River Medway

River Medway
Medway at Gun Wharf, Chatham
Rivers in Kent, showing the Medway
Location
Country	England
Region	South East England, West Sussex, Kent
District	Mid Sussex, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Malling, Medway and Maidstone
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Turners Hill, West Sussex
• coordinates	51°06′25″N 0°5′37″W / 51.10694°N 0.09361°W / 51.10694; -0.09361
• elevation	489 ft (149 m)
Mouth	Thames Estuary
• location	Garrison Point, Sheerness, Kent
• coordinates	51°26′57″N 0°44′18″E / 51.44917°N 0.73833°E / 51.44917; 0.73833
Length	70 mi (113 km)
Basin size	930 sq mi (2,400 km2)
Discharge
• location	Teston
• average	11.08 m3/s (391 cu ft/s)
• minimum	0.43 m3/s (15 cu ft/s)24 August 1978
• maximum	358.6 m3/s (12,660 cu ft/s)16 September 1968
Basin features
Tributaries
• left	Eden, Bourne, Wateringbury Stream, East Malling Stream, other minor streams
• right	Teise, Beult, Loose Stream, Len, other minor streams
Designation
Ramsar Wetland
Official name	Medway Estuary & Marshes
Designated	15 December 1993

v t e River Medway
Legend
00.0 Source TQ 334 359 51°06′25″N 0°05′37″W / 51.10694°N 0.09361°W / 51.10694; -0.09361 00.0 Upper Reaches  B2028  Fen Place Mill  B2110  Bluebell Railway West Hoathly Stream Weir Wood Reservoir Mill Place Foundry East Grinstead Stream Brambletye Mill  A22  Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line Tablehurst Mill Parrock Forge Hartfield Iron Mill  B2026  Hartfield Stream Warren Brook Waterdown Forest Stream Groombridge Stream Ashurst Mill  A264  Oxted Line Kent Water Ashurst Furnace Chafford Mills  B2188  Poundbridge Stream Barden Mill Stream Pound Mill 00.0 River Eden to Leigh River Eden  B2176  Ensfield Mill Ensfield Road Limit of navigation Redhill to Tonbridge Line  A21  Ramhurst Mill Powder Mills 00.0 Leigh to Yalding South Eastern Main Line Tonbridge Tonbridge High Street  B2260  28 Town Lock Town Mill Cannon Lane  A26  Southborough Bourne 25.6 Eldridge Lock 24 Porters Lock Hartlake Road 22 East Lock Tudeley Brook Pen Stream 20.8 Oak Weir Lock River Bourne Branbridges Mill Branbridges  A228  Medway Valley Line 00.0 Yalding to Allington Lock Site of Stoneham Lock River Teise Greater Teise Sluice Twyford Bridge  B2162  Lesser Teise River Beult Hampstead Mill Hamptons Bridge  B2162  15.3 Hampstead Lock Breden's Boatyard Hampstead Marina Hampstead Lane Canal Wateringbury Stream Wateringbury Bridge West Farleigh Stream 10.4 Teston Lock Teston Bridge  B2163  Barming Bridge East Farleigh Bridge 7.5 Farleigh Lock Line to Tovil Goods station Loose Stream River Len  A20   A20  Maidstone Maidstone East Line Boxley Stream Allington Castle 00.0 Allington Lock to Rochester Allington Lock  M20  Cossington Stream Aylesford Bridge East Malling Stream Friars Mill Addington Brook Holborough Brook Borstal Mill Cuxton Mill High Speed 1  M2  Priory Mill Strood Tide Mill Rochester  A2  Chatham Main Line Strood, Thames and Medway Canal Chatham Chatham Tide Mill Chatham Dockyard  A289  Gillingham The Swale Isle of Sheppey Thames Estuary   TQ 903 758

The River Medway is a river in

The major tributaries are:

• River Eden
• River Bourne, known in the past as the Shode or Busty
• River Teise, major sub-tributary River Bewl
• River Beult
• Loose Stream
• River Len

Minor tributaries include:

• Wateringbury Stream
• East Malling Stream
• River Grom

Former minor tributaries include the Old Bourne River, which flowed through the Brook, Chatham (not to be confused with the main tributary River Bourne).^[3]

The river and its tributaries flow through largely rural areas, Tonbridge, Maidstone and Medway being the exceptions. The Medway itself initially flows in a west–east direction south of the North Downs; at the confluence of the River Beult, however, it turns north and breaks through the North Downs at the Medway Gap, a steep and narrow valley near Rochester, before its final section to the sea.

