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Victorian Medway 1837 - 1901
The landscape of the area changed very rapidly during this
period. The jobs available in the Dockyard and associated
industries drew people to Brompton and Gillingham. Streets of new
houses appeared. The brickfields necessary to provide the raw
material to build these homes began to eat up orchards and
farmland.
However, it was the cement industry which became the largest
employer in the area before 1900. Portland cement, so-called
because it looked like the top-quality building stone from Portland
in Dorset, was much in demand, as it would set hard while under
water. The essential ingredients (“blue” mud and chalk) could be
dredged from the banks of the Medway and dug out of the hills
behind. Frindsbury church soon found itself perched on the edge of
an artificial cliff created by massive quarrying operations in the
river valley.
In Chatham and Gillingham, non-conformist religions became very
popular, especially among skilled workers and shopkeepers. This led
to the foundation of a number of evangelical chapels and a major
Salvation Army citadel was built in the area.
In 1836, Princess Victoria made an unscheduled stop in Rochester
because of damage sustained by the bridge in a storm. She stayed at
the Bull Hotel on the High Street, which was subsequently re-named
the Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel. The royal arms still decorate
its façade.
A series of Reform Acts increased the number of men who were
allowed to vote, at first in towns only and later throughout the
country. It was not until 1928 that women received the same voting
rights. The first of these Acts, in 1832, gave Chatham the right to
elect its own MP, Rochester retaining two MPs for itself until
1886, when this number was reduced to one.
The Education Act 1870 divided the country into about
2,500 districts, each under an elected local board which had powers
to build and maintain schools with money from a local tax. All
children under the age of 13 years were supposed to attend. Many of
today’s Medway schools were founded in the later years of the 19th
century.
Related pages
Resources
Industrial Medway: an Historical Survey by J.M.
Preston. Published by J.M. Preston, 1977.
Aveling and Porter Ltd., Rochester by J.M.Preston.
North Kent Books, 1987.
Dickens in Rochester: his Books and Festivals by
Shirley Harrison and Sally Evemy. S.B. Publications, 1997.
Dickens' Rochester by John Oliver. John Hallewell
Publications, 1978.
Louis Brennan: Inventor Extraordinaire by Norman
Tomlinson. John Hallewell Publications, 1980.
History of the Southern Railway by Dendy Marshall,
1963; 071100059X.
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