fourteen locks were
built, mostly using oak that had been purchased from Penshurst. The works were
completed at Tonbridge in 1747 at a total cost of just over £12,500, which included
construction of the wharves.
Tonbridge grew from where there was a crossing over the Medway and the river has
always been of crucial importance to the town and has had a great influence on its
development, no more so than the period when the company managed trade and
navigation on the river. At the same time as the company was starting its operations, the
turnpike movement was bringing some improvements to the major roads in the area
including the turnpike that ran from Sevenoaks through Tonbridge on to Tunbridge Wells.
This encouraged more travellers to pass through the town, with increased opportunities for
local businesses and inns such as the Chequers Inn, which had been established in the
High Street since the late fifteenth century. The coming together of these two activities
brought increasing prosperity to Tonbridge and by 1780 the town had become an
important trading centre.
The principal goods being transported upstream were coal, lime and aggregates,
while the downstream freight consisted of timber, hops and other agricultural produce
from farms around the Weald. Coal from the coalfields of the north-east was brought
upriver from Sheerness and Rochester in the company’s own fleet of barges and was
offered for sale at their office in Tonbridge; one of their main customers was the town’s
gasworks. These works were built alongside the river with their own wharf to facilitate the
unloading of coal supplies. With the advent of electrical power in the early twentieth
century, the town’s new electricity works was also situated near the river with its own
canal for its fuel supply.
The Rose & Crown Hotel in Tonbridge where, in 1740, the inaugural meeting of the Medway Navigation Co. was held.
The Chequers Inn, Tonbridge High Street. The gibbet from which the pub sign is hung is a reminder that public
executions used to take place nearby.

By the early years of the nineteenth century the list of goods handled on the canal
included linseed, wheat, rags, soap, tallow, paper, candles, beer, cider, brandy, slate,
cement, vinegar, glass, barley, cheese, sugar, butter, nails and brimstone.
There were regular traffic jams of carts bringing flour from Watts Cross Mill, in
neighbouring Hildenborough, to the Town Quay for shipment down to Maidstone. Due to
the lack of a towpath suitable for heavy horses to tow the huge barges, they instead had to
be pulled by teams of men called ‘hufflers’. Ten hours was reckoned for the journey from
Tonbridge to Maidstone and a little longer on the way upstream. In the late 1830s,
following many complaints, a proper towpath was built, which allowed horses to take over
the hauling and greatly improved the efficiency of the barge operations.
In Tonbridge, the company’s operations centred around Medway Wharf, which ran
for over 100 yards downstream from the ‘Big Bridge’ on the south side of the river; here
the barges would be loaded and unloaded. A crane was installed to assist in these
operations as was a weighing station and a range of coal pens. The local agricultural
merchants, T. Maylam & Co. built a warehouse on the wharf, which has now been
incorporated into a modern block of apartments. The Baltic Saw Mills Co. also had
premises nearby making use of the wharf to receive supplies and ship out its sawn timber.
One of the few remaining former riverside industrial buildings at Tonbridge. Part of it is now used as a pub and the
remainder is due to be converted into apartments.

The terms of the 1740 Act of Parliament had envisaged the navigation of the river
extending to Forest Row in Sussex, but the company’s construction work had ceased at
Tonbridge. In the late 1820s, an entrepreneur by the name of James Christie bought the
town mill from its previous owners and together with all its water rights and with some
colleagues formed the Penshurst Canal Co., with the view of extending the navigation
upstream. This was of great concern to the original company as it endangered their water
reserves and they relied on the river flow to operate their locks. They obtained an
injunction at considerable cost that prevented Christie from interfering with their water; he
responded by diverting the water through a new cut by the waterworks. This precipitate
action saw barges at the Town Wharf occasionally stranded without water and fights
breaking out between Christie’s navvies and the company’s workers. Christie even went so
far as to promote a Parliamentary Bill to give him control over the company, but the bill
was thrown out and he left the country in haste, bankrupt and bound for America.
Sailing barges on Medway Wharf, c. 1910.
Maylam’s Quay apartment block on Medway Wharf with the old T. Maylam & Co. warehouse incorporated as an
integral part of the building.

