History
A Medway locality has an extended & varied history dominated originally per city of Rochester & later per naval and military establishments chiefly inside Chatham and Gilllingham.

Rochester was established per Romans, who known as it Durobrivae (meaning 'fastness per bridge'), in an Iron Age site to control the point in which Watling Street (now a A2) crossed a River Medway. A number one cathedral was buillt by Bishop Justus in 604 and was rebuilt under the Normans by Bishop Gundulf, who likewise built a castle which stands opposite the cathedral. Rochester became Medway's number one walled town. Under in the future Saxon influence the mint was established on this text.

A Royal Navy opened a dockyard during the reign of Henry VIII; it was finally closed within 1984. It was protected by a series of forts including the Outstanding Lines, Fort Amherst, Fort Pitt and Fort Borstal. A majority of surviving buildings in the Historic Dockyard are Georgian. It was on text that Britain's best known wooden combat ship HMS Victory, Admiral Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, was built and launched within 1765. Sir Francis Drake learned his seamanship on the Medway; Sir John Hawkins founded a hospital inside Chatham for seamen, & Nelson began his Navy service at Chatham at a age of Twelve. William Adams, the 1st Englishman to email Japan, was innate inside Gillingham. A flow of any stream wwhen farther protected by such fortifications as Upnor Castle which, in 1667 was inside a share successful in thwarting a Dutch raid on the dockyard. the second combat ship built at Chatham that however is is HMS Unicorn (a 46-gun "Leda" class frigate) placed down inside February 1822, & launched 30 March 1824. She never saw active service & has been restored & is presently (2005) preserved afloat around Dundee, Scotland, UK.

For the complete history of the Dockyard, including its closure around 1983, view Chatham Dockyard

A British Army also established barracks here; & a Royal Engineers headquarters is located in Gillingham.

Succeeding centuries saw the erection of numerous fine buildings like a Guildhall (now a museum) inside 1687, among a finest 17th century civic buildings inside Kent; the Corn Exchange inside 1698, originally the Butcher's Market; a little Tudor home of Watts Charity endowed by Sir Richard Watts to home 'sixer unfortunate traveller' for a single nighttime every; Satis Home & Old Hall, two visited by Queen Elizabeth I in 1573. Around Medway there are 82 scheduled ancient monuments, 832 Listed buildings and 22 conservation areas. Area of the city wall come however around grounds to believe.

One of the best known population by having a Medway connection is Charles Dickens, whose museum was located around Eastgate House inside Rochester until its closure in 2004. Louis Brennan the inventor, too sleep in Gillingham.

Medway unitary authority
Formation
Throughout a 19th century there got been proposals to join a Medway towns under one authority. By 1903 moves began to take place: that date saw a creation of the Borough of Gillingham to which, in 1928, the adjacent parish of Rainham was added. Under a Local Government Act 1972, the City of Rochester, the Borough of Chatham and Strood Rural District were amalgamated to form Medway District Council, with Gillingham remaining separate. Inside 1982 a district was renamed the City of Rochester-upon-Medway. Eventually, within 1998, Gillingham was amalgamated with a City & a whole became Medway Council. Medway applied for city status in the 2000 and 2002 competitions but was stillborn. Rochester-upon-Medway itself got been the city, however wasted this status due to an oversight in the 1998 local government reorganisation.

The authority
A Council is processed higher of 55 council member representing different wards; there are also eleven parish representatives from a supplementary rural metropolitan area of the Council area: Allhallows Cliffe and Cliffe Woods Cooling Cuxton Frindsbury Extra Halling High Halstow Hoo St Werburgh St James Isle of Grain St Mary Hoo Stoke

Demographics
People: a people of the Medway Towns is more or less 250,000 (2005) Unemployment: As a result a closure of HM Dockyard Chatham, & a sequent loss of a bit of 20,000 jobs, smashing attention was paid to unemployment numbers. Inside June 2005 local unemployment stood at Deuce.3% of the manpower, the amount of 3678 population. Numerous of a presently made use of population of 160,000 people operate outside the district - especially within London, which has many transportation links from either Medway.

Settlements in the area
Apart from either a parishes known as above, a as a consequence settlements come inside a Council locality. Around a perimeter (especially in the south) there are too numerous big estates built chiefly when WWII. Borstal Brompton Chatham Chattenden Gillingham Hempstead Luton Rochester Rainham Strood Twydall Wainscott Walderslade Wigmore