Frindsbury

Frindsbury

Frindsbury is part of the Medway Towns conurbation in Kent, southern England. It lies on the opposite side of the River Medway to Rochester, and at various times in its history has been considered fully or partially part of the City of Rochester. Frindsbury refers to both a parish and a manor....

 TQ744697 51.399423°N 0.508127°W is a parish on the River Medway

River Medway

The River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....

, on the opposite bank to Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It was a centre of ship building before 1820, building at least six 74 gun third rate, ships of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 and many smaller vessels. From 1820, until recent times, the ship yards built over 100 Thames sailing barge

Thames sailing barge

A Thames sailing barge was a type of commercial sailing boat common on the River Thames in London in the 19th century. The flat-bottomed barges were perfectly adapted to the Thames Estuary, with its shallow waters and narrow rivers....

s. Shipbuilding has stopped but in 2006, one yard was still active in ship repair.

Ships

Quarry House Yard

Edward Greaves and Nicholson set up at the Quarry House yard in c.1745. The full list of ships built is unknown but two of the later ones were:

• 1785 —32 gun frigate was part of a squadron off the coast of Genoa
  Genoa
  Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
  
   in 1794 under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson.

• 1786 —74 gun designed by Sir Thomas Slade. Laid down in 1783, she was launched on 6 October 1786 and commissioned on 19 July 1790. Nicknamed the Billy Ruffian. She destroyed the French flagship L'Orient
  French ship Orient (1791)
  The Dauphin-Royal was an Océan class 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.During the French Revolution, she was renamed Sans-Culotte in September 1792, and eventually Orient in May 1795....
  
   at the Battle of the Nile
  Battle of the Nile
  The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between British and French fleets at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt from 1–3 August 1798...
  
  . Fought at Trafalgar. On 15 July 1815 she received the surrender of Napoleon Bonaparte. She was renamed Captivity and served as a prison hulk off Sheerness
  Sheerness
  Sheerness is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island....
  
  . She was sold to breakers at Plymouth for £4030 and broken up in 1834. The construction of the Bellerophon features in a poem by the American Imagist poet Amy Lowell
  Amy Lowell
  Amy Lawrence Lowell was an American poet of the imagist school from Brookline, Massachusetts who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.- Personal life:...
  
  .

Josiah and Thomas Brindley, leased the Quarry House yard. The first ship was launched from here in 1794. They expanded, built a new yard which became the entrance to the Thames and Medway Canal

Thames and Medway Canal

The Thames and Medway Canal is a disused canal in Kent, south east England, also known as the Gravesend and Rochester Canal. It was originally some long and cut across the neck of the Hoo peninsula, linking the River Thames at Gravesend with the River Medway at Strood...

, then a third shipyard further down river.They built no more ships for the Navy after the Napoleonic War. However they did continue shipbuilding. In 1821 they built the McQueen East India Man and in 1825 the British Steam and Navigation Company contracted them to build a steamship. When the Brindleys were declared bankrupt in 1826
they lost their shipyards and all their other businesses. It had been thought that Josiah and Thomas Brindley were nephews of Lord Nelson but the Nelson family has said there is no relationship.

• 1794 —16 gun
• 1794 —12 gun
• 1794 —12 gun
• 1804 —12 gun
• 1804 —12 gun
• 1805 —38 gun
• 1806 —38 gun — Launched the 5 May 1806, HMS Shannon, commanded by Captain Philip Broke
  Philip Broke
  Rear Admiral Sir Philip Bowes Vere Broke, 1st Baronet KCB was a distinguished officer in the British Royal Navy.-Early life:Broke was born at Broke Hall, Nacton, near Ipswich, the eldest son of Philip Bowes Broke...
  
  , received the surrender of the USS Chesapeake
  USS Chesapeake (1799)
  USS Chesapeake was a 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young navy's capital ships...
  
   in Boston Bay on 1st June 1813, after a fight of 15 minutes.
• 1807 —74 gun
• 1808 —10 gun
• 1809 —18 gun
• 1809 —18 gun
• 1810 —74 gun
• 1811 —74 gun
• 1811 transport
• 1813 —36 gun
• 1813 —36 gun
• 1813 —20 gun
• 1814 —20 gun
• 1814 —26 gun
• 1814 —26 gun

Wilson and Co

• 1794 —16 gun
• 1796 —18 gun
• 1797 —12 gun
• 1797 —12 gun

John Pelham

• 1807 —36 gun
• 1808 —10 gun
• 1808 —10 gun
• 1809 —18 gun
• 1809 —18 gun
• 1812 —20 gun
• 1812 —58 gun

