Medway Monday – 4 February 2013

As I touched upon in my recent post on the initial Bloggle event, we are now having a weekly Medway Monday blogging extravaganza – well, okay, it probably won't be quite that big, but I think it will develop into something a little bit special with its own character, over time.

The idea is to post something about Medway every Monday  whether it be a photograph, a story, a video or even just a rant.

I am starting off with a couple of photos of mine of Grange pubs, because they are unusual and I think merit another airing by themselves, rather than merely as one part of a twenty-plus images Walkabout post, which is where these images first appeared a while back.

First, here's the fairly recently refurbished The Barge, which looks really good nowadays after its decline into neglect and tattiness in recent years...

The other Grange pub' to feature here today is The Ship Inn, which seems to be almost 'floating' in the road, just like a real ship floats in the sea....

 It is no secret that I have a greal affection for this part of Gillingham; and those who have seen me on my Walkabouts there will no doubt have noticed by continual beaming smile all the time I am there. That isn't fake: it's genuine.

My 'feel' for places in general is now more widely known than it was as recently as just a few years ago, and Grange has that feel of somewhere a little bit special, tucked away in an area that one wouldn't necessarily think had any great merit. Grange has merit; and these two pubs – along with the wonderful church and its grounds, and that lovely shop along the 176 'bus route – exemplify its character perhaps better than any other individual components parts of the community.

So, if you happen to be in the area, and spot an almost childishly beaming fellow with an Olympus digital camera, that'll almost certainly be me!

Gillingham People

After the success of the Rochester People community resource site, an equivalent for Gillingham has now been started, called (naturally enough) Gillingham People. I have bookmarked the site and am adding it to the relevant section of my blogroll.

They have also recently started tweeting (though under the name @gillinghamlocal, for some reason), and I am of course following that feed as well. I suggest that anyone reading this who has any interest in or connection with Gillingham in Medway, Kent does likewise with both the website and (if you are on Twitter) that feed also.

Grange Walkabout 2012

Reckoning that yesterday's problems couldn't really recur so soon as the day after, I decided to revisit Grange in Gillingham – this time with a camera, as I had promised myself. Thus, as with Hillyfields yesterday, this is primarily a photo-essay with a little explanation here and there.

I decided to model the walkabout on last year's first visit, but not copy the route. Indeed, although I went over much of the same ground, I made a point of taking alternative paths and exploring places I had spotted last time. There was also a place outside of Grange, across the main road, which I shall cover separately.

Here's my start point, just around the corner from the route 176 'bus stop where I arrived...

Not just the church, but the extensive grounds as well, comprising a park-like greenspace  with a children's play area, and some of the monuments are spaced around this area...

In one corner to the north is an exit to Layfield Road...

This leads to The Barge public house, which is looking much better these days than when the Google camera car went down there, as these 'then and now' images (the former from Google Street View) show...

Just around the corner in Court Lodge Road, partly sunken into the ground and overlooking the main road from its elevated location is The Ship Inn...

 It is so much more peaceful up there than down on the often (but not always!) busy main road...

Heading back into Grange itself, Court Lodge Road takes one along the eastern side of the churchyard-cum-park,  arriving at this corner shop at the junction with Grange Road. It's one of those shops of this kind that just seem to be appropriate in their location, somehow...

Turning left past the shop entrance and continuing on a short way, one comes across this unusual scene of the road passing above a cul-de-sac below, which can be accessed by one of two ramps. This is Dial Road...

Note that the solar panels in the roof of that house (and there are more in the roof's front) weren't there when the Google car snapped the scene, so they are a fairly recent addition.

One of my favourite features of Grange is the 'village stores' shop a little further along the top road. Again, it just works there and that place would definitely be missing something without it...

At this point I decided that I had done enough for today and headed back on the next (frequent!) 176 'bus from a stop back toward the Premier corner shop pictured above. I had gone down a number of other roads and checked out a close or two, but there was nothing really photo-worthy from any of that.

I still very much like this whole area, and was so pleased to be back there, especially on a brilliantly sunny day. I was beaming almost non-stop!

