Thames

Medway

Canal Association

In the eighteenth century Britain found itself at war again with its old adversary, France.  In 1778, French privateers were extremely active in the Thames Estuary, especially in the Nore. English ships navigating both the Thames and the Medway rivers could easily be intercepted; ships carrying stores between the naval and military establishments on the two rivers were particularly vulnerable.

The authorities of the time considered the construction of a canal which could by-pass the long journey around the Isle of Grain.  This would allow ships and barges working out of Deptford and Woolwich Dockyards and who were supplying ordnance to the English men-of-war lying at Chatham, safe passage.

The canal was to be a purely military undertaking.  It was to go from the River Thames at Gravesend, cross the marshes at Higham and enter the River Medway opposite the dockyard at Chatham.

The project was found to be more difficult than at first thought.  After preliminary surveys, the boggy marshland proved too big an obstacle and so the work was never started.  The plan remained in abeyance until the arrival of Ralph Dodd, twenty years later.