John King of Upnor

• 1801 —10 gun
• 1801 —10 gun
• 1801 —10 gun
• 1801 —10 gun
• 1801 —10 gun
• 1809 —18 gun
• 1809 —18 gun
• 1809 —74 gun third rate ship of the line.
• 1810 —10 gun
• 1810 —12 gun
• 1810 —Cutter
• 1812 —18 gun
• 1812 —18 gun
• 1812 —74 gun
• 1813 —36 gun
• 1814 —20 gun

Barge Building

Frindsbury was an important centre for building of Thames sailing barge

Thames sailing barge

A Thames sailing barge was a type of commercial sailing boat common on the River Thames in London in the 19th century. The flat-bottomed barges were perfectly adapted to the Thames Estuary, with its shallow waters and narrow rivers....

s, using the land vacated by the shipbuilders. Barges were needed for many reasons; on the Medway it was for cement, brick and lime.

Curel's

• In c. 1820 the lease of Quarry Yard, (Curel's Lower Yard), passed to John Curel. George H. Curel took over the business around 1870. He expanded the yard in 1887 leasing the yard by Strood Basin (Curel's Upper Yard).

Other families ran yards in Frindsbury, often they had other yards in Rochester.

Little

• William Burgess Little
• James Little

Gill

• Gill Family, George Gill, of Cheetham Gill and Company. Canal shipyard.

London and Rochester Barge Co

• LRTC- Crescent Shipping- Canal Road, this yard was still operating in 2006, being used for ship repair.

List of Barges

Here are some Frindsbury built barges grouped by their owners.From 1870 to 1990 the Register of Shipping shows just over 100 Frindsbury Built Barges.

Phoenix Portland Cement Company, Frindsbury.

• Hawk—43 ton
• Cerf—58 ton
• Phoenix—51 ton

William Tingey

• Robert Bladen—33 ton
• Eliza—41 ton

Formby Cement Company, Whitewall Creek, Frindsbury

• Sara—39 ton
• Pink—43 ton
• Queen—43 ton
• Neptune—40 ton
• Whitewall—37 ton
• Vauxhall—40 ton
• Eclipse—39 ton
• Margaret Louise—45 ton
• Ella Vicars—43 ton

Burham Brick, Lime and Cement Company

• James—42 ton
• John—40 ton
• Ann—40 ton
• Varnes—41 ton
• The Gun—44 ton
• William—41 ton

Peter Bros Ltd. Cement Works Burham

• John—38 ton
• William—39 ton
• Overcomer—44 ton
• Monkwood—46 ton
• Ninety Nine—57 ton

Trenchmann Weekes Company Halling

• John Tinworth—43 ton
• William and Sarah—41 ton
• George—45 ton
• Ambrose—40 ton
• Bella—35 ton
• Edward and William—40 ton
• Stratford—42 ton

West Kent Portland Cement Company (Margretts)

• Stanley Margretts—44 ton
• Cecil Margretts—46 ton
• Harold Margretts—45 ton

Imperial Portland Cement Company

• Gundulph—44 ton

John Blazey White, Gillingham

• Sarah—38 ton
• Flower of Kent—44 ton

Queenborough Cement Company

• Trent—42 ton

Solomon Brice and Sons, Rainham and Hoo

• Ada Mary—41 ton
• Alumina—60 ton
• Mosquito—40 ton
• William Bennet—42 ton

Eastwoods (Medway brickmakers)

• 1845 George and Eliza
• 1852 Frederick and Mary Ann
• 1857 Ann and Frances
• 1862 Arthur and Eliza
• 1872 Onward
• 1876 Atlanta
• 1879 Hawk
• 1881 Banff
• 1884 Plover
• 1886 Snipe

External links

18th Century Naval Database http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/A/A.html

Frindsbury Extra Parish Councilhttp://www.frindsburyextra-pc.gov.uk/

Arethusa Venture Centrehttp://www.arethusa.org.uk/

Medway Yacht Clubhttp://www.medwayyachtclub.com/

Upnor Castlehttp://www.medway.gov.uk/tourism/44632/45143/44634.htm

Upnor Residents Societyhttp://www.upnorsociety.com/

Medway City Councilhttp://www.medway.gov.uk/

Kent Association of Parish Councilshttp://www.kapc.org.uk/