Two locations for this episode: first we’re at the Watts Almshouses on Maidstone Road in Rochester, for a round table discussion about the heritage of charity in Medway.

We’re joined by Martin Sissons, CEO of the Watts Charity, which is nearly 450 years old and still as relevant and needed as ever. We’re also with Janet Fischer, Chief Executive of Live Music Now, which brings music to vulnerable communities, and John Portman, who is an award-winning organiser of many different activities designed to help those with dementia.

Then we head out on the streets with Neil and Tracy Charlick of the Gillingham Street Angels at their weekly community kitchen, on the ground on a very windy afternoon! It’s charity in the raw.

Richard Watts Charities Almshouses https://www.richardwatts.org.uk/

An open day is being held at Watts Almshouses on Saturday, September 14. Find more information here: https://www.richardwatts.org.uk/copy-of-july-2023

Live Music Now website https://www.livemusicnow.org.uk/

For more information about Rochester Dementia Cafe visit https://www.medway.gov.uk/directory_record/279279/rochester_dementia_memory_cafe

Gillingham Street Angels https://www.thestreet-angels.org/

If you would like to volunteer to support any of the charities you’ve heard about in this episode. Please click the relevant link and contact them. They are always looking for new people to join their teams.

With thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.uk

We Did it Medway is presented by Rob Flood and Philip Dodd. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper of Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.

The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A highlight for both of us: a wonderful long May Bank Holiday weekend enjoying the wealth of music, tradition and fun that the Sweeps Festival brings to Rochester every year, with morris dancing ‘sides’ descending to perform all along the High Street and up in the Castle Grounds.

Around all that centuries-old tradition there’s also a booming world music/folk/roots festival in venues across Rochester. This year we loved the French Celtic energy of Sur Les Docks and local legends the Singing Loins at the Rising Sun, as well as the Balkan gypsy folk of Balamuc, and Staggered Ray (featuring Chris Weller and Rob Shepherd from our pod jingle).

The Sweeps Festival was part of Rochester life for centuries - celebrated by Charles Dickens - until common sense and health & safety stopped chimney sweeps sending young boys up chimneys… In the early 1980s it was Gordon Newton who began the renaissance of the Festival and has overseen it grow and grow to become a central plank of Rochester culture and music. Gordon tells us the whole story, and throws in a bit of melodeon playing to boot.

So join us out on the streets of Rochester, chatting to musicians and Morris dancers to capture the flavour of the whole event. How SWEEP is YOUR love?!!

Medway Council Rochester Sweeps Festival page https://www.medway.gov.uk/sweepsfestival

Sweeps Festival Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RochesterSweepsFestival/

With thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.uk

We Did it Medway is presented by Rob Flood and Philip Dodd. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper of Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.

The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Moored at Gillingham Pier, there’s a boat which has an astonishing history: the paddle steamer the Medway Queen. In the 1920s and 30s she transported thousands of holidaymakers from the Medway towns for day trips to resorts like Sheerness and Margate, Clacton and Southend. But when the Second World War came she was transformed into a minesweeper, and then in 1940 crisscrossed the Channel to Dunkirk seven times in seven days, saving over 7000 Allied troops, becoming one of the stars of the flotilla of Little Ships.

In this episode we talk to Alan Cook, whose grandfather was the captain on those perilous Dunkirk crossings, and meet the inspirational volunteers of the Medway Queen Preservation Society, who from the 1980s have worked tirelessly to turn the wreck she had become into the gloriously renovated boat we can visit today. And during the celebrations on the actual day of her 100th birthday we hear from Admiral Lord West and ask, Will the Medway Queen ever be able to head back into open waters under her own steam?

Find out how you can visit this historic, heroic paddle steamer at https://www.medwayqueen.co.uk/

With thanks to the City of Rochester Society for supporting this podcast. Find out more about their work at city-of-rochester.org.uk

We Did it Medway is presented by Rob Flood and Philip Dodd. It is produced and edited by Suze Cooper of Big Tent Media, with assistance from Emily Crosby Media.

The We Did It Medway music is written and performed by Chris Weller (Staggered Ray), Rob Shepherd (Singing Loins) and Vicky Price (Ashen Keys) with lyrics by Philip Dodd.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.