This was not the end of the company’s troubles, for in 1842 the South Eastern
Railway reached Tonbridge from Redhill and a bill was passed that allowed it to extend
the line down, through Ashford, onto Folkestone and Dover. The company, realising the
danger to its commerce, put a steam tug on the river to speed up their own operations and
even built a rail link from their wharf to Tonbridge railway station and bought a steam
locomotive to operate on it. However, the railway company were not interested in
cooperating and even enticed the Medway Co.’s chief agent to join them on a higher
salary. The company sold their locomotive and, when another railway line opened
connecting Tonbridge to Paddock Wood and Maidstone, they gave up trying to compete
and eventually sold their steam tug. There followed a period of slow decline until 1910
when, during another spell of flooding, the lock at East Farleigh collapsed and the river at
this point became impassable. The company could not afford the necessary repairs and
sadly passed into liquidation.
Parliament then set up a new publicly controlled Conservancy Board who rebuilt the
locks and reopened the navigation in 1915, but the freight traffic never recovered. In the
1950s there were plans to transport coal along the river to Tonbridge Gasworks using a
200-ton barge but despite successful trials these plans never came to fruition.
Today the Medway Navigation comes under the control of the Environment Agency,
whose responsibilities include the maintenance and upkeep of the ten remaining locks.
Tonbridge is known as the ‘Town of Five Streams’ as the river splits here into five
channels, the main one passing Town Quay and under ‘The Big Bridge’. Although many
people believe that it is this locally well-known bridge that gives the town its name, the
first recorded bridge only appeared in Tonbridge in 1526. However, the town was recorded
in the Domesday Book as Tonebrige, which may indicate a bridge belonging to the estate
or manor (from the Old English tun). So the first recorded bridge of 1526 was probably
not the first. This Henrician bridge was built of stone with five arches, but was replaced in
1775 to reflect Tonbridge’s status as a significant stop for stagecoaches travelling from
London to Gravesend, Hastings and Rye. Today’s bridge actually dates from 1888 and is a
consequence of the increase in horse-drawn traffic through the town at this time.
The smaller of the town’s ‘streams’ disappear underground, mostly through pipes
under the High Street although at least one larger tunnel is known to exist, which runs
through a semi-circular gap in the rear wall of one of the shops.

The ‘Big Bridge’, c. 1930.

The ‘Big Bridge’ in 2014.

Travelling upstream under the bridge, the river divides into two at the ruins of
Tonbridge Castle. This typical motte-and-bailey castle was built by the Normans to protect
the nearby river crossing.
 Part of the castle now serves as the offices of the local borough council, but it still
attracts thousands of visitors every year who walk around its open grounds which now
adjoin Tonbridge Racecourse Sports Ground. This large 28-hectare site incorporates a
children’s playground and miniature railway, as well as a number of sports facilities
including, football, rugby and cricket pitches, tennis courts and a heated swimming pool.
The swimming pool was opened in 1910 and is fed by the waters of the Medway. It was
originally an open-air leisure pool, but today it also incorporates an indoor fitness pool and
a health spa. The river here is popular for the smaller types of leisure craft, and boats are
available for hire by the hour so even as a casual visitor you can enjoy rowing along the
river with your family and friends.
The two channels of the river encircle a large part of the sports ground and offer a
route for a very pleasant circular walk and a chance to view some of the colourful
houseboats moored up along the banks.
The river channels pass through the sports ground towards the outskirts of the town
centre and we continue our journey upriver.

