Chatham Dickens World Dockyard Medway Maritime History Kent UK

The Historic Dockyard Chatham

The historic dockyard area of Chatham has played a prominent role in the history of British Maritime History for over 400 years, and the complex is now a tourist extravaganza of historic ships, cutting edge maritime museum and historic architecture mingled with on-site leisure and commercial facilities. The Dockyard covers an area of 80 acres, with around 100 historic buildings built mostly between 1704 and 1855. Chatham dockyard has already won numerous awards as it heads towards World Heritage Status.

You'll need a full day to take in this superb historic dockyard complex. Centrepiece is the superb Maritime Museum, the Museum of the Royal Dockyard where a combination of artefacts, photography, reconstructed ships, navy documents and maps, drawings and paintings take you through 400 years of British maritime and navel history. Dockyard workers alongside celebrity names like Dickens and Nelson are all given due attention, as is the Abolition of the Slave Trade in Britain in 1807, and the role Chatham docks had in that.

Also within the complex is the Wooden Walls exhibit, taking a close look at 18th century dockyard life during the time of shipwright William Crockwell and just how wooden ships were built. The role of Chatham Dockyard in historic battles like Trafalgar is also considered within this exhibit. Another popular area is the Ropery, with an ancient quarter of a mile long ropewalk which you can have a go on. (The Ropewalk is to be used for filming in a BBC adaptation of Oliver Twist).

The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent ME4 4TZ. Tel. 00 44 (0)1634 823807.

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Dickens World Chatham

There couldn't be a better introduction to Dickens for children than the themed attraction 'Dickens World' located just alongside historic Chatham Docklands. This whole area has seen considerable redevelopment in recent times, and alongside Dickens World Theme Park there's a huge modern shopping outlet and odeon cinema.

Within the Dickens Theme Park, you'll usually be greated in the courtyard by dressed up Dickens characters. Different areas of this enormous Dickens set pull on the world and characters of Dickens' novels. There's school rooms, prisons, Peggotty's Boathouse, Fagin's Den, ghosts and more. A restaurant, shop and educational rooms are on-site.

Dickens World, Leviathan Way, Chatham Maritime, Kent. ME4 4LL. Tel. 01634 890 421. Open daily from 10am to 5.30pm Last Admission 4pm. Dockside Outlet Shopping Centre, Maritime Way, Chatham Maritime, Chatham, Kent, ME4 3ED. Tel. 01634 899 389. Take a guided virtual tour of Dickens World, Chatham's premier family attraction via the webguide.

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Fort Amherst Chatham Fortress

Situated on the Dock Road in Chatham, Fort Amherst dates from 1756 and was built on the ditch and rampart principle specifically to protect the naval dockyards. The network of hidden underground passages and tunnels, to be used for protection in the event of siege, are unique however to this Georgian fort. Similar forts were built at Brompton and Gillingham, but only the Chatham Gatehouse and Napoleonic barracks survives.

Take one of the popular ghost tours at Fort Amherst. Dickens fans will remember this Fort gets a mention in the Pickwick Papers!

Fort Amherst, Dock Road, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4UB. Tel. 01634 847747. Look to the Fort Amherst webguide link right for details on specific opening days.

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