Chatham Historic Dockyard (Part 2)

As part of our entry tickets to the Dockyard, we were given the opportunity to sign up to two tours; one aboard the submarine HMS Ocelot, and one around the Victorian Ropery.  The sub had two tour options; a quick 15 minute tour or a 30 minute tour, whilst the Victorian Ropery would last 30 minutes.

We went for the short option on the sub.  I don't do that well in enclosed spaces. 

The tour was given by a gentleman who looked like the picture perfect naval captain with his white roll neck fisherman's sweater matching his white, neatly cropped beard and weather beaten brown face.  All he needed was a pipe.

The tour started outside the sub, with an overview of what life would have been like on board and her naval history as a Cold War spy vessel.  69 souls would have been packed on board for months at a time, with water supplies strictly rationed and used from everything from cooking to washing, to flushing the toilets.  As our guide explained with a wry smile, the air would have been rather ripe after a few days.

The Ocelot is an Oberon class diesel electric submarine (no, I have no idea what that means in practice) that was first launched in May 1962 and then retired in August 1991. Life on board was narrow, crowded, noisy and hot, with little personal space and only three changes of clothes per person for the three months you could be at sea for.  The mere thought of that makes my stomach flip if I am honest.  A naval career is not one I am even vaguely drawn towards.

We were warned before going on board that to move from one end of the ship would involve being able to navigate through three hatches.  The choices were to grab the rail above your head and swing both feet through, or go through one leg at a time.  Belly diving was not recommended. I navigated the first two sideways and got braver for the final hatch and swung my way through.  I didn't really have any option though, the width of the hatch base on the final way was significantly longer than the others, and going sideways would have left me stranded like some form of beached sea creature.  A whale seems like an unnecessarily harsh description, but it is the one that came to mind.  For obvious reasons, this tour is not one that is suitable for individuals in wheel chairs or with mobility issues.

By far the coolest part of the Ocelot is the central command chamber where the periscope is stored.  This feels like something out of a 1970's Bond film.  I commented to my father that I am in awe of anyone who can build something this convoluted and complicated - the amount of wires, dials, switches, gauges, pipes, clamps, valves and other paraphernalia is rather jaw-dropping and yet it somehow all connects together to make a giant boat that quite happily floats underwater for months at a time.  Ain't technology an amazing thing?

The second tour of the day was the Victorian Ropery at the far end of the Dockyards.  This is one of the older sections of the Dockyard and this time our tour was given by the foreman of the Ropery.  The year is 1875 and we are shown what life would have been like in the Ropery for the hundreds of workers. 

What is intriguing about this place is the fact that it is still operational today, and rope is still being made traditionally for hundreds of causes, from movie props to dog chew toys. You can even buy it online! 

The forty minute tour teaches you how rope is made, from the raw hemp from cannabis plants shipped over from Asia, through to the laborious process of cleaning it, picking out the bristles and burrs, to the hatchlings; sharp spiked devices that the hemp was ripped through to comb it before it was sent to the spinners after being drenched with whale oil to soften it.  Once spun into yard, the ropes are then sent to the tarring shed for waterproofing so that the ropes can survive the rigours of a sea voyage.  This process was so successful that perfectly preserved Chatham Rope is still being recovered from ship wrecks 150 years later. We learn about the role of that rope played in the success of the Royal Navy throughout the years, and the different names for different types of rope.

We are told about how people's roles were defined by the size of their hands and their fingers; women and children being more suited for the delicate work in the mills, reaching between spinning bobbins to join snapped strands together whilst men with larger hands were assigned to the heavy lifting roles on the Rope Walk and in the Hatching House and Tar Shed.  Women and men were kept strictly segregated, with different entrances and staggered start times to ensure that they could not accidentally find a husband whilst at work. We also were told about some of the first women to demand equal pay, better working conditions and fair working hours to allow them to balance children and work. 80 women all signed a petition to the owner of the factory, requesting a meeting to discuss standards. All of it fell on deaf ears but it was some of the early indications of the pre-vote era of women who were starting to want a fairer society. 