Tonbridge Castle Gatehouse took thirty years to build and was completed in 1260.
The motte is the oldest part of Tonbridge Castle, built by the Normans with 50,000 tons of earth that had been removed
to form the moat. It would originally have been surmounted by a wooden stockade.
Boating at Tonbridge in 1913.
Houseboats moored up along the river by the Racecourse Sports Ground.
4
 HAYSDEN TO TURNERS HILL

Barden Lake at Haysden Country Park.

Lucifer Bridge.

We now begin the final leg of our journey – along the upper reaches of the River Medway
to its source in the High Weald of West Sussex.
Leaving Tonbridge Racecourse Sports Ground, the two river channels rejoin under
the main London–Hastings railway line and emerge to the west of the town into Haysden
Country Park. The park covers an area of around 65 hectares of former agricultural land,
which had more recently been used for sand and gravel extraction. These works altered the
landscape of the area and created Barden and Haysden lakes. When the workings were
completed in 1988 the borough council created the park, which was also designated as a
local nature reserve. As well as the river and the two freshwater lakes, its habitats include
marshland, grassland and woodland. Many species of waterfowl live in and around the
lakes including Canada and Greylag geese, mallards, great crested grebes, coots and
moorhens. Along the river kingfishers can often be seen and the woodlands are home to
green woodpeckers, swallows and grey wagtails. The park provides ample facilities for
visitors including a large children’s play area, cycle and bridle paths, nature trails, picnic
areas and opportunities for sailing and angling.
Moving upstream through the park the Medway passes first under Lucifer Bridge.
Originally a footbridge, this latticed steel and wooden structure now also forms part of the
Tonbridge–Penshurst cycle route.
The next stretch of the river above the bridge is known as the Long Reach. This
section linked with James Christie’s abortive Penshurst Canal, evidence of which can still
be seen in the form of the remains of Stone Lock, built in 1829 but never filled with water.
From here the waters divide again, the original course of the river now forming an
area known as The Shallows. It is now a quiet backwater, but the natural bends and
meanders of the old river course can still be made out. It was these tight bends that James
Christie had intended to straighten out with his canal, another remaining feature of which
is The Straight Mile – a section of the canal that was dug between 1830 and 1832 but
remained empty.
 The Shallows were formed as a result of the main channel of the river being diverted
in the 1970s following the disastrous floods of 1968. The Shallows now have much less
water and are gradually becoming overgrown with water plants. This is a natural process
known as ‘succession’ where plants compete to take over a clear space. Plants that can be
seen growing in the old river include Yellow Flag Iris, Great Reed Mace and Common
Reed.
The diverted part of the river is known as ‘The New Cut’ and forms a much deeper
and straighter channel than the original course. Beyond New Cut we come to the Leigh
Flood Barrier, marking the end of the Medway Navigation. The barrier is another legacy
of the 1968 floods. It was completed in 1981with the main purpose of protecting
Tonbridge from further major flooding. It consists of three gates, each weighing 11 tons,
which are capable of passing up to 150 m3 of floodwater every second. The storage site
behind the gates covers an area of 278 hectares and when the land is flooded it can hold
5,580 million litres of water. Under normal river conditions the gates do not impede the
flow of the Medway in any way, but following heavy rain the river levels are monitored
and if they reach a height that threatens flooding downstream then the barrier can control
the flow. It does this by keeping water behind the barrier (impounding) and only allowing
a proportion to continue its natural course towards Tonbridge. The water builds up behind
the barrier depending on how much is entering the reservoir from the natural river flow,
and when the peak of the floodwater has passed the contained water is released in a
controlled way. The Environment Agency has brought forward their plans for an £11
million programme of improvements to the barrier to 2019, which were originally
scheduled not to start until 2035. These improvements will see the storage capacity
increased by raising the height of the gates and will offer much needed added protection
from flooding to the surrounding area.

The Long Reach.

Stone Lock.

The Straight Mile.

The Shallows.

