by Rose Mahony (Plaisterers)

To be honest, when my Phoenix Past Master husband suggested that we should sign up for the two-day trip to Rochester, I was less than enthusiastic having lived for several years in nearby Gravesend back in the 70s.
We were treated to an excellent programme devised by John Nugee, with help from Isobel Pollock Hulf. Everywhere was within a short walking distance of the railway station and the Travelodge hotel where most of us stayed. The whole tour was accessible to everyone.
Rochester is at the lowest bridging point of the river Medway, about 30 miles east-southeast of London. It has been an important hub of trade and culture since early Roman times. The Cathedral is the second oldest in England and the Castle Keep dates back to the 12th century.
On our first day we visited The Huguenot Museum, The Bridge Trust and Restoration House and the day ended with a dinner in the 14th century George Vaults beneath a local pub.
At the Huguenot Museum we were given an introductory talk and a guided tour by Tessa Murdoch who is the chairman of the Trustees and a former curator of the Museum of London. The Huguenots were French protestants who faced persecution in Catholic France, particularly after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Many of them fled from France and established communities in various parts of Europe, including England, where they were able to settle and flourish. Some lived in the Square Mile and 55 livery companies have Huguenot connections. Two members of our group, Messrs Nugee and Pearson, are able to trace their family history back to Huguenot roots.
The escape route from France was extremely dangerous as capture could result in being burned at the stake, but the refugees became clever at avoiding discovery. The museum relates the story of the Condomine family who travelled at night with their two children hiding in the panniers of a mule. An interesting item on display is a large family bible which was baked into a loaf of bread so that it would not be found by soldiers searching the house – it must have been a VERY big loaf!
The Huguenots were creative and talented people and particularly excelled in crafts such as those of the goldsmith and the weaver. Displays of silver tableware in the museum show the high standard of workmanship achieved and one notable exhibit is a silver double lipped sauceboat which was made, unusually for that time, by a woman called Anne Tanqueray in 1727-1728.
Another major exhibit is a large exquisite 18th century Dolls House which is fully furnished and was given to a lady called Sarah Lethieullier when she was two years old. (Her father was a director of the Bank of England and it is interesting to note that seven of the twenty-four founders of that Bank were Huguenots.) The house was not a toy but was used to teach Sarah how to manage a household. She learnt to respect and cherish the dolls who inhabited her house understanding the duties of the footmen, the housekeeper , the cook and the nursery maid. In this way she came to know about cooking and cleaning and the need to care for the fabric of the house including the valuable textiles and furnishings. She also learned the concept of everyone dressing appropriately according to their status. As a result, when she finally married, she was ready to carry out the tasks required of a lady.
Our next stop was at the Bridge Trust, an ancient charity that was founded in 1399.
My father was a civil engineer specialising in designing elevated motorways and bridges, but I was never remotely interested in his work. However, engineer Sue Threader who is the Bridge Master and the elected Chief Executive of the Bridge Trust brought to life the history of the bridges across the Medway from Roman times to the twenty first century.
Since medieval times the Wardens and Assistants of Rochester Bridge Trust have maintained this strategic river crossing and Sue’s storytelling and explanations were so good that everyone present acclaimed her as a highlight of the whole trip. She described to us the bridges that currently cross the river, all of which are owned by the Bridge Trust who are in complete control with no Local Authority involvement. Their primary aim is to keep the bridges open so that they can always be used. With an unofficial motto of ‘see it fix it’, work is constantly on-going to maintain both the structure and the appearance of the bridges. With a commitment to a net Zero Carbon status for its routine bridge maintenance, the Trust has reduced its carbon footprint by 88%. This has been achieved through practices such as avoiding the use of machines for tasks that can be carried out ‘by hand’.
The charity is committed to supporting engineering education and encouraging young people, especially girls, to learn more about civil engineering and bridge building. They visit local primary schools where pupils take on all the roles of the work force, including the site manager, and then are helped to build their own bridge which they are able to walk over. A previous project in Rochester Cathedral led to the building of the world’s longest interlocking bridge made out of Lego.
Scholarships are funded for particularly able pupils, whatever their background and awards are presented to civil engineers who make a special effort to share their knowledge, and support newcomers to an engineering career.
As part of this visit, we were offered a light lunch in the medieval Bridge Chapel which was built by Sir John de Cobham in 1393 and this proved to be a rare experience. Since a refurbishment in 2021 this historic building has managed to combine the features of its ancient history with modern lighting and accessibility for all. It is a wonderful building and the fact that the ploughman’s lunch and strawberries and cream were fresh local produce made this a meal to remember.
Our final visit of the day was to Restoration House and Gardens, so named because King Charles II stayed there in 1660 on his way from Dover to London where he was to be restored as King after fifteen years in exile.

