Chatham

"CHATHAM, a parish, parliamentary borough and naval arsenal, forming a suburb to the city of Rochester, but chiefly in the hundred of Chatham and Gillingham, in the county of Kent, 16 miles from Sheerness, 25 miles W.N.W. of Canterbury, 30 miles from London by road, and 37½ miles by the London, Chatham, and Dover railway; the North Kent railway has a station at Strood, 2 miles from Chatham, and 31 miles from London. The town, which lies on the Medway, appears in Domesday Book as Ceteham; it belonged to Earl Godwin and his son King Harold II., and was given by William the Conqueror to Hamon de Crevequer, from whom it came to the Badlesmeres, Despencers, Wentworths, and others.... More"

[Transcribed from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868 by Colin Hinson ©2010]