Beyond the Leigh Barrier the river runs under the flyover carrying the A21 Hastings
Road. This elevated flyover was built in 1970 as part of the bypass to relieve Tonbridge
town centre from the increases in the volume of road traffic. It is 440 m in length and pans
about half the natural valley. Another sharp bend takes the river under the bridge carrying
the railway line to Redhill in Surrey. This line was opened in 1842 by the South Eastern
Railway as part of its mainline between London and Dover. It is still in operation today as
a passenger and freight line. Nearby Haysden Water is another of the country park’s lakes,
with a third of its banks available to anglers, and offers rich pickings of bream, tench,
perch, roach and even the occasional carp. The remainder of the lake forms a nature
reserve and is the home for a number of different waterfowl.
The river now runs fairly straight through open fields and under Ensfield Bridge,
where another three Second World War pillboxes stand on the left bank defending this
river crossing, and onto the charming, historic village of Penshurst, where it is joined by
one of its major tributaries – the River Eden.
The village contains no less than thirty-two listed buildings, but its most famous is
undoubtedly Penshurst Place.
New Cut.

The Leigh flood barrier.

The A21 Flyover with Haysden Water in the background (© David Anstiss).
Railway Bridge over the Medway at Haysden, built in 1842 as part of the S. E. C. R. London–Dover line.

Ensfield Bridge.
Second World War pillbox, one of three defending Ensfield Bridge. This particular type would have housed a six-
pounder anti-tank gun.

The river at Penshurst.

Leicester Square, Penshurst.

PENSHURST PLACE
Penshurst Place, situated in the west of the county, a few miles from Tonbridge, has been
the ancestral home of the Sidney family for over 450 years. The oldest part of the house is
the Baron’s Hall, built for Sir John de Pulteney, who was a member of the Drapers’ Co.
and a wealthy wine and wool merchant. He lent money to King Edward III for the war
against France, and by the late 1330s the Crown was in debt to him for many thousands of
pounds. He was also elected mayor of London four times and owned two large town
houses. He also wanted a country house so he could hunt. In 1338 he purchased the
Penshurst Estate and built the hall on it.
The hall was built of local sandstone and measured 62 feet by 39 feet and was a
towering 60 feet high. In 1341, de Pulteney was granted license to crenellate the house,
but the battlements were only intended to impress. However, forty years after his death
from the plague in 1349, these were replaced by more formidable fortifications by the then
owner, Sir John Devereux. He enclosed the hall with a 375 foot by 280 foot crenellated
curtain wall.
In 1409 the estate was in the hands of King Henry IV’s third son, John, Duke of
Bedford, who added a second hall known as the Buckingham Building. In 1519 Henry
VIII visited as the guest of the 3rd Duke of Buckingham who then owned the estate. The
duke lavished over £2,500 on the King’s stay. Repaying this kindness, the King, who was
suspicious of Buckingham’s loyalties, found an excuse to have him arrested for treason
and executed. The estate was then, conveniently, forfeited to the Crown and was cared for
by the brother of Anne Boleyn. Henry stayed at Penshurst while he courted Anne at
nearby Hever Castle.
Henry’s successor, Edward VI, gifted the estate to his tutor and steward, Sir William
Sidney, in 1552. However, he had not long to enjoy this gift for he died just two years later
and the estate passed on to his son, Sir Henry Sidney, who was also Edward VI’s closest
friend. He became a faithful servant of Elizabeth I and was made a Knight of the Garter in
1564. However, he received little reward for his services and by 1583 was £5,000 in debt
and forced to turn down a barony, as he was unable to financially support the rank.
Despite this, he still managed to make substantial additions to the house, adding three
ranges of apartments and a new entrance tower, named the King’s Tower in memory of his
friend Edward VI.
Henry’s heir, Sir Phillip Sidney, died aged thirty-one just two months after his father,
so he never took control of Penshurst. Phillip’s life was short but packed. He was schooled
at Shrewsbury and went on to Oxford. He travelled extensively throughout Europe mixing
with many leading figures, poets and artists. He supported the Protestant League of
Princes, which opposed the continent’s Catholic powers. He spent much time at court
serving Elizabeth I, seeking her favours and lavishing gifts upon her. He fought in the
Netherlands against the Spanish, where he received a fatal injury on the battlefield. In
February 1587 he was accorded a state funeral – the first commoner to receive one and the
last until Churchill in 1965. His funeral helm is on display at Penshurst.