Hillyfields Walkabout

I was determined to go for a walkabout to and around Hillyfields Country Park in Gillingham today – and despite a series of obstacles, I actually managed to achieve this.

First, I was held up by a series of tweet to-ing and fro-ing with Medway Labour's Tristan Osborne regarding my previous-but-one post here.

Then, the 'bus I was on made a poor turn at the hospital turn-off from Rock Avenue and scuppered its suspension. After limping along (and juddering over rough bits) as far as St Mark's Church, the driver realised he had a real problem and that was the end of that. The vehicle was left there for at least two hours.

As I looked up when exiting the 'bus, I saw that the sky was much more 'dodgy' weather-wise than even the most recent forecast for the area had indicated, just a few hours earlier.

It was beginning to look as though my planned trip out was jinxed...

Yes, it is what I call a "Puff-Pack" after its licence number – in this case, it was Puff-Pack 272. Poor old thing! It's a hard worker too: I have frequently seen this particular vehicle in operation...

UPDATE 15 September: it is now back in operation, as I witnessed on Chatham Hill this afternoon.

Anyway, instead of my original plan to approach Hillyfields Country Park from the stop at the northern end of Richmond Road and walking around the corner to (and up) Rosebery Road, a hastily-devised Plan B took me along Gillingham High Street to a series of back streets (James Street, Jeffery St, Gardiner St, Saunders St and Victoria St) to Burnt Oak Terrace and along to Parr Avenue where the entrance I sought to the park was situated...

I found the park interesting: not so much its ground-level playing field...

...but certainly the elevated orchard, up these 42 steps (these are just the top few, and a view looking back down from the top)...

There's a good panoramic river view from up there, as this guide shows...

Now, what's in those woodlands back there...

Well, there was quite a lot, actually, including a fair amount of litter, I noticed. At least I was able to avoid most of it in the photograph above.

After exhausting all the little ways that were passable 'up top', I came back down the steps and headed south, toward the entrance at Greenfield Road. This is accessed via another set of steps, and has a poetical inscription set into the paving at their summit...

After exiting the park and wandering more back streets (Railway Street, crossing the road at Gillingham Station and taking the footpath to the south of the railway line) I ended up at Balmoral Gardens Community Healthy Living Centre, tucked away from general public/street view yet spectacularly visible once one came upon it...

That was quite a serendipitous find for me, so with yet another back street trek (Randolph Road, Gorst Street and Trafalgar Street) I found myself in Canterbury Street so decided to catch the 'bus back home. It had been an interesting enough trip out – and I was intrigued to find my 'incoming' 'bus still there where I had disembarked a couple of hours earlier – so I took that photo of it as shown at the top of this post!

Let's All Go Down The Strand

"Have a banana!"

But for those who were unable to do so today, or whatever reason missed the Community Safety event held at The Strand Leisure Park in Gillingham, here are a few photographs I took at the event.

Although the event was in general quite busy, I managed to grab moments when the stands were relatively quiet – mainly to avoid accidentally getting children in-shot, as we as a society are so sensitive about such things these days. As usual, the following images can be enlarged by clicking on them: they are linear quarter-size (i.e. a sixteenth of the originals' area) so should still fit on most computer displays comfortably...

I also went for a stroll along the riverside, and here are a few of the images I took along the way...

From Chatham, Looking Outward

I had a two-hour photographic walkabout today, starting here in Chatham and looking across the town borders into Rochester one way, and Gillingham across and beyond the Great Lines.

On my travels I met an excitable dog on a tether in Silver Hill Gardens, and was able to get close enough so it could sniff and lick me before choking while I was out of reach(!)

Although I took a fair number of photographs, several of which showed this "looking outward", here are just a few of them, reduced in size to speed page loading. Clicking on any image will display it larger than within the page...

Jacksons Fields (Rochester) taken from across the road in Victoria Gardens (Chatham)

St Bart's Hospital

The War Memorial on Victoria Gardens

Passing over Railway Street, along New Road Avenue

Whichever way you're heading, you have to go downhill then up again!

Medway Maritime Hospital viewed from Old Road, Chatham