Chatham ( ) is a town within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. It forms a conurbation with the neighbouring towns of Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham, and had a population of 80,596 in 2020.
The town developed around Chatham Dockyard, established as a Royal Naval Dockyard in 1567, along with barracks for the British Army and the Royal Navy. A chain of defensive fortifications, including Fort Amherst (begun 1756) and expanded during the Napoleonic Wars, was constructed to protect the dockyard from land-based attack. The Corps of Royal Engineers remains based at Brompton Barracks.
The dockyard closed on 31 March 1984 after more than four centuries of continuous operation. Part of the site was subsequently developed as a commercial port, other parts redeveloped for business and residential use, and 84 acres preserved as the Chatham Historic Dockyard museum, the most complete dockyard of the Age of Sail in the world. Its exhibits include the warships HMS Gannet, HMS Cavalier, and the submarine HMS Ocelot.
Chatham is the administrative headquarters of Medway Council and the principal retail centre of the Medway area. Chatham railway station and Chatham Waterfront bus station serve as the main transport interchanges for the wider conurbation.
Toponymy 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 ("Woodland"). The second element is the Old English word ("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 *.A. D. Mills, A Dictionary of British Place-Names, 2003, Oxford University Press (OUP). Judith Glover, The Place Names of Kent, 1976, Batsford. , s.v. Chatham..
History The A2 road passes by Chatham along the line of the ancient Celtic route. 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, 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 Raid on the Medway by the Nederlandse Staatsmarine (Dutch States Navy) 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 because of the Seven Years' War which had started on 17 May 1756, meant further construction begun during 18 October 1756 so a complex could be form across the neck of the Medway Peninsula by the bend in the River Medway, and this included Fort Amherst. The threat of a land-based attack from across the English Channel during the 19th century led to the construction of more Napoleonic Forts along the coastline in Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset.
The second phase of fortress-building happened from September 1806 to February 1819, and included Fort Pitt (later used as a General Hospital and the site of the initial Army Medical School). The 1859 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom ordered, "Inter Alia" ("Among Other Things"), a third outer ring of Napoleonic Forts: these included Fort Luton,Now a heritage site Fort Bridgewoods, and Fort Borstal.
These fortifications required soldiers to protect them and army barracks to house those personnel. These included Kitchener Barracks (c 1750–80), the Royal Marine Barracks (c 1780), Brompton Artillery Barracks (1806)Although the postal address of Brompton Barracks (now the headquarters of the Royal Engineers) indicates Chatham as its location, Brompton village lies in Gillingham and Melville Barracks (opened 1820 as a Naval Hospital, RM Barracks from 1905). HMS Collingwood and HMS Pembroke were both Naval Barracks.
In response to the huge manpower needs, the village of Chatham and other nearby villages and towns grew commensurately. Trams, and later buses, linked those places to bring in the workforce. The area between the High Street and Luton village illustrates part of that growth, with its many streets of Victorian terraces.
The importance of Chatham Dockyard gradually declined as the resources of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom were reduced or moved to other locations, and eventually, on 31 March 1984, it shut. The buildings of Chatham Dockyard were preserved as the site named as Chatham Historic Dockyard (operated by Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust), which was under consideration as a World Heritage Site the site is being used for other purposes. Part of the St Mary's Island section is now used as a marina, and the remainder is being developed for housing, commercial and other uses, branded as "Chatham Maritime"."Chatham Maritime" article on SEEDA website. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
Governance Chatham lost its independence as a borough under the Local Government Act 1972, by which, on 1 April 1974, it became part of the Borough of Medway, a non-metropolitan district of the county of Kent; under subsequent renaming the borough became the Borough of Rochester-upon-Medway (1979); and, from 1982, the City of Rochester-upon-Medway. Under the most recent change, in 1998, and with the addition of the Borough of Gillingham, the Borough of Medway became a unitary authority area, administratively separate from Kent.Rochester, The past 2000 years, Published Privately City of Rochester Society 1999. It remains part of the county of Kent for ceremonial purposes.
Medway Council has recently moved its main administration building to Gun Wharf, the site of the earliest part of the dockyard, a former Lloyd's office building. It was built between 1976 and 1978 and is Grade II listed.Historic England https://publicaccess1.medway.gov.uk/online-applications/files/40D3AE7DD53D70776D16D4C755389B05/pdf/MC_22_0605-HISTORIC_ENGLAND_COMMENTS-5994336.pdf
Chatham is part of the parliamentary constituency of Chatham and Aylesford. Before 1997, Chatham had been included in the constituencies of Mid Kent, Rochester and Chatham and Chatham.