Penshurst Place.
The garden at Penshurst place with the parish church of St John the Baptist in the background.

The estate passed on to Phillip’s brother, Robert, who was ennobled as Baron Sidney
of Penshurst by James I shortly after his succession. He was later elevated to the
Viscounty of Lisle – a title formerly held by his uncle, the Earl of Warwick. In 1616 he
was made a Knight of the Garter, and two years later was elevated again to the Earldom of
Leicester. Robert added the long gallery and a range of offices to the house, which had
now reached its greatest extent. Robert’s descendants continued to live at the mansion for
the next seven generations, but by the nineteenth century the building began to fall into
disrepair. It was left until 1818 when Sir John Shelley-Sidney and his son, Phillip, who
became 1st Baron de L’Isle, and Dudley, began to restore it.
The 6th Baron, William Sidney (1909–91), was one of only two men to receive the
Order of the Garter and the Victoria Cross. He was created the 1st Viscount de L’Isle in
1956.
The estate remains in the Sidney family and is now the home of the 2nd Viscount de
L’Isle.
Penshurst Place, with its historic house and beautiful gardens, is today one of Kent’s
most popular tourist attractions.
The course of the river now turns south through the High Weald, being joined along
its way by lesser streams, many having been dammed off at some point in their flow to
form ponds. These ponds at one time would have provided water power for mills and
hammers connected with the forging of iron, which was once an important industry in the
area.
The river continues south past the village of Fordcombe. This stretch of the river
offers some excellent course fishing, with abundant stocks of roach, carp, barbel and even
some brown trout to be found in its waters.
The Medway at Fordcombe.
The Medway at Ashurst.

Chafford Mills once stood by the river near Chafford Bridge. It was one of the
Medway’s many paper mills and for over 150 years from 1756 onwards, the paper
produced at the mill was used for many purposes throughout the world, including the
Bank of England’s £5 notes, many postage stamps (especially foreign stamps), cartridge
paper for the Tower of London and paper for the Indian Government. However, the mill
was bought by Wiggins Teape in 1913 and promptly closed, causing many villagers to be
out of work, and the equipment transferred to their works in Dover. The mill buildings
were eventually demolished in the 1930s and today only the outline of the walls and the
mill race can be seen.
Ashurst Mill.
Bolebrook Castle.

Cotchford Farm.

The river now turns slightly westwards towards the village of Ashurst on the border
with East Sussex and another former mill site. Ashurst Mill was a water-powered corn
mill. It was driven by a waterwheel measuring over 8 feet wide and 16 feet in diameter.
The mill burnt down in 1930 and little now remains, apart from a section of wall and the
mill pond.
The stretch of the river between Ashurst and its confluence with the River Grom, just
to the north of the village of Groombridge, actually forms part of the border between Kent
and East Sussex. At this confluence the Medway enters East Sussex and the final 13 miles
of our journey commences as we pass though green fields north of the village of
Withyham and on to Hartfield, where Henry VIII had a hunting lodge at the nearby
Bolebrook Castle. Dating from around 1480, the castle gatehouse is reputed to be the
earliest brick-built building in Sussex.

Pooh Sticks Bridge in Ashdown Forest (© Ian Yarham).

