Lower Upnor and
Upper Upnor are two small villages in
MedwayMedway is a conurbation and unitary authority in South East England. The Unitary Authority was formed in 1998 when the City of Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with Gillingham Borough Council to form Medway Council, a unitary authority independent of Kent County Council, though still within the...
,
KentKent , originally Cantia, is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the River Thames estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. They are in the parish of
Frindsbury ExtraFrindsbury Extra is a civil parish on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent, England. It is conjoined to Strood to the south west, is bounded by Cliffe and Cliffe Woods to the north, Hoo to the east, and the River Medway to the south....
on the western bank of the
River MedwayThe River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....
. Today it is mainly residential and a centre for small craft moored in the river, but
Upnor CastleUpnor Castle is an Elizabethan artillery fort located in the village of Upnor, Kent, England. Its purpose was to defend ships moored "in ordinary" on the River Medway outside Chatham dockyards....
is a preserved monument, part of the river defences from the sixteenth century.
Origins
Upnor meant "at the bank" being "æt þæm ōre" in Old English and "atten ore" in Middle English and "atte Nore" in 1292. However then the meaning changed to "Upon the bank" Middle English "uppan ore" and by 1374 it was "Upnore".
A skeleton of a
Straight-tusked ElephantThe Straight-tusked Elephant is an extinct species of elephant closely related to the living Asian Elephant. It inhabited Europe during the Middle and Late Pleistocene . Some experts regard the smaller Asian species E...
was excavated in 1911, during the construction of Royal Engineer's Upnor Hard.
Upper Upnor
Upper Upnor comprises a village street leading to
Upnor CastleUpnor Castle is an Elizabethan artillery fort located in the village of Upnor, Kent, England. Its purpose was to defend ships moored "in ordinary" on the River Medway outside Chatham dockyards....
, including many houses which are finished in Kentish
weatherboardingWeatherboarding is the cladding or ‘siding’ of a house consisting of long thin timber boards that overlap one another, either vertically or horizontally on the outside of the wall. They are usually of rectangular section with parallel sides...
; as well as some terraced streets formerly used by the MOD and also Castle Street. It is on Chatham Reach directly opposite St Mary's Creek.
Though
Upnor CastleUpnor Castle is an Elizabethan artillery fort located in the village of Upnor, Kent, England. Its purpose was to defend ships moored "in ordinary" on the River Medway outside Chatham dockyards....
only was effective for about 100 years (1559-1667), it was retained as a magazine and ammunition store until the end of the First World War. The Royal Engineers still have a presence at Lower Upnor.
Lower Upnor
Lower Upnor faces Upnor Reach. It was a single row of housing separated from the river by the roadway, and the hard. It here that one finds the Arethusa training centre run by the Shaftesbury Homes. In living memory the
Arethusa- Mythology :* Arethusa, a nereid nymph who became a fountain.* Arethusa, a hesperid nymph.- Places :* Arethusa name of ancient fountains in Chalcis, Ithaca , Leucas, Elis, Smyrna and Sicily.* Arethusa ,an ancient city in Mygdonia of ancient Macedonia....
was also the name to the training ship moored parallel to the shore. The society had moored a training ship here for over 105 years. The first was the Chichester, but after than all the ships have been called Arethusa. The Last Arethusa was the
PekingThe Peking is a steel-hulled four-masted barque — the sister ship to the Passat. A so-called Flying P-Liner of the German company F...
, one of the R.F Laeisz's
Flying P-LinerThe Flying P-Liners were the sailing ships of the German shipping company F. Laeisz of Hamburg.The company was founded in 1824 by Ferdinand Laeisz as a hat manufacturing company. He was quite successful and distributed his hats even in South America...
4 masted barques built in 1911, and acquired after 1918 as war reparations. She was sold in 1975 to the
South Street SeaportThe South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located where Fulton Street meets the East River, and adjacent to the Financial District. The Seaport is usually considered a historical district, distinct from the neighboring Financial District...
Museum in New York.
In recent times extra housing has been built behind this street, exploiting the land exposed by quarrying the steep the hillside that leads to Hoo Common.
Lower Upnor is also the home of two Yacht / Sailing Clubs:- Medway Yacht Club (founded 1880) who purchased land in Lower Upnor in 1948, now comprising of approx 14 acres. Upnor Sailing Club was formed in the last 1960's and they moved into their present Club House (formed from renovating three existing traditional riverfront cottages) is the 1980's.
London Stones
The London Stones are in Lower Upnor on the shoreline. They mark the limit of the charter rights of
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
fishermen. The older stone is dated 1204.
Industry
Like other parts of
FrindsburyFrindsbury is part of the Medway Towns conurbation in Kent, southern England. It lies on the opposite side of the River Medway to Rochester, and at various times in its history has been considered fully or partially part of the City of Rochester. Frindsbury refers to both a parish and a manor....
, chalk has been extracted, high quality moulding sand has been taken from a pit near the Church, and William Burgess Little built 25 five barges at his yard between 1843 and 1871. The first was the Sarah Little and the last called W.B.Little Finish. James Little built 3 barges here in 1891,1893 and 1895.
A Potter's Kiln can be seen on an 1830 watercolour by Susan Twopeny, now in Rochester Guildhall Museum.
The Church
The ecclesiastical parish of Upnor split from
FrindsburyFrindsbury is part of the Medway Towns conurbation in Kent, southern England. It lies on the opposite side of the River Medway to Rochester, and at various times in its history has been considered fully or partially part of the City of Rochester. Frindsbury refers to both a parish and a manor....
in 1884 and was reabsorbed in 1955. The parish church of St Philip and St James (1884)was designed by Ewan Christian RIBA (1814-1895). It is virtually unaltered
.
The Military Railway
The army used this area to train a railway engineering force. They built a standard gauge railway from
ChattendenChattenden is a small village in Hoo Parish, in Medway in Kent, UK. It lies to the north of the A228 and the village of Wainscott, at the top of Four Elms Hill.Chattenden means 'Forest Settlement' from the elements ceto and ham dun...
to Upnor 1872-3. It was abandoned before 1881, and a gauge line was built in 1885
or by the 8th(Railway) Company R.E. in 1898
One branch went to Lower Upnor, and the other to the camp by Tower Hill. This line was used to supply armaments from
ChattendenChattenden is a small village in Hoo Parish, in Medway in Kent, UK. It lies to the north of the A228 and the village of Wainscott, at the top of Four Elms Hill.Chattenden means 'Forest Settlement' from the elements ceto and ham dun...
, the Lodge Hill Ammunition Depot and the standard gauge at Sharnal Street, to the Warships and the Upnor Magazine. The service closed on 19 May 1961.
In 1965-1967, the
Royal EngineersThe Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army. It provides combat engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces...
converted the route from Lower Upnor to Chattenden into a road including building a new bridge over Four Elms Hill (the main road through Chattenden village). With great originality they named it Upchat Road.
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