Davran
30-09-2008, 6:19 PM
On Sunday we took some friends to Chatham dockyard on the river Medway. The dockyard is no longer functioning as such and has been turned into a museum. Although the entrance fee is expensive, you are entitled to come back within the year and use the ticket again.
It's a fascinating place and well worth a visit if you have any ancestors involved with shipbuilding or ropemaking. There is a "wooden walls" exhibition (one of those with talking figures), which tells the story (from an actual diary) of a young lad who went to be an apprentice in the dockyard. It explains how wooden ships were made.
There is a most fantastic building, which looks like an upside down ship and is one of the earliest large-span buildings. There are exhibitions of lifeboats, military equipment and various boats you can go on, including an early 1960s submarine. Parts of the Cutty Sark are there, too, where they were fortunately awaiting renovation when the ship caught fire.
My favourite bit, however, is the ropery, which has been functioning there since 1618. When the dockyard closed the ropery continued to make ropes and, although there was a period when it was only used for demonstrations, it is now operating again commercially. The ropery itself is a quarter of a mile long and was not in operation on Sunday. However, we had a guided tour given by a very dry-humoured chap who spoke as if it was 1875 - we had to call him "Mr Steve"! There is some small model ropemaking equipment, where he got four volunteers to make a rope, of which they then all got a a piece.
It was a good time of year to visit with hardly any visitors, so no queueing to see things. I haven't been there for many years and it's good to see things moving on and more exhibits.
I highly recommend it to anyone visiting/living in Kent.
It's a fascinating place and well worth a visit if you have any ancestors involved with shipbuilding or ropemaking. There is a "wooden walls" exhibition (one of those with talking figures), which tells the story (from an actual diary) of a young lad who went to be an apprentice in the dockyard. It explains how wooden ships were made.
There is a most fantastic building, which looks like an upside down ship and is one of the earliest large-span buildings. There are exhibitions of lifeboats, military equipment and various boats you can go on, including an early 1960s submarine. Parts of the Cutty Sark are there, too, where they were fortunately awaiting renovation when the ship caught fire.
My favourite bit, however, is the ropery, which has been functioning there since 1618. When the dockyard closed the ropery continued to make ropes and, although there was a period when it was only used for demonstrations, it is now operating again commercially. The ropery itself is a quarter of a mile long and was not in operation on Sunday. However, we had a guided tour given by a very dry-humoured chap who spoke as if it was 1875 - we had to call him "Mr Steve"! There is some small model ropemaking equipment, where he got four volunteers to make a rope, of which they then all got a a piece.
It was a good time of year to visit with hardly any visitors, so no queueing to see things. I haven't been there for many years and it's good to see things moving on and more exhibits.
I highly recommend it to anyone visiting/living in Kent.