Medway Area Information

Our Kent office is located within the Historic High Street in Rochester and it is the combination of the rich historic tapestry coupled with the rapidly developing residential area that assimilates our expertise to our London office in the Docklands. For it is has even been suggested “is Medway the new Docklands?”

The Past ……Present and…..Future

It is said to have all started for Medway in the Iron Age (500bc) when Rochester is thought to be the first Medway Town to be established.

During the Roman occupation of Britain, a road system was built through Medway, providing the main route from London to Dover. At this time Rochester was known as Durobrivae, meaning “the stronghold by the bridge(s).”

Following the Norman invasion of 1066 the Normans erected a stone castle and a larger cathedral in Rochester which are still the most prominent landmarks in the area to this day.

By the end of the 18th Century, Rochester was a thriving port with the River Medway playing an important part of Medway’s economy due to heavy goods being generally transported by water, by sea and up and down the Medway.

The success and growth of the Dockyard meant that this vital naval base needed to be protected from attack by sea or land. This resulted in the construction of complex fortifications of which many survive in Medway today. The most notable example being Fort Amherst, now restored and open to the public.

During the Napoleonic Wars (1793 – 1815), the presence of soldiers in Medway were becoming a familiar sight and this escalated when the new barracks were built in Brompton. Chatham would then begin to be commonly regarded as a military town and the connections are still strong today.
Because of the high amount of jobs available in the Dockyard, there became a great need for more housing within Brompton and Gillingham. This affected the landscape of the area and changes were taking place rapidly.

It was not until 1903 that the Borough of Gillingham was created. By 1928 Rainham was added to its area of jurisdiction and 1974 was the year that saw the City of Rochester, the Borough of Chatham and Strood Rural District join together to form Medway District Council. It was changed to the City of Rochester-upon-Medway in 1982 and then finally, in 1998, Medway Council was created when this authority merged with Gillingham Borough Council.

Although Industrial estates and houses were being developed at an increasing rate after the Second World War, it was in 1984 that the Dockyard closed resulting in many thousands of dockyard workers being put out of work and this would have a huge impact to the lives of many residents living in the Medway Towns.

However, in the 1990’s, brown field sites and dilapidated industrial land located along the Rochester riverside were transformed into arguably the most desirable new residential property in Medway and this has been on going since then, resulting in the emergence of the Medway Renaissance scheme which has prepared a draft strategy for the continued regeneration of Medway Waterfront for the next 20 years.

Medway Waterfront spans 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) along the River Medway, with Chatham centre and waterfront at its heart. This will be accompanied by the forthcoming developments such as Strood Riverside, Temple Wharf and Gillingham Waterfront.
This exciting 1Billion regeneration opportunity will transform Medway into a city of Learning, culture, tourism and enterprise, ensuring that the Medway Waterfront is a beautiful place to be which benefits all the community. It will offer inspiring buildings, open spaces and riverside walks.

Medway’s location already provides excellent transport facilities into London and the coast but the future is even more promising with the current construction of the channel tunnel rail Links new intermediate station at Ebbsfleet (close to the M25 near the Dartford Crossing this is due to pen for passenger service on 14 November 2007. After Ebbsfleet, CTRL-DS trains will either run onto the existing Medway lines or will continue to Ashford on the CTRL and then travel via existing lines to their final destinations. Whilst the infrastructure itself will open in November 2007 for Eurostar services, domestic commuter services to Kent will not begin operating until December 2009.

Medway has a total of 114 schools, six of them grammar schools. It also boasts 4 universities – Kent, Greenwich and Canterbury Christchurch, sharing Medway Campus next to the Dockyard and University College for the Creative Arts with campuses in Rochester and Maidstone.

Rochester schools performance ratings

Latest school ratings and performance data is supplied by the Department for Education & Skills (DFES).

Primary School figures based on data published 11/2006

Secondary School figures based on data published 11/2006