On the Rope Walk, a vast, stretching, 1/4 mile long single building where rope to this day is still made, you can also make your own rope if you volunteer for the demonstration.  At least you don't have to do this at 6am when the Victorian Workers would have started work, finishing at 6pm after a gruelling day of back-breaking labour for very low pay.  To get a feel for The Rope Walk and the importance of rope to Victorian life, try reading this poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Yarns from the mill are stretched out and attached to large hooks at each end, then the machines are hand cranked to twist the yarn into the distinctive rope patterns you see today.

The Rope Walk itself was cool and quiet on the day we visited, but it would have been bitterly cold in the winter, noisy, dusty, and the vibrations from the machines would have rattled your teeth.

I don't know about you, but I'm grateful I don't have to work in those conditions.

Chatham Historic Dockyard (Part 1)

You know how people often say that they are never a tourist in their own county?  Would you believe that in 15 years of living in Kent, I have never once looked around the Historic Dockyard in Chatham?

This becomes even more shameful when you take into consideration the fact that the University of Kent has academic buildings on the site, and that Stephen has been based just opposite for the last 10 years.  I have run through the Dockyard trying not to fall over in heels on my way to a meeting, I have toured around it with colleagues, I have eaten in the cafes, I have even interviewed for a job in the Old Clocktower, but I have never taken the time to actually look around it properly.

I knew that it was the kind of place my father would love though, and so on a cold and breezy but utterly beautiful first day of spring, I left Stephen watching Man Utd vs Man City (Man Utd won, he was happy) and went on a proper tour of the Dockyard with Dad.

Full disclosure - because I work for the University of Kent, my staff card gets me free access to the Dockyard and its attractions, but Dad had to pay the full entry price.  He decided to upgrade from the £13 day pass to the £22 annual pass which gets him unlimited access for a full year.  Good job he did as well as the Dockyard is enormous; there is no way you will explore everything it has to offer in one visit.  I've had to split out what little we saw over two posts as well!

If you have seen Call The Midwife, Sherlock Holmes films, Downton Abbey, Foyles War, Mr Selfridge, The Golden Compass, The World Is Not Enough or Les Miserables, you may recognise some of the locations.... although it is still a working dockyard and museum, it is also a popular filming location.

The Dockyard is 400 years old, and some of the most famous British naval vessels, including Nelson's flagship, the HMS Victory, have been built and launched on the premises.  The first warship known to have been built at the Dockyard was the Sunne, a pinnace of five guns, launched in 1586, and the last was built in the 1960's.

Whilst we were there, the 1st Battalion 42nd Highland Regiment of Foot 1815 (also known as The Black Watch) were practicing their drills to the beat of the drum.  The Black Watch are a re-enactment society, dedicated to preserving; as accurately as possible, the uniform, drill, musketry, tactics and daily life of the regiment in 1815, the year of the Battle of Waterloo.  The 42nd Foot was the most senior of the Highland Regiments and the sombre appearance of the tartan and its original role of policing the Highlands led to the nickname 'The Black Watch'. Modern re-enactment organisations are now based all over the UK and abroad, including at Chatham. 

First stop on our tour was the No 1 Smithery, originally built between 1806 and 1808 and bought back to life in 2010 as a museum and exhibition space by the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, National Maritime Museum and Imperial War Museum.  The most interesting section, the model boat archive, unfortunately did not allow photo's for copyright reasons, but believe me when I say it was amazing, and an area that Dad is tempted to book a private tour in.  Kids would love it here, there is so much for them to see and do!

The Smithery is a Grade II listed building that, as the name suggests, was originally used for iron-working.  It also enjoys status as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and houses 4,000 ship models in total.  Inside is a totally immersive experience - you could spend hours in this one location alone.

There are the original forges used for making the metal pipes, great hulking masses of blackened iron surrounded by decades of soot and ash embedded into the brickwork.  Beyond is the Courtyard, a huge imposing space where the enormous anchors can be viewed in pits

Past the galleries (no photos allowed) filled with giant ship models, cutaways and original paintings, is the Pipe Bending room, where metal pipes were superheated in the furnace then bent around pegs in the floor to make them the right shape for the ships.  The original brickwork mixed with the steel girders are the type of details that modern architects can only dream about working with.

