Snodland ferry

For 70 miles the River Medway runs through Kent shaping the landscape and providing opportunity for the people of the county. In the first half of the 20th century the river was heavily industrialised between Maidstone and Rochester and would have been a hive of activity, filled with heavily laden barges and busy steam tugs plying their trade, whilst the banks were lined by forests of cranes, wharves stacked with cargo and factory chimneys. Everywhere people would be going about their business. Today in comparison the river appears a picture of tranquillity along much of its course. Patches of industry remain such as the paper mills at New Hythe and Snodland, but all seem strangely deserted. The one remaining cement works at Halling stands rather forlornly set back from the river. An occasional pleasure craft passes by, but the overriding sense is one of quiet dereliction.