Chatham has proven to be a marginal parliamentary seat. Since 1945, the members of parliament for Chatham have been as follows:
ElectionMemberParty 1945 Arthur Bottomley Labour 1959 Julian Critchley Conservative 1964 Anne Kerr Labour 1970 Peggy Fenner Conservative Oct 1974 Robert Bean Labour 1979 Peggy Fenner Conservative 1983 Andrew Rowe Conservative 1997 Jonathan Shaw Labour 2010 Tracey Crouch Conservative 2024 Tristan Osborne Labour
Geography
Chatham is situated where the lower part of the dip slope of the North Downs meets the River Medway which at this point is flowing in a south–north direction. This gives the right bank, where the town stands, considerable advantages from the point of view of river use. Compared with the opposite bank, the river is fast-flowing and deep. The town lies below at river level, curving round to occupy a south-easterly trending valley (The Brook), in which lies the High Street. Beyond the Chatham Dockyard was marshy land, now called St Mary's Island, and has several new developments of housing estates. The New Road crosses the scene below the vantage point of the illustration.
The valley continues southeastwards as the Luton Valley, in which is the erstwhile village of that name; and Capstone Valley. The Darland Banks, the northern slopes of the Luton Valley above these valleys, are unimproved chalk grassland. The opposite slopes are the ‘'Daisy Banks'’ and ‘'Coney Banks'’, along which some of the defensive forts were built (including Fort Luton, in the trees to the left)
Until the start of the 20th century, most of the south part of the borough was entirely rural, with a number of farms and large tracts of woodland. The beginning of what is now Walderslade was when a speculative builder began to build the core of the village in Walderslade Bottoms.Walderslade Online: A Short History of Walderslade Village
Demography Chatham’s population expanded significantly in the 19th century as it developed into a market town in its own right, later becoming a municipal borough in 1890. By 1817, it was already described as having 1,715 houses and 10,505 inhabitants along with a Saturday market. This growth continued through the century, with the population exceeding 16,000 by 1831 and rising further to 48,800 by 1961.
Economy The closure of the Royal Navy Dockyard on 31 March 1984 had the effect of changing the employment statistics of the town. About 7,000 people lost their jobs. The unemployment rate went up to 23.5%. From early April 1984 to December 1985, and onwards, the Medway Towns began to have an increase in alcohol and drug-related, antisocial behaviour, which many residents then realized had largely been caused by the closure of the Royal Navy Dockyard on 31 March 1984, and the resulting mass redundancies. There has been a concerted effort to revitalise the Thames Gateway area and one of the largest employers in Chatham is now Vanquis Bank Ltd, a subsidiary of Vanquis Banking Group.
Landmarks
The Chatham Naval Memorial commemorates the 18,500 officers, ranks and ratings of the Royal Navy who were lost or buried at sea in World War I and World War II. The Chatham Naval Memorial was constructed from March 1924 to October 1924. The addition of the obelisk and Portland stone plaque walls and surroundings were constructed between June 1952 to October 1952. It stands on the Great Lines, the escarpment ridge between Chatham and Gillingham.
The Grade II listed building Chatham Town Hall was built in January 1900; it stands in The Brook opposite a former public house called Churchills, and is of a unique architectural design. With Chatham being part of the Medway Towns, it took on a new role as the Medway Arts Centre on 20 April 1987, with the promotional motto "Putting The Arts Back Into The Medway". There were many events held within the Medway Arts Centre, including stage plays, craft fairs, snooker tournaments and party nights. Likewise during 12 May 1990, the Medway Arts Centre organised a large parade, composed of dancers, musicians, artists and sculptors, who stood upon theatrical lorry floats. The vehicles were initially parked up next to the entrance into the Theatre Royal Cafe, a popular restaurant in the Chatham Town Hall, on Whiffens Avenue, and then started to travel along Military Road in Chatham, and onward to Rochester, Strood and Frindsbury, where sweets, chocolate, posters, badges, plastic hats, leaflets, stickers and T-shirts were handed out to the crowds, to promote the Medway Arts Centre. On 28 April 1997, the Medway Arts Centre became The Brook Theatre.