Gravesend
Gravesend maps (2 available)
Map of Kent
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
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Gravesend books (26 available)
- 10 photos on Gravesend appear in 5 Frith books - View photos of Gravesend
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Gravesend and Kent
Gravesend memories
Read and share memories of Gravesend and Kent inspired by Frith photos
Milton Barracks
I arrived in Gravesend in mid 1947 as advance party to re-open "Milton Barracks".
Our first night out was a walk around King St to see what we could find.
It didn't take us long to find the pubs in Gravesend or to find the Prom. We spent a lot of time on the Prom watching the boats and the birds.
That's how I met a girl called Eileen Mockett. We were married in Milton Church on the 21 August 1948. I stayed in the town for 25 years before returning to Doncaster in Yorkshire. We still visit Gravesend but how it's changed. I'm not sure I like it now.. No Prom (as it used to be), No Ships? No ...read more here
Contributed by Verdun Lowe
The Royal Daffodil
I can still remember waiting on this pier for the 'Royal Daffodil' or the 'Royal Sovereign' during the my childhood, for our day trip up the river. We would do this trip regularly whilst on holiday with my Grandparents in Northfleet. It was one of my favourite days out. Julia (Weekes)
Contributed by Julia Banks
My First glimpse of Gravesend.
I arrived in Gravesend in 1958 on the back of my boyfriend's motorbike, we had travelled from Colchester in Essex. My father, who was in the army, had been posted to Gravesend so we all had to move. We crossed the river Thames on the Tilbury to Gravesend Ferry and so landed and rode off the ferry and up the High Street to find the house where my parents had moved into.
Contributed by Mary Back
Happy Summers
I was born and bred in Gravesend. This photo brings back many memories of summer days down the prom! We always came here with my mum. She used to leave us and our cousins in the park behind the cafe whilst they went shopping in town. We used to have a lovely time. As I got older I used to know Fort Gardens like the back of my hand and especially the concrete steps that led up to the lookout that was probably the highest point along the promenade. It was always a safe place to be and it was always warm and sunny. There were always lots of families sitting on the grass having picnics and boats going by. Also, ...read more here
Contributed by Trudie Grant
Extracts From Gravesend & Kent books
Gravesend is a busy industrial town on the
river Thames; here the river narrows to
become a London river, and coastal pilots
hand over to the river men. It has a long
history of seafaring, and fleets were assembled
here in Tudor times. Its grimy facade hides
buildings and churches of much interest. The
view from nearby Windmill Hill is spectacular.
An extract from from"Kent Photographic Memories".
We are keeping to the Kent bank of the Thames Estuary as the river reaches Gravesend, beyond the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford. The town is now greatly expanded inland, but the core of this ancient port is still recognisable around the two piers and the Georgian parish church. Here, in a view now much changed, the photographer looks east towards the town piers and jetties.
An extract from from"Down the Thames Photographic Memories".
Anchored off Gravesend is the torpedo gunboat HMS ‘Gleaner’, built at Sheerness Dockyard in 1890 and sold off in 1905; by that time the faster torpedo boat destroyer, later abbreviated to destroyer, had superceded it. Sheerness, founded in 1665, closed in 1960, and Chatham Dockyards, founded in the 16th century, in 1984, finally severing the Royal Navy’s connection with the Thames Estuary.
An extract from from"Down the Thames Photographic Memories".
By the early 1890s, the Fiume Whitehead 18-inch torpedo had a range
varying from 440 yds to about 900 yds. Close-range torpedoes could carry a
warhead of about 220 lbs of gun cotton and travel at about 32 knots; long-
range torpedoes carried a lighter warhead and at travelled at a slightly slower
speed. When the Chilean ironclad ‘Blanco Encalada’ was attacked and sunk
by two small boats armed with primitive torpedoes, the world’s navies began
at last to take the torpedo seriously. The idea that small and relatively
inexpensive, highly manoeuvrable, fast attack craft had the potential to
wreak havoc amid a squadron of very big, very slow and very expensive
ironclads, called for counter measures. One was the close-range quick-firing
gun; the other was the first-class torpedo gunboat. HMS ‘Gleaner’ cost
£63,798, and was completed at Sheerness in 1890. Displacing 735 tons, she
was armed with 1 x 4.7-inch QF and 4 x 3-pdr QFs. Her speed of 20.1 knots
meant that she could intercept most torpedo boats in service in 1890,
though by 1892 the French were already planning 30 knot attack craft.
An extract from from"Victorian and Edwardian Maritime Album".
The destroyer HMS ‘Gleaner’ is anchored out in the London river where it becomes the Thames estuary.
Gravesend was the place where those who had died at sea would be offloaded for burial in the town cemetery.
An extract from from"Kent Photographic Memories".