Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CHATHAM

CHATHAM, a town and a parish in Medway district, Kent. The town stands on the river Medway, Watling-street, and the London and Dover railway, contiguous to Rochester, 30 miles W by S of London. It has furnished numerous Roman remains; and was known to the Saxons as Coeddeham, and at Domesday as Ceteham. The manor belonged, in the time of Edward the Confessor, to Earl Godwin; was given by the Conqueror to Hamon de Creve. cœur; and passed to the Badlesmeres, the Despensers, the Wentworths, and others. A royal dockyard was formed here in the time of Elizabeth; was greatly enlarged by Charles I.; was the scene of a disastrous attack by a Dutch fleet in 1667; was materially improved by Charles II; has been further enlarged from time to time; and is now one of the most important establishments of its kind in the kingdom. Many sovereigns have visited it; and Queen Victoria made a special visit to it in 1855, when she inspected the wounded soldiers from the Crimea.

The town forms a continuous line of edifice with Roches-ter; consists chiefly of narrow streets; and presents, in a strong light, the aspects of old large seaports. A steep lane, called Hamon-hill, leads to an elevated spot, commanding a fine view of the town and the environs. Many of the houses are old; and one with a carved front, in High-street, is pointed out as having been the residence of certain famous ship-builders of the 16th and 17th centuries. The chief public buildings are churches, chapels, schools, hospitals, a workhouse, a convict prison, the dockyard, barracks, and the fortifications. St. Mary's or the parish church was rebuilt in 1788; incorporates a doorway of a previous old Norman edifice; is itself an ungainly structure; and contains several monuments, preserved from the previous church, one of them a brass of Stephen Borough, the discoverer of the NW passage to Russia in 1553. St. John's church was built in 1821, by the Parliamentary Commissioners, at a cost of nearly £15, 000; and was extensively altered in 1869. St. Paul's church was built in 1854, and is in the Norman style. St. Peter's church, in Troy-Town, was built in 1860. A Presbyterian church on a site given by the War Office, is a neat structure of galvanized iron, erected in 1861. The Roman Catholic church is a brick edifice, with little external ornament, built in 1863. St. Bartholomew's hospital was founded for lepers, in 1078; is now a new hospital, with 50 beds, and with a government lock branch; and has an endowed income of about £1, 760. The original chapel still stands, and continues to be used; but only the E end of it is ancient. A new lock hospital was founded in 1869, and contracted to cost £7, 749. Hawkins' hospital, for decayed seamen and ship-wrights, has an income of £663. Paine's charity, for widows, has £324 a year. The Marine hospital was built in 1828, and has accommodation for 340 patients. The artillery hospital is attached to the a. barracks, and has wards for 100 patients. A new wing to the convict prison, with accommodation for about 300 more convicts, was founded in 1869. There are a soldiers' institute, a mechanics' institute, and some other institutions.

The dockyard is nearly a mile long, walled round and fortified; and contains four wet docks, with capacity for the largest vessels, one of them a tidal basin, 400 feet by 96, completed in 1857. The store-houses and work-shops are admirably arranged, and can equip a first-rate man-of-war in a few days. The mast-house is 240 feet long, and 120 wide; the rope-house is 1, 110 feet long, and 50 wide; the smith's shop contains 40 forges; and the saw-mills have eight saw frames, with capacity for 240 saws, and two circular-saw benches, with windlasses and capstans for supplying them with wood. The gun-wharf, adjoining the dockyard, is more a great store-house than an arsenal, and contains a large park of artillery. The principal barracks extend along the Medway; and contain accommodation for upwards of 4, 000 men. Fort Pitt, on a hill overlooking the town, contains other barracks, a military hospital, and a military museum; and was constructed at the end of last century. The fortifications, called the Chatham lines, enclose the dockyard and the principal barracks; include Brompton village, partly in Gillingham parish; run down to the Medway, at the extremities of Chatham and Brompton; were commenced in 1758, and completed about 1807; and have recently undergone extensive alterations and improvements. New works, on marsh-ground of about 320 acres to the NE of the dockyard, to include a repairing basin, new docks, and extensive buildings, and estimated to cost about £1, 250, 000, were commenced in 1867, and were expected to be finished about the end of 1870. Grand reviews and great military field operations take place about the lines, and attract great crowds to Chatham.

The town has a head post office, ‡ a railway station with telegraph, two banking offices, and five chief inns; and publishes a weekly newspaper. A weekly market is held on Saturday; and there were formerly two fairs. The chief trade arises from the dockyard and from ship-building. About 33 men-of-war are commonly lying off; and about 20 building on the slips. A pier, behind the Sun inn, was built by Colonel Best, at a cost of £3, 000; and steamers touch at it many times a day, on their way to Sheerness. Races were formerly run, but have been discontinued. Chatham is a borough under the act of 1832, sending one member to parliament; and, as a borough, consists of part of the parish of Chatham and part of the parish of Gillingham. Acres, 1, 670. Direct taxes in 1857, £9, 251. Electors in 1868, 2, 111. Pop. in 1841, 21, 431; in 1861, 36, 177. Houses, 5, 185. The town gave the title of Earl to the family of Pitt.

The parish includes also Chatham-Intra within the city of Rochester, the hamlet of Luton, and part of the village of Brompton. Acres, 4, 273; of which 90 are water. Real property, £57, 576. Pop., 25, 183. Houses, 3, 933. The livings of St. Mary and St. John are rectories, and that of St. Paul a vicarage, in the diocese of Rochester. Value of St. M., £500; of St. J. and St. P., each £300.* Patrons of St. M., the Dean and Chapter; of St. J., the Rector of St. M.; of St. P., the Bishop. The rectory of Luton and the vicarage of Brompton are separate benefices. The places of worship within the borough in 1851, were 10 of the Church of England, with 6, 610 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 1, 220 s; 1 of General Baptists, with 286 s.; 2 of Particular Baptists, with 908 s; 6 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 1, 532 s.; 4 of Bible Christians, with 697 s.; 2 of the Wesleyan Association, with 369 s.; 1 of the New Church, with 70 s.; 1 of the Catholic and Apostolic church, with 120 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 150 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Chatham AP/CP       Medway RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place names: CETEHAM     |     CHATHAM     |     COEDDEHAM
Place: Chatham

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