After spending over an hour moseying through the galleries, we headed back outside into the sunshine to go and ogle at the three historic warships in dry dock.

The HMS Cavalier, a retired C-Class destroyer, decommissioned in 1972.

The HMS Gannet, a Royal Navy Doterel-class screw sloop launched in 1878 and preserved in 1987.

The HMS Ocelot, an Oberon-class diesel-electric submarine, and the last Royal Navy vessel built in the Dockyard.  She was launched in 1962 and did her service during the cold war as an intelligence vessel then decommissioned in 1991. A tour aboard her cramped living and working conditions forms much of Part 2 of these blog posts.

All three vessels are open for exploration, although we did not have the time to explore the Gannet and the Cavalier on this occasion.  I did say that the Dockyard was huge!

Near the dry docks are other remnants of the Dockyards military past, including a Royal Navy Chopper and anti-aircraft guns.  The whole place is incredibly atmospheric, made even more so when you realise that this is still a working dockyard and some of the crafts practiced 400 years ago are still in operation on site, as we discovered in our Ropery tour.

As you may have guessed, the Dockyard is situated on the River Medway, and it is clear that this is still a working river for both leisure and business.  Part of this adds to the feel of the Dockyard as you are surrounded by the clangs of steel and industry from over the river and the smell of tarred rope.

We stopped at the Wagon Stop Canteen located inside the Railway Workshop for a bite to eat and drink halfway through our visit.  There is a big new project being undertaken at the moment to improve the catering arrangements as part of the Command of the Oceans project, so the Wagon Stop is very much a temporary holding alternative before the new facilities come on line.  I really enjoyed it though!  They specialise in Kentish pies and doorstop sandwiches surrounded by some of the locomotives and rolling stock that form part of the Dockyard Railway that criss-cross and ribbon their way throughout the entire site, and are still in operation today.  I had a cappuccino (machine, not freshly made) and a lamb cobbler pie, which was stuffed full of chunks of meat, piping hot and lightly flavoured with mint, potato and carrot in a rich gravy with a thick and crumbly pastry. Dad had a Kentish pastie, which was basically a lamb version of a Cornish pasty.  The two pasties and 2 cappuccino's came to £12 in total.

Right next to the Wagon Stop is the Nelson Brewery, which first opened in 1995 where it established a five barrel kit brewing up to 100 firkins a week. Now it has a strong reputation as one of the UK's major ale suppliers, all with suitably nautical names, brewing from a seven and a half barrel kit.  The Brewery isn't open on Sunday's but you can book tours by appointment and see them in action during the week.

When we first arrived on site, we asked for some advice from one of the guides about what to see. He told us that the submarine and ropery tours were a must (check back for the next post!) and that also we needed to climb to the top of 3 Slip, otherwise known as The Big Space, to look at the incredible roof space.

He was so right.

It is incredible to think that this space was built in 1838, and at the time it was Europe's largest wide span timber structure.  The scale of it is breathtaking and the weatherbeaten bleached grey timbers and criss-cross lattice steel girders are a photographers dream.

Below though is the real talking point.  The Big Space is not just named for the building's scale, but for the collection of really 'big things' housed underneath that grand roof.  On the ground floor is a Midget submarine, dozens of boats, giant tools, steam machinery, Kitchener's Railway Carriage, the D Day locomotive 'Overlord', bridge-building machine, mine clearance equipment and, just to add to the scale of it all, a Chieftain AVRE tank.

Also in The Big Space is a huge collection of RNLI historic lifeboats, in partnership with the RNLI Trust.  The 17 life-crafts shown have all saved lives in peril in truly life-threatening conditions. Like most of the exhibitions, this one is also interactive, allowing you to board the lifeboats, listen to audio recordings of heroic stories and imagine that you are at the helm, fighting driving wind, rain and high seas to save a life.

The entire space is just amazing, there are no other words for it.  It would take you a week to absorb everything there is in The Big Space and we didn't have nearly enough time.  We flew through The Big Space as the site was closing shortly, and still spent close to an hour there, just looking around and grabbing a few quick shots before heading back to the car.

Check back in a couple of days for the tours of The Ropery and the Submarine at the Dockyard....