The road from London to Canterbury (and Dover, and thereby continental Europe) has long been one of the most important in the country. But midway is a mighty natural obstacle, the tidal River Medway, so a bridge to span the estuary has long been needed too. The Romans built the first in AD43, a flat deck supported on nine stone piers, confirming the crossing's strategic importance. An eleven-arched replacement followed in 1399 and this has been so successful financially that it's been able to fund, support and maintain multiple subsequent crossings ever since. If only all public services were financed by medieval wardens our infrastructure might be in a much better state.
Medway crossings owned by the Rochester Bridge Trust 1856:The Old Bridge (cast iron, three spans, used by westbound traffic) 1970: The New Bridge (box girder, three spans, used by eastbound traffic) Also: Service Bridge (between the two, carrying water, gas and telecoms)
Medway crossings not owned by the Rochester Bridge Trust 1891: Railway bridge (built to link Strood to Rochester and Chatham) 1963: Motorway Bridge (a mile upstream, carries the M2) 1996:Medway Tunnel (a mile downstream, carries the A289) 2003: Railway Bridge (built for HS1, alongside the M2 bridge)
The Rochester Bridge Trust run their affairs from a suite of heritage buildings on the Esplanade, not far from the foot of Castle Hill. These include the medieval Bridge Chapel, which has recently been restored, and the 19th century Bridge Chamber upstairs where important meetings are held. Previously you could only visit a few days a year but in February they started opening a couple of days a week, ostensibly to show off the chapel and some exhibition boards they've created. Visiting hours start at 11am, officially, but if you're very lucky they'll open the door a few minutes early and one of the wardens will beckon you inside.
The chapel's tall and thin and was once used by pilgrims on the way to Canterbury and other pious travellers. Alas it just missed Chaucer because his book of Tales was written during the gap between the Roman bridge being washed away in winter storms and its arched replacement being built, so I suspect his pilgrims were forced to use a ferry instead*. The chapel boasts oak-panelling, stained glass, royal shields and a wonderfully ripply wooden table, all of which is essentially a 1937 refurb of what by then was a roofless ruin. Look interested enough and the guide will point out the tiny mice carved into one leg of the table and two of the chairs (or just look yourself to see which ones are tied with a red ribbon).
* The only mention of Rochester in the Canterbury Tales is "Lo rouchestre stant heere faste by" in the prologue to the Monk's Tale, "Ryde forth myn owene lord".
I was led upstairs by a chatty warden, one of twelve nominated to this voluntary unpaid role, in whose hands all things Rochester Bridge rest. He pointed out his name on one of the boards, near the end of an impressive unbroken sequence going all the way back to Sir John de Cobham and Sir Robert Knollys in the 1390s. I then got the full spiel in the Bridge Chamber including who the waxwork was, how often meetings take place, which 18th century chairs you can't sit on, how recently the clocks had been repaired and (if you look out of the window) where the other end of the bridge had been. I could just have walked round and read the information boards but uncorked enthusiasm from a fully-invested guide always delivers a better experience.
On the way back down I was given a demonstration of the new lift. At the press of a button the stone staircase sequentially collapses to form a horizontal platform upon which a wheelchair could be raised, and all with perfect grouting so you might never spot the break in the tiling which makes this possible. It's both beautiful and functional, ditto the underfloor heating in the chapel which avoids installing unsightly radiators (so that a handful of winter meetings can be held in relative comfort). And all because whenever the Rochester Bridge Trust do anything they still have the money to do it properly.
It's extraordinary how a financial warchest established seven centuries ago, through careful investment and compound interest, is able to maintain a key modern river crossing and still have cash to spare. The Trust fund scholarships, support training programmes, enable archaeological digs, fund STEM clubs, launch study centres, assist sea scouts, contribute to the restoration of church spires and support the construction of other bridges in the wider area, amongst many other good works. They even paid £5m towards the construction of the Medway Tunnel, and maintained it for twelve years, and sold it to Medway Council for £1, and contributed another £3.5m for future costs, that's how bottomlessly wealthy they are.
It's all there in the motto on their coat of arms, “Publica Privatis”, which describes how the Trust uses its own private money to pay for services to the public. I'd say they're a bit like the Rochester version of the City of London Corporation, but a lot more welcoming and approachable, should you be fortunate enough to be in town when they're actually open**.
** Thursdays and Saturdays, 11am-4pm, 2nd Feb - 3rd Jun, (but not May 6th), admission free
n.b. There are umpteen other things to do in Rochester, even when the Sweeps Festival isn't on, which is just as well because 'Bridge Heritage Quarter' won't fill more than half an hour. Rochester Cathedral has a much longer wooden table, apparently the longest in the country, 13m of Fenland black oak, plus all the things a cathedral normally has (other than a massive nave and a haughty vibe). Rochester Castle is also very early Norman and essentially a lofty shell but with wonderful twisty staircases and narrow walkways, so quite the heritage climbing frame. The Guildhall is excellent value for a free museum, they've done some good work with mirrors for the three-storey Hulks section, plus I bet they're regretting asking Camilla to open the gloomy Charles Dickens exhibition last year when she was merely Duchess of Cornwall. The town's Visitor Centre and Art Gallery is new since last time I was in town but it's mostly corridor, a hoover to suck you up from the station to the high street. Baggins Books is a marvellous and enormous second hand book store, all weaving staircases and overflowing departments from Travel to Esoteric and Sci-Fi to Military History, so almost impossibly comprehensive. I could go on but Londonist has a full list of Rochester attractions so why duplicate it, plus what I actually did was walk to Chatham, it's not as far as you think, the high street just gradually morphs from one town to the other. I'll save writing a full post on Fort Amherst for another day but you can almost see Rochester Bridge from up there so that's brought us full circle.
