Six Poor Travellers house – Rochester
If the Walls of the Six Poor Travellers house could talk! It seems that many local people walk past The Six Poor Travellers‘ house on Rochester High Street (97 High […]
If the Walls of the Six Poor Travellers house could talk! It seems that many local people walk past The Six Poor Travellers‘ house on Rochester High Street (97 High […]
St. William of Perth at Rochester, and St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury may well have kickstarted the growth and development of tech economies of Rochester and Strood. Not personally of […]
Pictured in Knole Park, Sevenoaks Around February time fallow male deer (bucks) will shed their antlers. Antlers are made of bone and regrow each year. (Horns such as those found […]
Medway’s 19th Century Anti-Vaccinators of national prominence This blog tells of the principled stand that two Medway men, Charles Nye and Samuel West, and their families, took against Britain’s 19th […]
More people in Kent will know about the William Harvey Hospital, near Ashford, than about the man it was named after. Fewer will be familiar with the two monuments in […]
Rochester’s Pioneering Feminist goes to Canada Monica Melanie Storrs (February 12, 1888 – December 14, 1967) This is the story of an amazing woman who “lived her life in a […]
Many seek but few find the monument to Lord Darnley’s toe. It’s not as close to the Mausoleum at Cobham, Kent, as many believe – but the remains of it […]
were they early ‘female emancipators’?
Busy Nuthatches – Knole Park, Sevenoaks It’s currently difficult to get out to watch birds raising their young – so I thought I would share the video I made early […]
and how they helped evolve our ‘health services’ From Leper houses that ‘hid’ victims – Almshouses – Pest House – Quarantine ships – Infirmaries – to St Williams that was […]
Was a Rochester woman – Chrystabel Leighton-Porter of 115 City Way, Rochester, was the curvaceous model for ‘Jane’ who, during WW2, appeared six days a week in a strip cartoon […]
Artist impression of the uniform of the almshouse children Under the 1601 Poor Law passed by Elizabeth I, local authorities were required to make provision for the bringing up of poor […]
This is an account of the ‘local-life’ of Evelyn Dunbar – an outstanding young woman artist / illustrator who lived and partly trained in Medway, and who documented through her art the […]
Bertha’s history seems somewhat to have been overwritten by that of her husband, King Ethelbert of Kent – but it was through their marriage and Bertha’s influence, that Christianity was […]
The following describes what, by today’s standards, was a very dark period in the history of St. Barts – part hospital, part ‘prison’ – but it may have also strengthen […]
The first aerial battle to take place in British skies took place over Cliffe on Christmas Day 1914. It not only disturbed Christmas lunch it also disturbed a wedding! The […]
News of the Armistice reaches Medway – at 11:30 am on 11 November 1918, the Bells of Rochester Cathedral rung-out to announce Peace. The Armistice with Germany had been anticipated […]
This is an account of Frederick Adolphus Gould / Schroeder, landlord of the Queen Charlotte public house in Rochester, and “special intelligence officer” for the German Army. Gould took on […]
Every national event is made up of a myriad of individual causative or consequential experiences. In this blog I hope to give a sense of how Spanish Flu affected the […]
La Providence – The French Hospital The tranquillity of the picturesque French Hospital situated off Rochester High Street, belies a distant history of brutality that required French protestants to escape […]
This blog offers some insights into how St Barts continued to grow and the demands made on it during the Great War. Such were the demands, arising from the number […]
Ask for a link between Westerham and the war and I think most people will come up with Churchill and Chartwell. But there is a lesser known person associated with […]
St. Bartholomew’s, Rochester, 1863 – 1914 – if its walls could talk. (At end of blog I’ve included names / specialties of later wards.) The requirements for the ‘modern’ St. […]
It is right in 2018, a century after some women gained the vote, to recognise the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst and Millicent Fawcett however their success could not have […]
The making of a ‘new model hospital’ – with ‘buried treasure’? I have heard many people mistakingly say that St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, at Rochester, was the oldest hospital in the […]
A symbiotic relationship between the fallow deer and the jackdaws living in Knole Park, Sevenoaks. The following video was taken in April. Not exactly professional as it was opportunistic ‘filming’ […]
In 1880 the principled opposition of Arthur Otway, MP for Rochester, brings flogging in the British Army to an end. Arthur Otway was the MP for Rochester from 1878 to […]
Bigamist escapes with his life but is hounded out of the City
And the ‘story’ of the ‘missing’ portrait. Visit the Guildhall Museum in Rochester and you will see portraits of two of the three men, Sir Joseph Williamson and Sir Cloudesley […]
The brutish life of a ‘reformed’ slave trader This is an account of John Newton (24 July 1725–21 Dec 1807) – a man who was press-ganged at Chatham, who was […]
A true ‘fisherman’s tale’ of two metre long Sturgeon that used to be captured in the Medway. This is a story of losses. A lost environment, the loss of sturgeon […]
On 12 February 1554, Lady Jane Grey aged 16 or 17 was beheaded. Was her execution related to events that occurred 17 days earlier in Rochester – which could have […]
The less familiar ‘Love Story’ between Anne of Cleaves and Henry VIII – that didn’t start well at Rochester – New Year 1539/1540. Fake News? Some dramatists and storytellers like […]
Rochester’s lock-up for the lewd and disorderly! The Six Poor Travellers – ME1 1LX The next time you walk past the Six Poor Travellers in Rochester, High Street, look to the ground […]
Coal-gas balloon flights from Rochester! The invention of the balloon was a technical and theatrical marvel of the 19th Century; balloons, wherever they were inflated or exhibited, drew huge crowds. […]
Exhibition of ‘Tools of Torture and Punishment’ and the barbaric execution of the Bishop of Rochester’s Cook – by boiling. Eastgate House closed as a museum in 2004. For many […]
There are many associations with Dickens’ stories, and his life, in Rochester. Many are obvious or have plaques, but others may be less known – even to locals. In this […]
Did he jump before he was pushed? How many times have you walked past Abdication House, 69 High Street, Rochester, ME1 1LX – the now closed Lloyds Bank – and […]
24 Marine Cadets lose their lives Bishop of Rochester denounces the idol of speed on the road. Many thousands of people have probably walked passed the memorial plaque […]
(Detail from the image by William Hogarth – The Four stages of Cruelty : The Reward for Cruelty, 1751) In 1831 between 8,000 and 9,000 people – mostly members of […]