Chatham

CHATHAM, a port and municipal and parliamentary borough of Kent, England, on the right bank of the Medway, 34 m. E.S.E. of London by the Southern railway. Pop. Though a distinct borough it is continuous on the west with Rochester, and forms with it and New Brompton, on the east, one large town. The site on Chatham hill controlling the river entrance yielded human remains in the tumuli, pottery and coins.

Chatham (Cete/iam, Chetham) belonged at the time of the Domesday Survey to Odo, bishop of Bayeux. During the middle ages it formed a suburb of Rochester, but Henry VIII. began to establish dockyards, and Elizabeth built a dockyard and estab lished an arsenal here. The dockyard was altered and improved by Charles I. and Charles II., and became the chief naval station of England. In 1708 an act was passed for extending the fortifica tions of Chatham. Henceforward the dockyard became the centre of attraction around which the town grew.

The Dockyard.

This covers an area of 516 ac. and has a river frontage of over 3 miles. It was brought into its present state by the extensive works begun about 1867. Before that time there was no basin or wet-dock, though the river Medway to some extent answered the same purpose, but a portion of the adjoin ing salt-marshes was then taken in, and three basins have been constructed, communicating with each other by means of large locks, so that ships can pass from the bend of the Medway at Gillingham to that at Upnor. Subsequent improvements included dredging operations in the Medway to improve the approach, and the provision of extra dry-dock accommodation under the Naval Works Acts. There are in all nine dry docks, one of which now takes first-class cruisers. The yard is equipped for building light class cruisers and refitting ships of all classes and for building submarines.

St. Mary's church was opened in 1903, but occupies a site in use since Saxon times. Stephen Borough (d. 1584), discoverer of the northern passage to Archangel in Russia (1553), is com memorated there. St. Bartholomew's chapel, originally attached to the hospital for lepers founded by Gundulph, bishop of Roches ter, in 1070, is in part Norman. The funds for the maintenance of the hospital were appropriated to the hospital of St. Bartholo mew, erected in 1863 within the boundaries of Rochester. The almshouse established in 1592 by Sir John Hawkins for seamen and shipwrights is still extant ; the building was re-erected in the 19th century, while the fund called the Chatham Chest, originated by Hawkins and Drake in 1588, was incorporated with Greenwich hospital in 5802. The Naval hospital was opened in 1907 and replaces the old Melville hospital which was situated in Old Brompton. The Naval barracks were opened in 1897 on a site previously used as a convict prison. There are numerous brickyards, lime-kilns and flour-mills in the district neighbouring to Chatham, and the town carries on a large retail trade, in great measure owing to the presence of the garrison. Chatham was con stituted a parliamentary borough by the Reform bill of 1832. Since 1918 the municipal boroughs of Chatham, Gillingham and Rochester combine to return two members. The town was incor porated in 1890. The borough includes the suburb (an ecclesi astical parish) of Luton, in which are the water-works of Chatham and district. Area of present borough of Chatham, 4,356 acres.