Until 1746, the river was not navigable above Maidstone. Below that point each village on the river had its wharf or wharves: at Halling, Snodland, New Hythe and Aylesford. Cargoes included corn, fodder, fruit, stone and timber.

In 1746, improvements to the channel meant that barges of 40 long tons (41 t) could reach

Small craft such as canoes can sometimes travel as far as Penshurst. The stretch from Leigh to Allington is known as the Medway Navigation, and is 19 miles (31 km) in length. The Environment Agency is the navigation authority.

Estuary

Downstream of the Medway bridges (M2, HS1) the river comprises a sequence of tidal reaches:^[5]

• Wickham Reach
• Tower Reach
• Bridge Reach
• Limehouse Reach
• Chatham Reach
• Upnor Reach
• Short Reach
• Gillingham Reach
• Pinup Reach
• Long Reach
• Kethole Reach
• Saltpan Reach

Stangate Creek

One of the channels on the southern side of the estuary, Stangate Creek,^[6] is the subject of a painting by William Turner.^[7] In a location described as "opposite the Isle of Grain, Sharpfleet Creek, and the lower-end of the Hope", a quarantine site for ships was proclaimed on 16 September 1709, during an outbreak of the plague. The area had been leased to oyster fisherman, so compensation was paid to them. Nearly 150 ships quarantined there in the first six months of 1712, and the site was again used between 1721 and 1743.^[8]

In 1918 to 1920, damages were sought for damage done to an oyster fishery in Stangate Creek.^[9]

River crossings

Until recently the lowest public crossing of the Medway was at

• 1963: A viaduct over the river was built south of Rochester to carry the first section of the M2 motorway. In 2003 this was widened to two separate spans.
• Between 1963 and 1996 the M20 was built, with a bridge over the Medway south of Aylesford.
• 1996: The
  Gillingham to Strood. The four-lane tunnel was constructed using the immersed tube
  method, and was partially paid for by Rochester Bridge Trust, the successor to the Wardens and Commonalty.
• 2003: A railway bridge 0.8 miles (1.3 km) long, with a central span of 498 feet (152 m), was constructed for High Speed 1. The railway bridge lies parallel to the M2 motorway bridges.
• 2017: A new road bridge from the A228 between Holborough and Halling across to Hall Road, Wouldham, to facilitate the development of Peters Village.

Three other major crossings are at Tonbridge, where bridges carry the

The lowest crossing of the Medway are two cable tunnels between the Isle of Grain and Chetney marshes. These were built between 1973 and 1976 in anticipation of the commissioning of Grain power station. The tunnels are 1700 m long, 2.54 m in diameter and between 34 and 47 m below ordnance datum; each carries a 400kV electricity circuit.^[10] There is no public access.

Flooding

The middle section of the Medway above Tonbridge, partly because of the various tributaries entering the river in this stretch – in particular the River Eden – has always been subject to extensive

The Domesday Book records many manors in the Medway valley. Castles became a feature of the landscape, including Rochester, Allington, Leeds (near Maidstone), and West Malling.

Two military actions are named after the river: the

In the 18th century Samuel Ireland published an illustrated book about a journey up the river,^[14] to the River Bewl at Bayham Abbey. The book's map shows some of the tributaries (unnamed). The illustrations include the castles at Queenborough, Upnor, Leybourne, Tonbridge and Hever; Penshurst Place; and the bridges at Teston, Maidstone, Aylesford, East Farleigh, Barming, Branbridges and Tonbridge. The hop fields in the vicinity of the latter are also described; and the easterly River Len, which then supplied Maidstone with its piped water. The book states that Within about two miles of Tunbridge the Medway branches out into several small streams, five of which unite at the town ... having each its stone bridge.

