Dickensian Christmas Festival - Rochester, December 2000
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Many of his books feature places and buildings in Medway. Satis House in Great Expectations is the impressive red brick Restoration House in Crow Lane, Rochester. Eastgate House, also in Rochester, was referred to as Westgate House in his first novel, the Pickwick Papers, and as the Nuns House in his last, the Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Medway is an area rich in connections to Charles Dickens. This is celebrated in the Dickensian Christmas Festival.
In
1988 the first Dickensian Christmas festival took place. Heavy snow fell
on all the Christmases that Charles spent in Medway as a child. To recreate
this, snow machines transform Rochester into a snowy wonder. An artificial
ice rink in the castle gardens complements the snow and Christmas comes
early to Medway.
The High Street transports itself back to a pre-Christmas scene of 100
years ago. There are carol singers, bell rings, hot chestnuts and other
traditional fayre. In addition, there are events for children, street
theatre, horse drawn vehicles and Dickensian characters.
In 1988 the first Dickensian Christmas festival took place. Heavy snow
fell on all the Christmases that Charles spent in Medway as a child. To
recreate this, snow machines transform Rochester into a snowy wonder.
An artificial ice rink in the castle gardens complements the snow and
Christmas comes early to Medway. The High Street transports itself back
to a pre-Christmas scene of 100 years ago. There are carol singers, bell
rings, hot chestnuts and other traditional fayre. In addition, there are
events for children, street theatre, horse drawn vehicles and Dickensian
characters.
I first learned of this annual event when I visited Chatham for the Victorian
Military Society's celebration of Queen Victoria's jubilee in 1997. (An
account of this can be found on our website homepage.)The four towns of
Strood, Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham run in to one another without
any apparent boundaries and form what was known as the "Medway towns".
It was a very strange feeling to be once again in the area, as when I
was a teenager I spent my summer holidays with my uncle and aunt in Hoo
St. Werburgh, a small village with a very
old Norman church just outside
Rochester.
My uncle was the vicar of that parish and later of Borstal, a parish within
Rochester itself. In Hoo they lived in a huge Victorian vicarage which
had large grounds including its own fullsize grass tennis court and an
orchard. They occupied what had been the servants part of the house and
the "above stairs" was kept in pristine condition for church functions,
committee meetings and the like. My aunt was a very educated lady with
degrees in Latin and Greek but with no children of her own and she took
me to all the local places with historical or Dickens connections, and
explained everything in great detail. This instilled a great passion for
history in me and is maybe why I have ended up in this business!! This
year my partner Judy and I took part in the celebrations for the second
time. We stayed in the very old Kings Head hotel in the High Street itself
and in the shadows of both the castle and the cathedral.
We
went to the Mistletoe Ball which is held in the old Corn Exchange building
on the Friday night before the main events began. The next day we took
part in the procession along the length of the High Street and ending
below the castle. I know that there are several events celebrating Charles
Dickens in other parts of the globe because many of our customers and
friends are good enough to send me their own photographs of these events.
I
thought I would repay these kind gestures by sharing some of our photos
of last year's event in Rochester.
If you would like to know more about the historic city of Rochester and
its historical connections visit the website at www.shewan.com/rochester
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