Just missing out on the pre-Easter mini heatwave, the crowds still enjoyed some bright and breezy spring weather and with nearly 500 visiting exhibits there was much to see and enjoy.
Covering an area of nearly 80 acres, Chatham is the most complete example of an 18th century dockyard anywhere in the world. The first warship to be built here was the Sunne a five-gun pinnace launched in 1586 and she was destined to be followed by over 400 other vessels ranging from small craft to sailing ships, submarines and battleships. Notable vessels included HMS Victory and HMS Africa - the last Chatham built battleship completed in 1905 - and the introduction of the submarine with the ‘C17’ launched on August 13 1908.

One of the impressive exhibits on display at Easter was HM Submarine Ocelot which was built in Chatham and launched in May 1962 remaining in service until 1981. It returned to Chatham on 12 July 1992 for restoration and preservation and is now in one of the dry docks.

HM Submarine Ocelot returned to Chatham in 1992 for restoration and preservation and is now in one of the dry docks.

Next to Ocelot was the 1944-built HMS Cavalier which saw service in the Arctic during the Second World War and following a re-fit in 1957 remained on active duty until 1972. She was the Royal Navy’s last operational Second World War destroyer and is now preserved by the HMS Cavalier (Chatham) Trust as a memorial to the Royal Navy destroyers sunk during that war.

In marked contrast to these two modern fighting ships is HMS Gannet which is at present undergoing extensive restoration in the nearby dry dock. It is hoped that the scaffolding and covers will be removed later this year as the first stage of the work is completed and visitors will be able to get a better look at this Victorian Naval Sloop which was built in 1878 at Sheerness.
Visitors were able to watch the two industrial tank engines Ajax and Achilles working short goods trains on the remaining stub of the once-extensive dockside railway system. Loads delivered by Peter Stanier’s 1935 Leyland Hippo were transferred on to the railway wagons using the five ton Grafton steam cranes and delivered to the other end of the railway where they were unloaded and put back on to the lorry. Peter commented that the poor old Leyland, which is still in largely original condition, had seldom worked so hard!

The Chatham Historic Steam Society, which at the moment houses its collection of individually owned traction engines in No. 6 Slip, had a number of its engines in steam. The 1922 Aveling & Porter No 10271 King George looked particularly splendid with the recent addition of a new canopy and eye-catching bright green livery. The line up included several of the locally-built Aveling rollers including No. 11064 of 1924 Cestria and the later model No. 14073 produced in 1930. The steam boys enjoyed themselves as usual and in addition to the scheduled steam parade at mid-day managed to persuade organiser Bill Fowler to let them do another lap of the dockyard in the afternoon.

Commercials included a 1961 Shelvoke & Drewery Model TZ which had been delivered new to the County Borough of West Ham and fitted with a water tank to flush out the sewers. In 1965 West Ham became part of the London Borough of Newham and it was fitted with a new body and a five ton Harvey Frost Crane and painted bright yellow. Another fine looking lorry was the 1963 Foden S21 now owned by Nigel Pearson which started life as a sugar tanker with Tate & Lyle. Also well presented was the 1952 Bedford O Type OLBC originally operated by the Ministry of Supply. It was sold out of service in May 1967 and went to Jersey for a number of years. It returned to the mainland in 1983 and then lay in a field until 1987 until bought and restored by the present owner.

Among the few service vehicles was a very fine 1939 Leyland fire engine. It was originally allocated to the Dartford Borough Brigade which eventually became part of the Kent Fire Brigade. It remained at Dartford until September 1955 and was then classified as a spare machine and it attended its last incident in the Maidstone area in March 1956.
A good selection of military vehicles were also on display and several nice cameos had been set up with owners and their helpers in appropriate military uniform reflecting several different branches of the services. Among the familiar Jeeps and Land Rovers it was nice to see Dave and Nicola Ward’s well presented 1942 US Navy Chevrolet 11¼2 ton cargo-troop carrier parked on the dockside.

The wide variety of exhibits also included stationary engines, some fine scale steam models and an excellent range of motorcycles while visitors could also enjoy the permanent museum attractions including The Ropery, Commissioners Garden and the Lifeboat Collection. With so much to see I was a little disappointed in the lack of details for visiting exhibits in the programme and would hope that more information can be provided for future events. However that is only a minor point which hardly detracted from an enjoyable weekend, of which it is hoped that this will become an annual event. (See News page 29 in the magazine)

The Dockyard will be holding a variety of events during the year. For further details Tel. 01634 823807 or visit the website at www.chdt.org.uk