Medway
- This article is about Medway in England. For others, see Medway (disambiguation)
The Medway Towns, have developed into an area of urban sprawl situated near by an environmentally significant wetlands, reigon and are formed by the union of Chatham, Gillingham and Rochester in Kent, England. The towns, either side of the River Medway have made a wide and historically significant contribution to Kent.
The area is currently part of the unitary authority of Medway which was formed from the Kent districts of Gillingham and Rochester by the Kent (Borough of Gillingham and City of Rochester upon Medway) (Structural Change) Order 1996, which took effect on April 1, 1998. It is larger than all but 8 of the 33 London boroughs.
History
Medway has a long and varied history dominated originally by the City of Rochester and later by the military establishments principally in Chatham. Rochester was established by the Romans on an Iron Age site to control the point where Watling Street crossed the River Medway. The first cathedral was buillt in the earlier 600's.
The Royal Navy opened a dockyard in the 1500s and it was finally closed in 1984. It was protected by a series of forts including the Great Lines, Fort Amherst, Fort Pitt, Fort Borstal. Though Tudor in origin, the majority of buildings in the Historic Dockyard are Georgian. It was here that Britain's most famous wooden warship HMS Victory, Admiral Nelson's flagship, was built.
In Medway there are 82 scheduled ancient monuments, 831.5 listed buildings and 22 conservation areas.
Medway applied for city status for the competitions in 2000 and 2002, but lost. Rochester-upon-Medway itself had been a city, but had lost this status due to an oversight.
Demographics
Following the Closure of HM Dockyard Chatham great attention was paid to the unemployment figures, by 1997 it stood at 5.5%, below the UK average. 50% of the working population works outside the district- which principally means London.
Places
