Two locations for this episode: first we’re at the Watts Almshouses on Maidstone Road in Rochester, for a round table discussion about the heritage of charity in Medway.

We’re joined by Martin Sissons, CEO of the Watts Charity, which is nearly 450 years old and still as relevant and needed as ever. We’re also with Janet Fischer, Chief Executive of Live Music Now, which brings music to vulnerable communities, and John Portman, who is an award-winning organiser of many different activities designed to help those with dementia.

Then we head out on the streets with Neil and Tracy Charlick of the Gillingham Street Angels at their weekly community kitchen, on the ground on a very windy afternoon! It’s charity in the raw.

Richard Watts Charities Almshouses https://www.richardwatts.org.uk/

An open day is being held at Watts Almshouses on Saturday, September 14. Find more information here: https://www.richardwatts.org.uk/copy-of-july-2023

Live Music Now website https://www.livemusicnow.org.uk/

For more information about Rochester Dementia Cafe visit https://www.medway.gov.uk/directory_record/279279/rochester_dementia_memory_cafe

Gillingham Street Angels https://www.thestreet-angels.org/

If you would like to volunteer to support any of the charities you’ve heard about in this episode. Please click the relevant link and contact them. They are always looking for new people to join their teams.

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.

A highlight for both of us: a wonderful long May Bank Holiday weekend enjoying the wealth of music, tradition and fun that the Sweeps Festival brings to Rochester every year, with morris dancing ‘sides’ descending to perform all along the High Street and up in the Castle Grounds.

Around all that centuries-old tradition there’s also a booming world music/folk/roots festival in venues across Rochester. This year we loved the French Celtic energy of Sur Les Docks and local legends the Singing Loins at the Rising Sun, as well as the Balkan gypsy folk of Balamuc, and Staggered Ray (featuring Chris Weller and Rob Shepherd from our pod jingle).

The Sweeps Festival was part of Rochester life for centuries - celebrated by Charles Dickens - until common sense and health & safety stopped chimney sweeps sending young boys up chimneys… In the early 1980s it was Gordon Newton who began the renaissance of the Festival and has overseen it grow and grow to become a central plank of Rochester culture and music. Gordon tells us the whole story, and throws in a bit of melodeon playing to boot.

So join us out on the streets of Rochester, chatting to musicians and Morris dancers to capture the flavour of the whole event. How SWEEP is YOUR love?!!

Medway Council Rochester Sweeps Festival page https://www.medway.gov.uk/sweepsfestival

Sweeps Festival Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RochesterSweepsFestival/

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.

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.

Join us this week down on Rochester Esplanade at the Suffrage Sensory Garden.

Created in honour of local Suffragist leader Vera Conway Gordon, it celebrates her campaign to get women the vote over 100 years ago. Natalie Poulton, the driving force behind the garden, is passionate about Vera’s life and her legacy in Medway.

But women still face challenges in politics today. We also speak to the two leading female candidates for Rochester and Strood in the upcoming General Election: Kelly Tolhurst former MP (Conservative) and her Labour opponent Lauren Edwards. It’s refreshing to hear Lauren and Kelly join together as women in politics, rather than slugging it out over immigration, inflation or the NHS.

Visit the Suffrage Sensory Garden on Rochester Esplanade, or join their Facebook page www.facebook.com/SuffrageSensoryGarden

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

Follow the We Did It Medway Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558961044581

We Did it Medway is presented by Rob Flood and Philip Dodd. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper for 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.

We Did It Medway is a bright, quirky, respectfully irreverent podcast, celebrating the best of Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham... and not forgetting Rainham. Or come to that the Peninsula.

Each episode takes a fresh look at – and listen to – the rich culture, history and character of Medway.

Discover more about Strood's connection to Argentinian football with BBC Sports South American football expert Tim Vickery, listen in as a panel of Dickens experts discuss his final days and hear more about how Medway women paved the way for the Towns' female MPs.

The first episode of We Did It Medway will be available Mid-June so follow the show now now to make sure you don't miss it!

Hosted by Rob Flood And Philip Dodd.

Find us on Facebook @WediditMedway

Produced by Big Tent Media and Emily Crosby Media

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