Rochester & Charles Dickens, 18 August 2014

We left in the minibus at 9 a.m. headed for a day of sightseeing and did not arrive back home until 6 p.m.  It was less than an hour drive on the motorway to Rochester, a town teeming with history and adventure.

We began at Rochester Castle, built in 1127 by William of Corbeil, Archbishop of Canterbury.  It still stands 113 feet tall.  The keep or stone tower is the castle's most prominent feature and is the best preserved in England or France.  Located along the Medway River, it helped protect England's southeast coast from invasion.

You can see the holes in the walls where the beams went to support the floors.  There were three original floors with a basement.  Dad wonders how many peons it took to build it with all the many many stones in the walls.

There were passage ways all over the inside of the keep.  You can see the view down to the basement.

Standing atop the castle!

Scenes of Rochester in various directions from the top of the castle.  The winding Medway River is prominent.

The last picture is the Rochester Cathedral right across the street from the castle.  That was our next stop.  It is interesting how religion was a part of the castles in England.

The first Bishop of Rochester, Justus, was consecrated in 604, but the earliest parts of the existing building dates back to 1083, it being the second cathedral built in England.    The cemetery is small, but there are also burials all inside the cathedral, in the sidewalks, and out in the grassy area between the building and the street.  Anyone of any importance, from clergy, to family, and generous doners to the church, are buried inside.  Their stone coverings in the floor are elaborate in detailing who they are.

Stained glass was very popular in the cathedral with almost every window so designed.  They range from the Savior, to Saints, to clergy, to architects of the building, etc.  There are far too many for us to remember!

Coming in the west door, you enter the Nave.  You can see all the way down through the middle door to the east wall where the altar stands.  Above the doorway are the organ pipes, totaling 3,808.  A similar bank of them is on the backside of the ones in the picture.  The Nave has endured several major fires and was used to quarter troops and horses during medieval and Civil War sieges of the nearby castle.  In the 1650s it was even used as a carpenter shop and an alehouse.

This smaller organ is off to the side with a plaque on it saying it was donated in 1932.  It is decked out with very colorful pipes.

We then headed off to High Street to check out the home of Charles Dickens and see some of the buildings that were the settings for his stories.  Although, he used the cathedral as well.

Our first search was for Richard Watt's Charity House, the setting for The Seven Poor Travellers.  We had a map but were having difficulty in coming right on the house.  We decided to stop in at the information centre and wa la, it was right next door!  The plaque above the door is pictured below.  We listened to this story the night before and found it interesting to actually be standing in front of the house.

Click below to enjoy the short story.
http://www.free-audio-books.co.uk/free-audio-books/dickens-poor-travellers.html

We walked on up High Street and came to Eastgate House.  There is where Dickens lived and wrote.

Upper Left:  Eastgate house, built in the 1590's, is famous for its association with Dickens, featured as Westgate in The Pickwick Papers 1836, and then as the Nun's House in The Mystery of Edwin Droop in 1870.
Upper Right:  Dad standing at the back door of Eastgate House.  Notice he is taller than the door!
Lower Left:  Dad is standing in front of the Swiss Chalet.  It was a present to Dickens from an actor-friend called Charles Fechter. He unexpectedly sent Dickens 58 boxes whose contents fitted together like a puzzle. The foreign-looking structure was placed in the garden of Dickens's home in nearby Gad's Hill and he used it as a summer house and study. The last words Dickens penned before his death in June 1870, in his unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood - in which Rochester appears as "Cloisterham" - were composed inside it.
Lower Right:  Looking down High Street from Eastgate house.  A stroll down the High Street remains a joyous and uncrowded experience, as Dickens says:  "Ah! fine place... glorious pile - frowing walls - tottering arches - dark nooks - crumbling staircases - Old cathedral too - earthy smell - pilgrim's feet worn away the old steps - little Saxon doors...."  We were taken with the many different shops and stores.  We stopped in an antique store and immediately thought of Mariah.  Oh, would she have a heyday here!  China brought thoughts of Becky and bow ties brought thoughts of Nelson.  One store was only bags and purses.  I loved the smell of leather and looking at all their variety.

We stopped in Subway for a sandwich and drink and then over to the Information Centre to catch the city bus tour.  We rode atop a double decker bus with full view of the city and surroundings.  We had a live guide in period costume to explain the sights.  I could not click the camera fast enough, but did catch some of what he described.  We toured Rochester, Chatham, and Gillingham, Fort Amhurst, and went down to the docks.  It was amazing all the history the guide told us in just one hour.  We need to ride the bus another four or five times to really get it all!

#1 & 12:  Medway Visitor Information Center
#2:  Boley Hill takes in the cathedral and the castle
#3:  Medway Little Theatre
#4:  Chatham Waterfront and town centre
#5:  Dock Road/Gun Wharf and Fort Amherst-built in 1756 to protect the naval dockyard from landward attacks.
#6:  Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive
#7:  Dockside Outlet Centre.  It is a huge shopping mall with eateries on the dock.
#8:  Chatham Dockyard - the world's most complete dockyard from the Age of Sail.
#9:  Chatham water front
#10:  Ordnance Terrace was Dicken's childhood.  The family lived here from 1817 to 1821.
#11:  Eastgate House and Dickens' Chalet

Our tour guide and architecture of Rochester.  The arched building was used in Dickens' stories and the bottom right is the Brook Theatre.  Top left is the backside of the Poor Travellers House.

Scenes at the dockyard:  A dry dock, entrance to the port, looking out to the river, the dockyard, and the bottom right photo is of the drying sheds.  When lumber was cut for building the ships, it was first soaked in salt water and then dried or cured in the drying sheds.  They are original buildings.

More architecture.  The bottom right is a dental office.  They don't build new, they use what is there.

Our group met back at the minibus and cars and headed back across the river to Upnor Castle.

Upnor Castle is the top photo, looking across the Medway River from Rochester.  You would never guess there is a town hidden in those trees.

Rochester Castle with the cathedral right behind it is the bottom photo, looking across the Medway River from Upnor.

The town of Upnor is a fascinating little place with a narrow cobblestone street lined with traditional English flats.  It was an adventure just to walk down the street to the castle entrance along the river.

Upnor castle is an Elizabethan artillery fort which was begun in 1559 and strengthened in 1599-1601.  Its purpose was to protect warships moored at Chatham dockyard, across the river.  Despite a brave attempt it entirely failed to do so in 1667, when the Dutch sailed past it to burn or capture the English fleet at anchor.

We noted that it is one of the better preserved castles we have toured to date.

 Entrance to the gatehouse and door.  Views of the walls.  Gate to the sallyport.

Munitions room.  Courtyard, Outer gate to the north tower. Looking up the wall of the bastion.

It was an artillery castle and the barrel is an example of what it stored.  One of the many canon used in defense on the palisade.  Looking up at the gatehouse.

Top left:  Me and my soldier!
Top right:  From the top of Upnor castle, looking across the river to Chatham Dockyard.
Bottom left:  Looking across the river to the Dockside Outlet Centre.
Bottom right:  Neighborhood around the castle.

Rain began to fall at the end of our tour, so out came the umbrellas!  We stopped at a carvery for supper on the way home.

Thoughts for next trip:  Use sunscreen, take Dad's hat, keep annual passes in the wallet so we don't forget them, and charge both camera batteries.