Cotchford Farm in Hartfield was the home of Rolling Stones’ guitarist, Brian Jones.
It was in the swimming pool here in July 1969 that Jones drowned. Another famous
resident of Cotchford Farm was A. A. Milne, the author of the Winnie the Pooh books. It
was in nearby Ashdown Forest where Milne found inspiration for the sites of many of
Pooh’s adventures including Pooh Sticks Bridge where the famous game was played over
a stream that eventually runs into the Medway.
ASHDOWN FOREST
Set on the Weald Forest Ridge, the highest point of the High Weald, Ashdown Forest is a
former medieval royal hunting park dating from just after the Norman Conquest. Spread
over 2,500 hectares, it is the largest open access site in south-east England. Over two-
thirds of the forest is heathland, one of Britain’s rarest habitats, which has been designated
a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
In 1283 around 20 square miles of the forest was enclosed by a 23-mile pale fence.
Thirty-four gates or hatches were included in the pale to enable local people to enter to
graze their livestock and to cut bracken and heather to use for animal bedding.
The hunting of red deer and roe deer in the royal park by the nobility continued for
another 500 years, into the seventeenth century. In 1693, half the forest was sold off into
private hands while the rest was made common land, which represents the open access
forest we know today.
The vegetation covering the forest’s 1,620 hectares of heathland is dominated by
plants of the Ericaceae family (heathers), with some dwarf gorses and cross-leaved heath,
some areas of scattered trees and scrub. There are also areas of bare ground, wet heath,
bogs and open water. The heathland supports a variety of species, the most common of
which are invertebrates such as damsels, dragonflies, the raft spider, bog bush crickets and
silver-studded blue and purple emperor butterflies. It is also the home of adders and
various lizards.
The remaining 40 per cent of the forest is defined as ‘ancient woodland’. The most
common trees to be seen are sweet chestnut, hazel, silver birch, oak, alder and Scots pine.
The sweet chestnut is regularly coppiced to provide barriers and fencing for the forest,
with the unused wood used to burn for fuel. There are also areas of hazel coppice which
provide valuable habitats for dormice and a number of rare plants such as the Purple
Orchid, Twayblade, Butcher’s Broom and Helleborine.
The forest supports an extensive variety of notable birdlife including the Dartford
warbler, stonechat, meadow pipit, skylark, woodlark, nightjar, yellowhammer, bullfinch
and the Eurasian sparrowhawk.
Among the mammals to be found in the forest are the common and pygmy shrew, the
wood mouse, stoats, weasels, badgers and bats. The grey squirrel is one of the most
numerous of the woodland’s inhabitants and unfortunately one of the most unwelcome,
with the damage it causes to the trees in particular the sweet chestnut and birch obvious to
the eye.
The common land of Ashdown Forest, dating back to 1693, bestows certain rights to
the 730 commoners of Ashdown Forest including, among others, the right to graze cattle,
sheep, goats, geese and mill horses; the right to cut birch, willow or alder in certain
designated areas for use in the ‘ancestral hearth’; the right to cut bracken and heather to
provide winter bedding for livestock; and the right to fish the lakes, ponds and streams of
the forest.
The forest attracts well over a million visitors a year who are attracted by its
tranquillity and sense of openness. A 2008 visitor survey estimated that there were 62 dogs
for every 100 visitors!
Moving on upriver we pass through the hamlet of Lower Parrock and the site of
Parrock Furnace and Forge – another legacy of the High Weald’s iron industry. This forge
was active during the reign of Henry VIII when it was making ‘gunstones of iron’
(cannonballs) for the King’s army. By 1530, however, the King was in arrears with his
payments to the lessee of the forge, John Carill, causing him major financial difficulties
and forcing him to sell the lease. Iron manufacturing continued here at least until 1600,
when the last ownership was recorded. Nothing remains of the forge and the pond is now
dry, but there is evidence of a ditch under the road connecting it to the Medway as well as
remains of forge cinders and slag on the right bank of the river.
Ashdown Forest – a view from 1973.

