Rochester lies halfway between London and the Channel ports on the River Medway just inland from where it flows into the North Sea. The town is noted for its Norman Cathedral, with the second oldest bishopric in England, and Rochester Castle, with a well-preserved keep from 1127.
The town's official name
of City of Rochester-upon-Medway denotes the urban district comprising not just Rochester, but also the neighboring municipalities of Chatham and Strood. The quiet little town of Rochester is closely linked with the name of Charles Dickens, who spent his childhood in neighboring Chatham and the last 12 years of his life at Gads Hill, halfway between Rochester and Gravesend. In many of his books locations in Rochester and the surrounding area play an important part; his last work, the unfinished novel "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" is set almost completely in the fictitious town of Cloisterham, which is obviously Rochester.
Rochester developed from the early Roman settlement of "Durobrivae". It was here that Ethelbert of Kent founded the second episcopal see in England after Canterbury in 604. The present cathedral was begun by the Normans, who also added to the town's defenses by building a castle. Henry VIII ordered that warships for the English fleet should be built here at the Medway estuary. The Dutch entered the estuary with their ships in 1667 and attacked the dockyard at Rochester. However, for many years after that the docks remained one of the most important places in the country for building naval ships
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