Upnor and Related Topics

Upnor Castle

Elizabethan artillery fort located on the west bank of the River Medway in Kent.

Map of fortifications on the Rivers Thames and Medway

A picture by Willem Schellincks of the raid. The view is from the south. On the left Upnor Castle is silhouetted against the flames; on the opposite side of the river more to the front the burning dockyard of Chatham. To the north the conflagration near the chain is shown and on the horizon the ruins of Sheerness Fort are still smoking.

Display of gunpowder barrels and naval howitzers in the magazine block

View of Upnor Castle from the Medway in 1845

Upnor Castle House, behind the perimeter wall

Water bastion, main building and north tower

Magazine, south tower and inner courtyard, viewed from the gatehouse

It is in the village of Upnor, opposite and a short distance downriver from the Chatham Dockyard, at one time a key naval facility.

Eight exclaves of highly anomalous Cowley, all in Hillingdon, then in Middlesex.

Frindsbury Extra

Civil parish divided into commercial, suburban residential and rural parts on the Hoo Peninsula in Medway, a ceremonial part of Kent.

Upnor on the Medway

The Arethusa Venture Centre at Lower Upnor

Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa

One of the United Kingdom's oldest children's charities.

The figurehead of Arethusa at the Shaftesbury Young People centre on the River Medway

The move to Upnor occurred in 1933, when the Arethusa was broken up and replaced with a steel-hulled nitrates clipper, the Peking.

Frindsbury

Part of the Medway Towns conurbation in Kent, southern England.

Here we see how Strood the marshy place, relates to Frindsbury. The station, canal basin and all the wharves downstream of the Watermill were in Frindsbury. The steep slopes are caused by the chalk pits. Note also the undrained land between the railway, and Frindsbury Hill, and the lack of houses.

Frindsbury Church stood on a hill overlooking the Medway. The hill has been extensively quarried leaving the distinctive cliffs. To the left of the church is Church Green. Directly in front of it is Strood Pier and the entrance to the Strood basin. To the right is the Frindsbury Peninsula, and the Phoenix Wharf and Lower Curel's Yard.

Within the civil parish of Frindsbury Extra are the villages of Frindsbury, Wainscott, and Upnor.

Three-masted barque (US Revenue Cutter Salmon P. Chase, 1878–1907)

Peking (ship)

Steel-hulled four-masted barque.

In July 1933, she was moved to a new permanent mooring off Upnor on the River Medway, where she served as a children's home and training school.

Preserved Arethusa figurehead in Upnor on the River Medway

HMS Arethusa (1849)

50-gun fourth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy, was launched in 1849 from the Pembroke Dockyard and served in the Crimean War.

HMS St George and Arethusa on the Hamoaze near Bull Point in 1860, by Edward Snell (engineer)

Arethusa at the Bombardment of Odessa by the English and French Steam Squadron in 1854

An invite from Mrs Norton Disney to watch trainees from the Arethusa and learn about the training ship

In 1933 the wooden frigate was no longer viable, and was replaced by the steel-hulled ship Peking, which was moored at Upnor on the Medway, and renamed Arethusa.

Medway

Unitary authority district and conurbation in Kent, South East England.

Dutch Attack on the Medway, June 1667 by Pieter Cornelisz van Soest, painted c. 1667. The captured ship is right of centre

The Chatham Naval Memorial commemorates the 18,500 officers, ranks and ratings of the Royal Navy who were lost or buried at sea in the two World Wars. It stands on the Great Lines between Chatham and Gillingham.

Chatham Bus Interchange Station, October 2011

The Quays, Chatham Dockside, December 2009

A view of the Medway Gate development, June 2009.

A view of former The Black Lion Leisure Centre (Now Medway Park), April 2009.

The A2 crossing the Medway at Rochester on the site of the Roman crossings, the medieval crossing was to the south

Junction Two of the M2 is on the A228, just before the Medway motorway bridge. Alongside is High Speed 1. Both are seen climbing up the Nashenden Valley, towards Bluebell Hill.

Frindsbury Extra including Upnor borders Strood.

Chattenden and Lodge Hill Military Camps

Chattenden and Lodge Hill Military Camps were British Army training camps in Chattenden and Hoo St Werburgh in Kent.

Narrow-gauge locomotive in front of Chattenden barracks

Central Terrace: built as Police Quarters for those guarding the depot at Chattenden, later used for Explosive Ordnance Search & Disposal training.

Entrance to Lodge Hill Camp Firing Range

Former Police Office by the outer gate of the magazine compound at Chattenden.

During the Napoleonic Wars a gunpowder magazine was built alongside the castle at Lower Upnor designed to store a further 10,000 barrels of gunpowder, followed in 1857 by another, larger magazine which could hold up to 23,000 barrels.