Today we had a day out in Rochester.
We followed a circular walk,
The Rochester Trail, before visiting the
Rochester Bridge Trust and then, after lunch the Cathedral.
This was our route.
Here are some of my photos.
We had parked near the southern end of the High Street and had to walk along it to get to the start of our walk.
We were quickly reminded of the Dickens association with the area by the plaque on the 16th century
Eastgate House, which featured as "Westgate House" in The Pickwick Papers and "The Nun's House" in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, housing Miss Twinkleton's Academy for young ladies.
We didn't get time to visit the
Huguenot Museum today. We discovered later that there is no longer a Tourist Information Centre here.
We passed the North Transept entrance to the
cathedral. We would go in this way later.
We didn't visit the keep but had a walk around the grounds.
We had a good view of
Rochester Cathedral here. It is England's second oldest (after Canterbury) and was founded by Justus. The present building dates back to the work of the French monk Bishop Gundulf in 1083.
The gardens are very peaceful.
We passed the historic Kings School and continued to the impressive
Richard Watts Almshouses on Maidstone Road. Richard Watts (1529 - 1579), was a successful businessman. The charity trust bearing his name was set up in his will in 1579. The almshouses here were built by the trust in 1857.
We left the streets now for a path to and through Watts Meadow.
We climbed a path to find this view of the naval memorial on the Great Lines and houses of Chatham.
We continued along the trail. At the end of Hill Rd we could see across the Medway to some chalk cliffs.
We descended to the river by Borstal Reacreation Grounf and
Baty's Marsh.
From here we walked along the edge of the river to the Esplanade Gardens.
We went onto the pier to view the river.
That was the end of our trail, but we continued up towards the bridge. We saw this sign...
...and went in to have a look. We were surprised to find that the bridge across the River Medway here is privately owned by the
Rochester Bridge Trust. Since medieval times the Wardens and Assistants of Rochester Bridge have maintained this strategic river crossing. Built in 1387 the chapel was restored in 1937. The adjoining chambers dating from 1879 can also be visited. They are open only on Wednesdays and Saturdays between 18th September and 22nd of October this year, so we struck lucky.
We enjoyed our chat with Assistant Warden Ray Harris who told us all about it.
Dawn had remarked on how nicely the bridge and adjacent street furniture had been maintained. Now we know how!
We set off back along the High Street to find somewhere for lunch.
...as is the clock on this building. The building dates from 1706.
We settled on this delightful place for our lunch -
The Cheese Room. This was the home of Mr Tope, the chief verger of the cathedral in Dickens' Mystery of Edwin Drood and is the last building to be mentioned in the writings of Charles Dickens.
Having chosen an Oktoberfest beer, I got us a bratwurst and mustard along with our cheese board and spiced mackerel.
We finished our day trip with a visit to the
cathedral.
We bumped into this lady examining the graffiti on the pillars. She explained she was looking for
witches marks and showed us some.
Textus Roffensis is the only existing copy of the first code of English
law and was written in Rochester during the early 1120s. It has been
described as one of the most important documents in English history and
influenced the wording of Magna Carta of 1215.
The crypt also houses a tearoom.
We ended in the cathedral cloisters.
Alas we had almost run out of time on our 6 hour parking ticket, so left the cathedral just before it closed to head for our holiday home.
A great day out!
You can see more details of our 4.7 miles route around the Rochester Trail here on MapMyWalk (or download a GPX file here) and see more of my photos here on Flickr.
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