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Town in Kent, England
Photo: via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Rochester is a town (formerly a city) on the River Medway in the north of the English county of Kent. Together with its neighbouring towns of Chatham and Gillingham it forms a large urban area known as the Medway Towns.
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The second-oldest cathedral foundation in England, after Canterbury.
Recognised as one of the best-preserved and finest examples of Norman architecture in England, the great keep towering over the River Medway, square, massive and one of the tallest in the country, measures high, square and has walls thick in places.
Eastgate House was built in late 16th century. The garden has a Swiss chalet where Dickens used to write, moved here in the 1960s. Eastgate House appears in Dicken's books as the Nun's House in The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Westgate in Pickwick Papers. The house was built in the 1590s for the Mayor of Rochester.
House and formal garden, dating from 1454. The house in still occupied and so is only open occasionally, usually Thursday and Friday in summer. Dickens used this as the basis for Satis House in Great Expectations.
The first bridge over the Medway to Strood was built by the Romans in 43AD. The present bridge was built in 1914, with a 1970 extension, and is worth walking across to see the views of the castle. Unusually the bridge is maintained by a charity, the Rochester Bridge Trust using investments from medieval times. There is a small chapel built into the bridge (open a few days per year) which continues a tradition started in 1393.
Local history museum in a building dating from 1687.
Wetherspoon pub with reasonable bar meals. A main course and a drink is generally under £15.
Friendly pub, nice food, with quiz on Tuesday evenings.
9-room hotel attached to this Wetherspoon pub.
14-room hotel in a 17th-century building on the historic High Street. No lift. Breakfast £11 on Sa, Su only.
By train
Rochester Station (RTR) is outside Rochester High Street, on Corporation Road.
Local buses are operated by Arriva Kent and Surrey, Nu-Venture and ASD Coaches
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