Historic Dockyard Chatham remembers 40 years since Royal Navy left the site

On March 30, 1984, Chatham Dockyard’s gates closed – ending 400 years of the Royal Navy's presence in the town and the surrounding area.

Transcript

00:00 40 years ago a decision was made to preserve centuries of Chatham's history all in one

00:06 place.

00:07 After 400 years of Royal Navy presence came to an end, Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust

00:13 came to life.

00:15 And today, four decades on, the site has hosted a variety of exhibitions, had a number of

00:21 Royal visits, plus been the set for Hollywood films.

00:24 As a Royal Navy officer, for me it's a privilege to be able to help steer this dockyard into

00:34 its 40th year, where for the first time we've become self-sufficient financially on a revenue

00:41 basis.

00:42 So that's a huge achievement for us here and for the Trust to enable that.

00:47 And then we've got a really exciting future ahead of us.

00:50 So in many ways we're not just celebrating the 40th, but actually we're looking ahead

00:55 to the next 40.

00:56 And we're going to be a very integral part of Medway, Medway Town.

01:00 A special visit today from the dockyard's first ever visitor, back when the Trust was

01:05 first formed in 1984.

01:08 Forty years ago, almost to the day, I was the first member of the public to come into

01:12 this dockyard through these doors behind me.

01:15 When it first opened I was 15 and a school kid and my parents dropped me off three or

01:21 four hours early.

01:22 So even back then it was kind of, we've got a dockyard on our doorstep, although it had

01:27 actually just about closed as a Royal Navy dockyard.

01:32 But it still had this attraction of everything was behind this door and nobody had seen it

01:36 before.

01:37 It was just a fascinating idea to see what a Royal Dockyard was like.

01:41 Once during its four centuries of supporting the Royal Navy, it built more than 400 ships

01:46 and submarines.

01:47 This was the very first ship to be brought to Chatham's historic dockyard 37 years ago

01:53 now.

01:54 The HMS Gannet was built in Sheerness before she went travelling far and wide across the

01:59 world and then was brought back home to Kent, where it's expected she'll spend the rest

02:03 of her days.

02:04 And it was once Medway's biggest employer.

02:07 During the Second World War, 17,000 workers from more than 26 different trades earned

02:13 a living.

02:14 And in the pipeline are many more exhibitions and plans to sail Chatham's historic dockyard

02:19 into the future.

02:21 Sophia Akin for KMTV in Chatham.

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