Description
Chatham, a municipal and parliamentary borough and a par sh on the river Medway, in Kent, with stations on the L.C. & D.R. and S.E.R., 33 miles from London. The town was incorporated in 1890. The parliamentary borough comprises parts of the parishes of Chatham and Gillingham, and returns one member. Population of the municipal borough, 31,657; of the parliamentary, 59,210. Chatham 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 Crevecoeur, 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 in 1855, when she inspected the wounded soldiers from the Crimea.
The town forms a continuous line of buildings with Rochester, consists chiefly of a bustling street nearly 2 miles in length and several narrow streets, and presents the aspects of all 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 shipbuilders of the 16th and 17th centuries.
The chief public buildings are churches, chapels, hospitals, the dockyard, barracks, and the fortifications. St Mary's or the parish church was rebuilt in 1788; incorporates a doorway and three arches 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. In 1887 the chancel and side chapel were rebuilt. 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. There are Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Baptist, Bible Christian, and Congregational chapels. Hawkins' Hospital for decayed seamen and shipwrights 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 barracks, and has wards for 100 patients. There are a mechanics' institute and some other institutions. The Reform Club was opened in 1888. It is of red brick and stone in the Classic style, and cost over £5000. There is also a Conservative Club.
The dockyard is more than a mile long, walled round and fortified, and contains wet docks with capacity for the largest vessels. New works on marsh ground of about 320 acres to the NE of the dockyard were constructed from 1867 to 1871 at a cost of nearly £1,500,000, and include a repairing basin, sew docks, and extensive buildings. The greater part of these works was done by convicts, there being a large convict prison adjoining, though now unoccupied. The storehouses and workshops 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 1110 feet long and 50 wide; the smith's shop contains 50 forges; and the sawmills have ten saw frames, with capacity for 300 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 storehouse than an arsenal, and contains a large park of artillery. The principal barracks extend along the Medway, and contain accommodation for upwards of 6000 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 the 18th 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 since undergone extensive alterations and improvements. The fortress defending the dockyard ranks as one of the finest in England. There is a chain of very powerful forts around the town, to prevent any possibility of an enemy approaching the dockyard from land. Grand reviews and great military field operations take place about the lines, and attract great crowds to Chatham. There is a gymnasium for troops near the Brompton barracks. The Soldiers' and Seamen's Home and Institute was opened in 1887, and contains baths, recreation rooms, a large refreshment room, and a good library. The officers of the garrison have a good recreation and cricket ground.
The town has a head post office and two banks. A weekly market is held on Saturday. The town is supplied with water from large reservoirs on Chatham Hill. The chief trade arises from the dockyard and from shipbuilding. A pier was erected in 1886, and steamers touch at it several times a day on their way to Sheerness and Southend. The town gave the title of Earl to the family of Pitt.
The parish includes Chatham-Intra within the city of Rochester, the hamlet of Luton, and part of the village of Brompton. Acreage, 4444; population, 31,901. 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 Mary, £220 with residence; of St John, £320 with residence; and of St Paul, £176 with residence.
