Chatham Historic Dockyard

[RobWilson]

Hi Lads

Have any of you lot been to Chatham Historic Dockyard , any good/worth a visit ?   



Rob

[Pete.]

Not in many a year. My dad rescued some rolling stock from there in the 80's and helped set up a volunteer steam railway. The whole area has been re-developed and I'm told it makes for a nice day out.

[Arbalist]

Been quite a number of years since I went there but yes, it was a good day out. I'd like to go again to be honest but I've moved a lot of miles further west since I last went so it's quite a distance now.

[smiffy]

I have not been for some years but the rope making shed is well worth a visit Mike

[awemawson]

Yes it's very much worth a visit - about £15 an adult according to  my Brickie who went there on Sunday. Lots to see - the most impressive  bit to me is the huge wooden shed where ships used to be built - but the rope walk must come a close second. Usually loads of things going on there as well.

Eons ago I used to occasionally work there when it was operational. The Royal Naval Stores were controlled by our computers, there, and also Rosyth, Portsmouth and Devonport.

[RobWilson]

Thanks for the replies Lads  , I will stick a visit on to my to do list for later on this year    ,wile on a nautical thyme I must get to see the SS Great Britain as well  sometime .

But a sure thing for this summer will be a visit to  Crossness Pumping Station http://www.crossness.org.uk/  .


Cheers Rob

[John Rudd]

wile on a nautical thyme I must get to see the SS Great Britain as well  sometime

Cheers Rob

I've visited the SS Great Britain.....Well worth seeing, the propellor is a sight......

If ever you get the chance visit the Belfast dockyard too, where the Titanic was built....the dry dock is really eerie....

[RobWilson]

Cheers John , That is another place to visit added to the list   

On the way over to Ireland I could stop off at the Isle of Man and have a butchers at the Laxey Wheel .



Rob

[awemawson]

By total chance (Travelling Cornwall to Monmouth) I was in Bristol the day SS Gt Britain came 'home' to her original dry dock on the back of a massive barge affair all the way from the Falklands, where she'd been beached for years as a coal bunker for passing ships. She was in a very sorry state, de-masted with much planking missing. It was a very moving thing to watch - I arrived very late in Monmouth !!!) That was 1970 according to my Googling just now.

http://www.ssgreatbritain.org/story/incredible-journey

Since then I've visited several times, slowly seeing her re-birth.

[Pete.]

Thanks for the replies Lads  , I will stick a visit on to my to do list for later on this year    ,wile on a nautical thyme I must get to see the SS Great Britain as well  sometime .

But a sure thing for this summer will be a visit to  Crossness Pumping Station http://www.crossness.org.uk/  .


Cheers Rob

I worked at Crossness a few times last year - not on the historic building but on the state-of-the-art SPG plant where they burn cake to make electricity. It's one of the most gadawful stinky places I've ever had to work at and I had to wear a personal HS monitor (hydrogen sulphide) at all times.

Funny thing you might see there are several derelict concrete boxes that look like a crash-landed TARDIS dotted about the site. I never got the chance to ask what they used to be used for but it looks for all the world that Dr Who picked a bad spot to land then decided to abandon his craft because of the smell

[Will_D]

The Royal Naval Stores were controlled by our computers, there, and also Rosyth, Portsmouth and Devonport.

Does that mean ICL?

[awemawson]

The Royal Naval Stores were controlled by our computers, there, and also Rosyth, Portsmouth and Devonport.

Does that mean ICL?

No, Ferranti Argus 700. (however the ICL 1900 was the Ferranti Argus 500 architecture in a different physical format when the combination of Ferranti intellectual property, ICT staff and government money formed ICL when ICT were going down the pan)

[Eugene]

I visited Chatham about ten years ago. I went down to the Local Authority to do a presentation / selling job that was scheduled for an all day session and got the order in about twenty five minutes; exit left smartly!

It's an all day job and so not in my opinion a suitable trip out for those who might not be seriously interested, they'd get bored pretty quickly. The rope walk and lofting shed are teriffic, but the highlight for me was the submarine HMS Ocelot. Seriously engineered.

Eug

[John Rudd]

No, Ferranti Argus 700.

Oh that takes me back to the eighties.....worked on an Argus system when I was at the Barrow gas terminal......strange how it was octal based....well to me anyway....