Historic England: Portsmouth

Historic England: Portsmouth

Medway Towns at Work

People and Industries Through the Years

Series: At Work

Publication Date15th August 2017

Book FormatPaperback

pages96

Illustrations130

Height234

Width165

A pictorial history of the working life of the Medway Towns over the last century and more.
Regular Price £15.99 Online Price: £14.39
Availability: In stock
ISBN
9781445670928

The history of the Medway Towns is synonymous with the large-scale military industrial complex that was centred on the dockyard, military barracks and various fortifications. This has, over many years, provided employment for the people of Chatham and Gillingham as well as Rainham, Rochester and Strood, along with the service industries that were part of the military-industrial complex. But the Medway Towns also had an abundance of cement and brickworks, barge makers, breweries, engineering workshops and clothing manufacturers. Among the household names were Short Brothers of Rochester, manufacturers of seaplanes and RAF bombers, while Strood was home to Aveling & Porter, whose iconic traction engines still grace steam fairs across the country. Despite this heavy industrialisation, the present-day Medway Towns, where houses and parks now stand, were also an area rich in farmland, with the former village of Luton as important for hop picking as anywhere in the county of Kent.


In a fascinating series of contemporary photographs and illustrations, combined with a well-researched commentary, this book explores the life of these five Kent towns, the nature of local employment and the impact it had upon those employed to reflect the daily life of the Medway Towns at work.

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