Collection: Local history reference

The word Borstal is synonymous with the treatment of young criminals, but do you know where it originates? A convict prison built on the top of a hill above the River Medway, which took its name from the local village. First a prison to house the labour building forts to defend Chatham Dockyard...

This book looks at the lives of 100 women in Medway who challenge our assumptions that women lived largely unremarkable lives. Some quietly devoted their lives to caring for others, whilst other travelled the world, promoted women's suffrage, lived disguised as men or followed a life of crime. Th...