About the CDHS

The society was founded in 1980 by a group of Dockyard men dedicated to perpetuating the history and work of the Chatham Naval Dockyard.

By the time that the dockyard closed in 1984 they had created a museum of dockyard and naval artefacts in the old lead and paint mill. They were lecturing and undertaking research for visitors and members of the public who wrote in seeking information about relatives who had worked in the yard or served in the Royal Navy.

Pictured above is our Patron, Countess Mountbatten of Burma.

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Selected Events in the Chronology of Chatham Dockyard

1512 River Medway used as anchorage for the Kings Ships
1549 Land hired from Thomas Derkyn of Gillingham for mast pond
1550 All ships to be laid up at Gillingham
1559 Upnor Castle building started
1567 Anchorage renamed: Chatham
1570 Mast pond, storehouse and forge built. Hill House furnished for Admiralty use.
1571 Matthew Baker appointed first Master Shipwright sand Principal Officer
1584 Grounding or graving place built
1586 The SUNNE, a pinnace of 56 tons, 50ftx13ft, 5 guns launched and SEVEN STARS, a galley of 140 tons building, both on Sunne Hard
1619 New dry dock built with wharves and crane
1621 Ropery built
1667 Dutch Raid on Medway, 8 British ships sunk, 7 burned, 2 captured
1675 Experimental catamaran built
1685 Dockyard modernised with 2 dry docks and 21 storehouses
1668-98 30 ships built
1695 Experimental ship with man-powered side paddles built
1698 Yacht built for Peter the Great of Russia
1700-25 New dockyard obliterated old, wooden buildings replaced with brick
1704 Commissioners House built
1708 First Naval Superintendent appointed
1753-58 Mast Houses and Mould Loft built
1759-65 VICTORY building at site of present No 2 Dock
1770 Nelson joins his first ship at Chatham
1786 Present Ropery built on site of earlier building
1800-03 VICTORY rebuilt
1810 Marc Brunel steam power sawmill built
1817-23 John Dickens (father of novelist Charles Dickens) clerk in Pay Office
1819 Lead and Paint Mill (home of CDHS 1986-2001) built
1829 PENELOPE 5th Rate converted into Chathams first steam-driven paddle frigate, followed by PHOENIX in 1832, a paddle sloop
1843 First Dockyard Technical School at Chatham opened
1846 TEAZER, Chathams first screw vessel built
1856 First Engineer Officer/Manager appointed
1862 Victorian extension started adding 380 acres to Chathams existing 97 acres
1863 ACHILLES world?s largest ship, an ironclad battleship at 6039 tons
1864-85 St Marys Island extensions, 3 fitting out basins and 5 dry docks built
1875 Master Shipwright renamed Chief Constructor
1903 Electrical Engineering Department formed
1905 New departmental names: MCD, MED, EED. AFRICA, Chatham?s last battleship, of 16350 tons built
1908 Secret launch of submarine C17
1914-18 WWI: 16 ships built, including 3 cruisers and 12 submarines
1934-39 ARETHUSA and EURYALUS, Chathams last cruisers launched
1939-45 WWII: 16 ships built, including 11 submarines and 2 floating docks
1944 340 ships were refitted or repaired
1957-66 6 "O" Class submarines built, including OCELOT the last submarine for the Royal Navy
1966 RCNS OKANAGAN launched from No 7 Slip, the last of 57 submarines built at Chatham
1968 Nuclear submarine complex opened
1981 Closure of Chatham Dockyard announced
1984 Formal closure of HM Royal Naval Dockyard, Chatham.

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Last Revised ~ 11 March 2008