The

The Hartlake disaster of 1853 saw the deaths of 30 hop-pickers when a wagon carrying them crashed through the side of a rotten wooden bridge at Golden Green near Hadlow, throwing its passengers into the flood-swollen river.^[15]

In 1914 HMS Bulwark exploded while moored at Kethole Reach near Sheerness, killing 741 men with only 12 survivors. The following year HMS Princess Irene exploded in Saltpan Reach with the loss of 352 lives.

In 1942 the world's first test of a submarine oil pipeline was conducted with one laid across the Medway in Operation Pluto.^[16]

Culture

The Medway's 'marriage' to the

For the 1999 film The Mummy the river was filmed at Chatham Dockyard, in an imitation of a "port at Cairo". The scene is brief but involves the main protagonists departing on their mission to the city of the dead.^{[citation needed]}

The Maidstone River Festival, to celebrate the River Medway, running annually since 1980, is held on the last Saturday of July. It features events on and around the river and attracts thousands to Kent's county town.^[17] The festival was cancelled in 2012 due to the London Olympics, but returned in 2013. However, the 2013 event did not include a funfair or a fireworks display as in previous years, and lasted just one day instead of two.^{[citation needed]}

Medway Flows Softly is a song by local man George Gilbert; it was written in the mid 1960s and is often played in local folk clubs and at festivals in Kent.^{[citation needed]}

The River Medway is featured at Maidstone in the studio backdrop of the ITV1 regional news programme

At 7.15 p.m. on 1 May each year, local Morris dancers Kettle Bridge Clogs^[18] dance across Barming Bridge (otherwise known as the Kettle Bridge) to mark the start of their Morris dancing season.

Recreationally the river is used by many. For example, individuals and many clubs have paddling trips along many different parts of the Medway (e.g. Bewl Canoe Club).

See Medway watermills, and Medway watermills on the upper tributaries, the middle tributaries and the lower tributaries for more details.

Gallery

Medway scenes:

• 
  The Medway flows through Tonbridge in many channels. The South Eastern Main Line crosses the Medway.
• 
  The Botany stream forms another channel in Tonbridge.
• 
  motte-and-bailey

  castle from 1066.
• 
  The River Medway passes Tonbridge Castle and passes under Big Bridge.
• 
  Oak Weir Lock
• 
  River Bourne enters the Medway
• 
  Sluice Weir, on the right is the lock
• 
  The sluice at Yalding
• 
  Hampstead Lane Lock, Yalding
• 
  Bow Bridge, Wateringbury
• 
  Teston Lock
• 
  Upstream from Teston Bridge
• 
  Barges moored on the Medway at Aylesford
• 
  Thamesport, from Horrid Hill, Gillingham

  .
• 
  The Grain Tower at low tide.
• 
  The mouth of the Medway, looking from Grain to Sheerness.
• 
  And into the Thames, youngsters at Grain with Southend beyond.
• 
  M2 crossing the Medway.
• 
  Isle of Grain and the Medway Estuary from the air
• 
  Allington Lock and Sluice gates

See also

• Tributaries of the River Thames
• List of rivers in England
• Rivers of Kent
• London Stones at Upnor
• Medway Navigation

References

Further reading

• Hadfield, Charles (1969). The Canals of South and South East England. Newton Abbot, UK:
  ISBN 0-7153-4693-8
  .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to River Medway.

• Map of the Medway catchment area
• Detailed navigation information Archived 24 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
• Leigh Flood Barrier page from the EA Archived 30 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
• Flood protection measures
• Medway Valley Countryside Partnership
• Early Norman Churches In and Near the Medway Valley, Rev. Grevile M. Livett, Archaeologia Cantiana, Vol. 20, Kent Archaeological Society, 1893
• Bewl Canoe Club
• BCU Website

Next confluence upstream	River Thames	Next confluence downstream
Bill Meroy Creek (north)	River Medway	–