page_title: Chatham Dockyard
section_title: Outline history
hierarchical_section_title: Chatham Dockyard / Outline history
caption_attribution_description: Engraving of "Chatham Dockyard from Fort Pitt" from Ireland's History of Kent, Vol. 4, 1831. It appears between pages 348 and 349. Drawn by G. Sheppard, engraved by R. Roffe. [This view is taken looking northwards down the River Medway (Chatham Reach) towards the estuary. Chatham Dockyard is on right hand bank of the river. To the right of the dockyard, the elevated area is known as the Great Lines, or Chatham Lines. The built up area sunk between the Lines and the hill from which the view is taken, consists of the town of Chatham on the right, merging into the town of Rochester to the left. The spur of land from the left is Frindsbury. (Note by User:JackyR)] Camera location51°&#160;22′&#160;53.76″&#160;N, 0°&#160;31′&#160;02.64″&#160;EView this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap - Google Earth (Note by User:ClemRutter)
context_page_description: Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham.
  It came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional defences. For 414 years Chatham Royal Dockyard provided over 500 ships for the Royal Navy, and was at the forefront of shipbuilding, industrial and architectural technology. At its height, it employed over 10,000 skilled artisans and covered 400 acres. Chatham dockyard closed in 1984, and 84 acres of the Georgian dockyard is now managed as the Chatham Historic Dockyard visitor attraction by the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust.
context_section_description: The Treasurer of the Navy's accounts of the King's Exchequer for the year 1544 identifies Deptford Dockyard near London as the dockyard that carried out all the major repairs to the king's ships that year. That was soon to change (although Deptford remained a dockyard for over three centuries).
caption: Engraving of "Chatham Dockyard from Fort Pitt" from Ireland's History of Kent, Vol. 4, 1831. Facing p. 349. Drawn by G. Sheppard, engraved by R. Roffe.
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