It is thought that the house dates to at least 1600, but materials uncovered during renovation work go back to the 15th century. Samual Pepys makes mention of the house in his diary - he described it as ‘a pretty seat’ and made note of the fact that whilst there he “met with a young, plain, silly shopkeeper and his wife, a pretty young woman, and I did kiss her.” Charles Dickens based Satis House, the home of Miss Haversham in ‘Great Expectations’ on Restoration House.

We were very lucky that we visited on a sunny summer’s day because the gardens could be seen at their best. What we were able to see is based on detective work by historians and archaeologists who uncovered Tudor brick walls and evidence of terraces. Work is still on-going, creating a series of gardens with a renaissance flavour. There are beautifully designed flower beds, water cannons shooting into turreted rills, statues and potted citrus plants and lots of little staircases, nooks and crannies which make exploring a joy.
Every good Phoenix and Firebirds trip needs a dinner and this one was no exception. It was, of course, held in a very historical place – The George Vaults on Rochester High Street. This was once a church, then became an Inn and is now part of a contemporary Brasserie wine bar. To get to our dining area we had to walk through crowds of young people who were heading to the Castle for a music festival. They were noisy and dressed to kill - a bit like ourselves!

My name placement bore the words ‘goat, cod , pavlova’, which is exactly what I got and proved to be very tasty. There was plenty of wine and lots of animated conversation which echoed round the enormous vaults.
An excellent way to end an excellent day – to quote Samuel Pepys again “and so to bed”.
Walking tours round the city centre had been arranged for the next day. There were two options, the first a relatively gentle stroll and the second an even more leisurely amble. I joined the amblers group which was led by a very knowledgeable and extremely patient guide.

It was a slightly cooler but sunny morning, just perfect for sightseeing and Rochester really has a lot of sights to see. We were unable to enter the cathedral because it was being used for of an end of term service by the local grammar school (that is on my list for the next visit). As we ambled along, we were passed by line after line of pupils all dressed the same in their school uniform and walking silently in single file towards the cathedral. We must have passed hundreds of boys and girls and not heard a sound apart from their footsteps – impressive!

Unfortunately the Castle was closed to us because of the music festival being held there. In 1215 King John laid siege to remove rebel barons from the castle and although the defences proved to be very effective, he eventually sent out an order to the local area asking for 40 pigs. These were then burnt and their fat was used to fire a mine under the Keep which brought its southern corner crashing down. The defenders held on as long as they could but they were starving and the smell of roast pork along with the collapse of part of the castle eventually led to their defeat.

Living in the neighbouring town of Chatham as a chjild, Charles Dickens would have known Rochester very well. It features more in his work than any other city apart from London and is identifiable as Cloisterham which is featured in ‘The History of Edwin Drood’.

At the end of our tour we passed Eastgate House, a Grade I listed Elizabethan town house which featured as Westgate in the Pickwick Papers and in the grounds was, what was to me, the most exciting place of all. Known as The Swiss Chalet, it is a two-storey building which was sent to Dickens by a French actor called Charles Fechter, arriving on Christmas Eve 1864 In ninety-four pieces. Dickens attempted to construct the chalet with the help of some friends but failed disastrously – we’ve all been there! Eventually, he enlisted the help of the carpenter form the Lyceum theatre in London to help him. It was erected across the road from his house in Gads Hill and it was in this retreat that he wrote many of his best-known novels. He was working in it on Edwin Drood the day he died. The chalet was moved to Eastgate gardens in 1960. Unfortunately, it is not safe to visit but just looking at it and thinking of the works of genius that were written in there, was a wonderful way to end our walk and our visit to Rochester.