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Chatham is a town located within the Medway unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Gillingham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham.
Medway is a unitary authority and conurbation in Kent, South East England. It had a population of 278,016 in 2019. The unitary authority was formed in 1998 when Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with the Borough of Gillingham to form Medway Towns. It is a unitary authority area run by Medway Council, independent of Kent County Council but remains part of the ceremonial county of Kent.
Gillingham is a town in the unitary authority area of Medway in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. It is also the largest town in the borough of Medway.
The Western Heights of Dover are one of the most impressive fortifications in Britain. They comprise a series of forts, strong points and ditches, designed to protect the country from invasion. They were created in the 18th and 19th centuries to augment the existing defences and protect the key port of Dover from both seaward and landward attack; by the start of the 20th century Dover Western Heights was collectively reputed to be the 'strongest and most elaborate' fortification in the country. The Army finally withdrew from the Heights in 1956–61; they are now a local nature reserve.
Fort Borstal was built as an afterthought from the 1859 Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom, by convict labour. Construction started in 1875 but was suspended in 1885. The fort was completed around 1895. it was one of a series of four forts that ringed Chatham.
Fort Amherst, in Medway, South East England, was constructed in 1756 at the southern end of the Brompton lines of defence to protect the southeastern approaches to Chatham Dockyard and the River Medway against a French invasion. Fort Amherst is now open as a visitor attraction throughout the year with tours provided through the tunnel complex
Harwich Redoubt is a circular fort built in 1808 to defend the port of Harwich, Essex from Napoleonic invasion. The Harwich Society opens it to the public.
The site of Fort Bridgewoods is on the outskirts of Rochester, Medway in the United Kingdom, next to the Rochester-Maidstone road (B2097). The site was acquired by the War Office in about 1860 to form part of a ring of forts protecting the Royal Dockyard at Chatham.
Sandgate is a village in the Folkestone and Hythe Urban Area in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, England. It had a population of 4,225 at the 2001 census. It is the site of Sandgate Castle, a Device Fort. H.G. Wells lived at Spade House, and it is also the birthplace of comedian Hattie Jacques. Sandgate is the location of the Shorncliffe Redoubt, a Napoleonic-era earthwork fort associated with Sir John Moore and the 95th Regiment of Foot, known as the 95th Rifles. St Paul's Church lies next to the Saga building, which is built on the site of Enbrook House.
Fort Pitt is a Napoleonic era fort on the high ground of the boundary between Chatham and Rochester, Kent.
Medway was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom between 1983 and 2010. A previous constituency of the same name existed from 1885 to 1918.
Twydall is a suburb of Gillingham in Kent in south-east England. In 1998 responsibility for local government was transferred from Kent County Council to the newly created Unitary Authority of Medway, The origin of the name Twydall is thought to mean "Two Parts" or "Double Portion" from the Old English twidǣl, but by 1240 it was written Twydele. Two Palmerston forts were built in the area, Grange Redoubt and Woodlands Redoubt: the design used came to be known as the Twydall Profile.
Swinley Forest is a large expanse of Crown Estate woodland managed by Forestry England mainly within the civil parishes of Windlesham in Surrey and Winkfield and Crowthorne in Berkshire, England.
Shorncliffe Redoubt is a British Napoleonic earthwork fort. The site is approximately 300 feet by 300 feet and is situated on the Kentish Coast in Sandgate, Kent.
Broadmoor to Bagshot Woods and Heaths is a 1,696.3-hectare (4,192-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Berkshire and Surrey that extend from a minority of the parish of Crowthorne including around Broadmoor Hospital in the west to Bagshot south-east, Bracknell north-east, and Sandhurst, south. It is part of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area. Two nature reserves which are managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust are in the SSSI, Barossa nature reserve and Poors Allotment. Broadmoor Bottom, which is part of Wildmoor Heath, also falls within the SSSI; this reserve is managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.
Fort Horsted is a scheduled monument that lies in the Horsted Valley to the South of Chatham, Kent, England. It is a late 19th-century Land Fort, and one of six constructed around Chatham and Gillingham, Kent to protect HM Dockyard Chatham from attack. Originally proposed in the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom Report, published in 1860, it and the other land defences were omitted as part of general cost cutting with only the coastal defences on the River Medway being retained and completed under the original 1860 proposals. It was not until the mid-1870s that a revised programme was accepted, which included the construction of a convict prison at Borstal, Rochester, to provide low cost labour for the construction of a line of four forts, Fort Borstal, Fort Bridgewood, Fort Horsted and Fort Luton. Its construction started in 1879 and was complete by 1889 after much delay.
Woodlands Redoubt, also known as one of the two Twydall Redoubts, was constructed in 1888. It was not included in the original list of defensive structures proposed by the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom in 1860, but was conceived later and implemented as an experimental redoubt as opposed to a more substantial fort.
Grange Redoubt, also known as one of the two Twydall Redoubts, was constructed in 1885. It was not included in the original list of defensive structures proposed by the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom in 1860, but was conceived later and implemented as an experimental redoubt as opposed to a more substantial fort.
The Twydall Profile was a style of fortification used in British and Imperial polygonal forts at the end of the 19th century. The sloping earthworks employed in the Twydall Profile were intended to be quick and inexpensive to construct and to be effective in the face of the more powerful artillery and high explosive ammunition being introduced at that time. The name comes from the village of Twydall in Kent, where the first forts of this type were built.
References
- ↑ A E W Miles, The Accidental Birth of Military Medicine, page 118. Civic Books, London, 2009 ISBN 9781-904104-95-7