Upnor Castle

Listen first to the river. The Medway moves past these walls with a soft, constant slap against stone and mud. Gulls call overhead. At low tide the air carries the smell of salt and wet shingle. Across the water, the long brick sheds of the old Chatham Dockyard sit low on the far bank. You are standing at a fort built for one job, which was to watch this stretch of river.

Upnor Castle sits on the west bank of the Medway, a short distance downstream from Rochester. It is not a castle in the fairy-tale sense. There are no great keeps or royal halls here. It is an artillery fort, built for cannon. It was built in the reign of Elizabeth the First, from the late 1550s onward. Its purpose was very practical. It had to protect the warships that lay at anchor in this river.

Why here? By the middle of the sixteenth century, the Medway had become one of the most important anchorages of the English navy. The river is sheltered, deep enough for large ships, and close to London. Ships were laid up here between campaigns, and Chatham grew into a royal dockyard on the opposite shore. A fleet at anchor was valuable, and it was also vulnerable. The Crown wanted guns that could sweep the water in front of it.

Now look at the shape of the fort. The most important part pushes out towards the river. This is the water bastion, a pointed, triangular platform aimed straight at the channel. A bastion is a projecting gun platform. Its angled shape let gunners fire along the river in more than one direction. Behind it rises the main building, with towers at either end. The landward side is protected by a ditch and a gatehouse.

The design is usually credited to Sir Richard Lee, one of the leading military engineers of Tudor England. The fort was enlarged around the end of the sixteenth century. The gatehouse and other defences were added or strengthened at that time. Look closely at the walls and you will see a mix of materials. Pale stone sits beside red brick. That mix shows the different stages of building and repair over the centuries.

Here is a detail many visitors miss. Some of the stone used to build Upnor is said to have come from Rochester Castle, the great Norman fortress upriver. In Tudor times, older buildings were often treated as convenient quarries. So the walls in front of you may hold stones that once stood in a much older castle. One fortress was partly taken apart to build another.

For almost a century, the guns at Upnor were never truly tested. Then came June 1667. England and the Dutch Republic were at war. A Dutch fleet sailed into the Thames estuary and then up the Medway. This event is remembered as the Raid on the Medway. It was one of the worst humiliations in the history of the English navy.

The Dutch broke through a heavy chain that had been stretched across the river downstream. Then they pushed on towards the anchored English fleet. Several great warships were set on fire. Upnor's gunners fired at the attackers, and accounts say the fort did cause some damage. But it could not stop them. Shortage of men, powder and preparation all played a part. The smoke from the burning ships could be seen for miles.

The second surprise is about what the Dutch took home. They captured the English flagship, the Royal Charles, and towed it away to the Netherlands. Part of its decorated stern, a carved royal coat of arms, is still kept in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. So a piece of this river's story now hangs in a Dutch museum. Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist who worked for the navy, wrote about the panic of those days in his diary.

After the raid, everyone could see that Upnor was not enough. New and stronger forts were built further down the river, closer to the estuary. Upnor took on a quieter role. It became a gunpowder magazine and store for the navy. Barrels of powder were kept here, away from the busy dockyard. That is one reason the building survives so complete. A store was looked after, repaired and used, rather than abandoned.

The fort stayed in military hands for a very long time. As you walk through, notice how the rooms feel more like a warehouse than a palace. The spaces are plain and practical. Thick walls and small openings made sense for a building filled with gunpowder. Today the castle is cared for by English Heritage, and the displays inside tell the story of the fort and the raid.

Before you leave, take a moment in the village of Upnor itself. The single main street runs down towards the river. It is lined with old houses, many with white-painted wooden boards on the front, a style called weatherboarding that is common in Kent. Narrow and steep, the street has changed little in character. It feels like a waterside settlement that grew up beside the military.

Stand on the water bastion once more and look out across the Medway. Imagine the river crowded with tall wooden warships, their masts like a forest. Then imagine that same view in 1667, with smoke and fire on the water. Today you will more likely see small boats, mud banks and wading birds. The quiet is part of the story too.

As you walk back up through the gatehouse, listen again to the river behind you. The tide is still coming in and going out, as it did when the first gunners stood here. The walls are still facing the water, still watching the channel. They failed on their one great day... and yet they are still here, long after the ships they guarded have gone.