The Medway, Kent

Historical Description

Medway, The, a river, partly of Surrey and Sussex, but chiefly of Kent. It was known to the ancient Britons as Vaga, to the Romans as Madus, and to the Saxons as Medewaege. It draws two head-streams from Sussex and one from Surrey; runs, from the confluence of these, northeastward, past Penshurst, to Tunbridge; goes thence, east-north-eastward, to Yalding; proceeds thence windingly, north-eastward, past Wateringbury and Banning, to Maid-stone; goes thence, chiefly northward, but with bends and windings, past Aylesford, Snodland, and Wouldham, to fiochester; begins, a little above that city, to be somewhat estuarial; proceeds, with increasing estuarial expansion, and with offshoots and branchings, chiefly east-north-eastward, past Chatham, Gillingham, Hoo, and an expanse of marshes, to the Thames at Sheemess; and embraces, in the reach between Chatham and Sheemess, a number of islands and small peninsulas. It is joined at Penshurst by the Eden, at Tunbridge by the Tun, at Yalding by the Beult, at Maid-ctone by the Len, and at Queenborough, 2 miles above Sheer-ness, by the Swale. It was made navigable to Tunbridge about the middle of the 18th century; it is much used for navigation up to Maidstone; it has a tidal rise of 20 feet atRochester; it varies in width from less than a mile to upwards of 2 miles between Gillingham and Sheemess; it abounds with fish of various kinds, and was formerly noted for salmon and sturgeon; it includes, in its lower creeks, an oyster fishery; and it figures in various events of warlike 'history connected with the chief towns upon its banks.

Medway Parliamentary Division of Mid Kent was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 64,687. The division includes the following:-Rochester- Allhallows, Chalk, Chatham (part of), Cliffe, Cobham, Cooling, Cnxton, Denton, Frindsbury (part of), Gillingham, Grange (otherwise Grench), Hailing, Halstow(High), Higham, Hoo, Ifield, St James (Grain), Lidsing, Luddesdown, St Mary (Hoo), St Margaret (Rochester, the part of the parishnot within the borough of Rochester), Meopham, Northfleet, Nursted, Shorne, Stoke, Wouldham; Bearsted-Banning, Banning (West), Bearsted, Bicknor, Boughton Malherbe, Boughton Monchelsea, Boxley, Bredhurst, Broomfield, Chart-next-Sutton Valence, Detling, Farleigh (East), Frinsted, Harrietsham, Headcorn, Hollingbourne, Hucking, Langley, Leeds. Lenham, Linton, Loose, Maidstone (part), Otham, Otterden, Stockbury, Sutton (East). Sutton Valence. Thornham, Ulcombe, Wichling, Wormshill; Mailing (part of)- Addington, Allington, Aylesford, Birling, Burham, Ditton, Farleigh (West), Ightham, Leybourae, Mailing (East), Mall-ing (West), Mereworth, Offham, Peckham (West), Ryarsh, Snodland, Stanstead, Teston, Trotterscliffe, Wateringbury, Wrotham; Grange, non-corporate member of Hastings; Gravesend, municipal borough; Maidstone, municipal borough; Rochester, municipal borough.