Through a short stretch of open country, the river reaches the large village of Forest
Row, which draws its name from its proximity to Ashdown Forest, which surrounds it on
three sides.
The river flows through the village and on past the ruins of Brambletye House. Built
by local MP Sir Henry Compton around 1631, it has lain derelict since the 1830s but has
been a Grade II listed structure since 1953.
Beyond the castle the river meets the huge mass of water that is the Weir Wood
Reservoir.

The Medway at Forest Row in 1916.

Ashdown Forest viewed from Forest Row.

WEIR WOOD RESERVOIR

The ruins of Brambletye House, c. 1920.

The ruins of Brambletye House in 2015.

Weir Wood Reservoir was built between 1951 and 1955 to provide water supply to the
mid-Sussex area. The construction process involved the damning of the valley of the River
Medway on the north-west edge of Ashdown Forest. The reservoir stretches for 2.4km,
covering an area of 113 hectares, and has a water capacity of 5,566,000 m³.
The site of the reservoir is in an area that had been an important centre of iron
production for many centuries. The ready availability of local resources, in particular the
iron-ore raw material, then sandstone and clay for the building of kilns and wood for
charcoal burning, encouraged the establishment of numerous iron-making sites dating
from Roman times. There was a late sixteenthth-century iron furnace and forge named
‘Stone’ located by the river at a site now under the west end of the reservoir; furnace slag
and forge residue can be found nearby when water levels are low. Agriculture gradually
took over as the iron-making ceased, and the farming activity continued until the land was
purchased for the construction of the reservoir.
The whole reservoir was declared a Site of Specific Scientific Interest in 1966 due to
its varied community of breeding, migrating and wintering birdlife.
Weir Wood Reservoir.

Fen Place Mill.

The Medway at Fen Place.

The western end of the reservoir was designated as a local nature reserve in 1988 and
this was extended to cover the whole SSSI in 1994. As well as the reservoir, Weir Wood
provides various other natural habitats including water meadows, marsh, pools, reed and
stream beds, hedgerows and coppice and mature woodlands.
Recent surveys on Weir Wood have identified 200 plant species, 257 bird species, 28
species of butterfly, 17 species of damselfly and dragonfly and 140 species of moth.
Various species of deer as well as mice, voles snakes and numerous species of insect have
also been recorded.
Other users of the water include the Weir Wood Sailing Club – a Royal Yachting
Association recognised training establishment with various classes of dinghies sailed to
Olympic standard. It is also used for open water swimming events and triathlon training.
Day Ticket angling is another popular activity with the reservoir being well stocked
with carp, bream, pike, perch and many other species of freshwater fish. The fishing rights
are also shared with a number of local angling clubs and societies.
Although there is no general public access to the site, a local car park offers some
good views across the reservoir and there is a public footpath with a picnic area running
along the north bank.
From the reservoir the river turns north and runs almost parallel with the line of the
Bluebell Railway – a heritage line that runs for 11 miles along the borders of East and
West Sussex. The river eventually passes under the railway to the north of Kingscote
station, thwrough farmland and onto Fen Place Mill. The mill was the first to be placed on
the Medway, and the river feeds its extensive lakes. The mill and its wheel are still
standing, and today the house and other buildings are now part of a farm. One of Fen
Place Mill’s former residents was another rock star legend, the Led Zeppelin guitarist
Jimmy Page. He lived here between 2003 and 2006 and then sold the eight-bed house in
2007, complete with its three lakes, two tennis courts and 123 acres of land.
The Medway at Turners Hill.
Butchers Wood.
The source marker of the River Medway in Butchers Wood, Turners Hill.

From the lakes at Fen Place Mill the river narrows to little more than a stream as it
passes through woods and open farmland and on to the West Sussex village of Turners
Hill. The village centre boasts an attractive village green and many listed buildings dating
from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Here the Medway passes under the B2028
road, just to the north of the village centre and into Butchers Wood.
A modest spring can be found in the middle of the wood, which marks the source of
this great river and the end of our long journey. However, for the waters rising here, their
journey has just begun.