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The
Dockyard disappeared completely to make way for new houses, new
jobs and gave new hope for the Medway Towns. The
port launched some of the finest war ships in history - Nelson's
Victory, but it all came to an end with the departure to sea of
HMS Hermione. Many
say that the can still remember where they were when they first
heard the devastating news of the closure. BBC Radio Medway broke
the story:  Listen
She
was known locally as "the last one, the best one, Hermy-one".
When HMS Hermione sailed out of Chatham Naval Base and Dockyard
she took more than four hundred years of history with her. Those
who had worked on her were only too aware that she was the end of
a tradition of shipbuilding, which had forged the very nature of
the Medway Towns. BBC Radio Medway was on board as she said her
goodbyes. Listen
The
powers that be had not left the area entirely unprotected however.
Two trusts were established - the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust
to look after the Dock and what eventually became the Chatham Maritime
Trust, under the auspice of the South East Development Agency. Meet
the workers >> Did
you, or someone in your family work in the dockyard? Tell
us your stories >> | 
