Moored at Gillingham Pier, there’s a boat which has an astonishing history: the paddle steamer the Medway Queen. In the 1920s and 30s she transported thousands of holidaymakers from the Medway towns for day trips to resorts like Sheerness and Margate, Clacton and Southend. But when the Second World War came she was transformed into a minesweeper, and then in 1940 crisscrossed the Channel to Dunkirk seven times in seven days, saving over 7000 Allied troops, becoming one of the stars of the flotilla of Little Ships.

In this episode we talk to Alan Cook, whose grandfather was the captain on those perilous Dunkirk crossings, and meet the inspirational volunteers of the Medway Queen Preservation Society, who from the 1980s have worked tirelessly to turn the wreck she had become into the gloriously renovated boat we can visit today. And during the celebrations on the actual day of her 100th birthday we hear from Admiral Lord West and ask, Will the Medway Queen ever be able to head back into open waters under her own steam?

Find out how you can visit this historic, heroic paddle steamer at https://www.medwayqueen.co.uk/

With thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.uk

We Did it Medway is presented by Rob Flood and Philip Dodd. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper of Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.

The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Medway is definitely Dickens country - we’re proud of the fact he grew up in Chatham as a boy, used the money from his novels to buy his house Gad’s Hill over in Higham, and drew huge inspiration from the people, the buildings and the stories of Rochester in particular, as well as the other Medway towns.

In this episode we find out all about his love of acting, and why he went on the road in later life performing extracts from his most famous works, including A Christmas Carol and the murder of Nancy by Bill Sykes - usually fortified by a cocktail of booze and raw eggs we really don’t recommend. And we explore the truth behind his relationship with Rochester-born actress Nelly Ternan.

We recorded the session live in the delightfully idiosyncratic Deaf Cat café down on Rochester High Street (it’s named after one of Dickens’ pets) with three incredibly informed and passionate experts. This is a bumper edition - 50 minutes of auditory pleasure!

Emma Harper is Curator at the Charles Dickens Museum in London https://dickensmuseum.com/

You can hear more from her on their podcast Inimitable: Uncovering Charles Dickens

Dr Jeremy Clarke is Education Office at the Guildhall Museum Rochester

Visiting times and more information at https://www.medway.gov.uk/directory_record/671/the_guildhall_museum

John O'Connor performs regularly as Charles Dickens.

Find his next performance at http://europeanarts.co.uk/

With thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.uk

We Did it Medway is presented by Rob Flood and Philip Dodd. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper of Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.

The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every week, local football teams play at Strood Leisure Centre on pitches called ‘Messi’, ‘Pochettino’ and ‘Batistuta’ - but do they know why? In this episode we’re telling the story of Isaac Newell, a Strood lad who left Medway as a teenager in the 1860s for far-off Argentina, taking the beautiful game with him. The team he inspired, Newell’s Old Boys, has nurtured some of the very best footballing talent of all time..

Joining us to talk about Isaac Newell’s impact and his fame in Argentina and beyond are the ‘Legendinho’ himself, the BBC’s South American football correspondent Tim Vickery - co-host of 5 Live's World Football Phone-in - and local football fan and tireless campaigner, Adrian Pope.

Find out more about the campaign to raise a statue to Isaac Newell in Strood on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064806066148

With thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.uk

We Did it Medway is presented by Philip Dodd and Rob Flood. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper of Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.

The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.