Medway Epidemics
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 […]
Evelyn Dunbar 1906 – 1960 – artist and “insistent feminist”
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 […]
Armistice 1918, the Bells of Rochester Cathedral announce the Peace.
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 […]
La Providence – Huguenots arrive in Rochester
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 […]
1,000 Rochester women chase a bigamist out of the City.
Bigamist escapes with his life but is hounded out of the City
A Slave Trader with Medway Connections
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 […]
Lady Jane Grey – beheaded 17 days after the fall of Rochester.
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 […]
Early balloon flights from Rochester
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. […]
