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Chatham, Kent
Chatham (/ˈtʃætəm/ CHAT-əm) is a town within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. In 2020 it had a population of 80,596.
The town developed around Chatham Dockyard and several barracks for the British Army and the Royal Navy, together with 19th-century forts which provided a defensive shield for Chatham Dockyard. The Corps of Royal Engineers is still based in Chatham at Brompton Barracks.
Chatham Dockyard closed on 31 March 1984, but the remaining naval buildings are an attraction for a flourishing tourist industry. Following closure, part of the site was developed as a commercial port, other parts were redeveloped for business and residential use, and part was used as the Chatham Historic Dockyard museum. Its attractions include the submarine HMS Ocelot.
The town has important road links and the railway and bus stations are the main interchanges for the area. It is the administrative headquarters of Medway Council. which is a Unitary Authority, as well as its principal retail and shopping location.
The name Chatham is first attested in a charter of 880 (surviving in a twelfth-century manuscript); it appears again in a charter of 975 as Cætham, and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ceteham. The first element of the name comes from the Common Brittonic word that survives in modern Welsh as coed ("woodland"). The second element is the Old English word hām ("settlement"). At the point when the current name was coined, then, it meant "settlement at Chat". The Old English term for the settlement's inhabitants is also reconstructable from a twelfth-century copy of a charter of 995, as *Cēthǣmas.
The A2 road passes by Chatham along the line of the ancient Celtic route which the Druids used for ceremonial purposes. It was paved by the Romans, and named Watling Street by the Anglo-Saxons. Among certain archaeological finds here have been the remains of a Roman-era cemetery.
Chatham was a long,[citation needed] small village on the banks of the River Medway. By the 16th century, warships were being moored at Jillingham Water (Gillingham), because of its strategic sheltered location between London and the European continent. It was established as a Royal Dockyard by Queen Elizabeth I in 1568, and most of Chatham Dockyard lies within Gillingham. Initially a refitting base, it became a shipbuilding yard; from then until the late 19th century, further expansion of the yard took place. In its time, many thousands of personnel in the Royal Navy were employed at Chatham Dockyard, and many hundreds of vessels were launched there, including HMS Victory, which was constructed from 23 July 1759 to 30 April 1762. After World War I ended on 11 November 1918 numerous submarines were also built in Chatham Dockyard.
In addition to Chatham Dockyard, defensive fortifications were built to protect it from attack. Upnor Castle had been built in 1567, but had proved ineffectual; the Dutch raid on the Medway from 19 June 1667 to 24 June 1667, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, showed that more defences were required along the banks of the River Medway. The fortifications, which became more elaborate as the threat of invasion grew, were begun during 18 October 1756 as a complex across the neck of the Medway Peninsula formed by the bend in the River Medway, and included Fort Amherst. The threat of a land-based attack from the south during the 19th century led to the construction of more Napoleonic Forts.
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Chatham, Kent
Chatham (/ˈtʃætəm/ CHAT-əm) is a town within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. In 2020 it had a population of 80,596.
The town developed around Chatham Dockyard and several barracks for the British Army and the Royal Navy, together with 19th-century forts which provided a defensive shield for Chatham Dockyard. The Corps of Royal Engineers is still based in Chatham at Brompton Barracks.
Chatham Dockyard closed on 31 March 1984, but the remaining naval buildings are an attraction for a flourishing tourist industry. Following closure, part of the site was developed as a commercial port, other parts were redeveloped for business and residential use, and part was used as the Chatham Historic Dockyard museum. Its attractions include the submarine HMS Ocelot.
The town has important road links and the railway and bus stations are the main interchanges for the area. It is the administrative headquarters of Medway Council. which is a Unitary Authority, as well as its principal retail and shopping location.
The name Chatham is first attested in a charter of 880 (surviving in a twelfth-century manuscript); it appears again in a charter of 975 as Cætham, and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Ceteham. The first element of the name comes from the Common Brittonic word that survives in modern Welsh as coed ("woodland"). The second element is the Old English word hām ("settlement"). At the point when the current name was coined, then, it meant "settlement at Chat". The Old English term for the settlement's inhabitants is also reconstructable from a twelfth-century copy of a charter of 995, as *Cēthǣmas.
The A2 road passes by Chatham along the line of the ancient Celtic route which the Druids used for ceremonial purposes. It was paved by the Romans, and named Watling Street by the Anglo-Saxons. Among certain archaeological finds here have been the remains of a Roman-era cemetery.
Chatham was a long,[citation needed] small village on the banks of the River Medway. By the 16th century, warships were being moored at Jillingham Water (Gillingham), because of its strategic sheltered location between London and the European continent. It was established as a Royal Dockyard by Queen Elizabeth I in 1568, and most of Chatham Dockyard lies within Gillingham. Initially a refitting base, it became a shipbuilding yard; from then until the late 19th century, further expansion of the yard took place. In its time, many thousands of personnel in the Royal Navy were employed at Chatham Dockyard, and many hundreds of vessels were launched there, including HMS Victory, which was constructed from 23 July 1759 to 30 April 1762. After World War I ended on 11 November 1918 numerous submarines were also built in Chatham Dockyard.
In addition to Chatham Dockyard, defensive fortifications were built to protect it from attack. Upnor Castle had been built in 1567, but had proved ineffectual; the Dutch raid on the Medway from 19 June 1667 to 24 June 1667, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, showed that more defences were required along the banks of the River Medway. The fortifications, which became more elaborate as the threat of invasion grew, were begun during 18 October 1756 as a complex across the neck of the Medway Peninsula formed by the bend in the River Medway, and included Fort Amherst. The threat of a land-based attack from the south during the 19th century led to the construction of more Napoleonic Forts.