Just outside Gillingham where we were parked for a few days lies this dockyard. I presumed it to be one of those truly monotonous museum type affairs that attempts to make visitors learn as they go. Horribly educational claptrap!


Bomb Shelter – Full Set

Not so! It is, as the name suggests, a World War II dockyard converted into a tourist attraction. The old buildings are well preserved and there are three vessels in dock. HMS Gannet; a steam & sail ship, HMS Ocelot; a diesel submarine in dry dock and HMS Cavalier; a warship used in the Artic. Of all the three I found Ocelot to be the most exciting, probably because I’ve never been on a submarine before (and probably never will again).

There are several exhibits including lifeboats of past & present, a maritime museum, a Kent police museum and a ropery which is still in active use today. Of course there’s also a fully intact bomb shelter as pictured above, which we took a trip underground to experience the limited sights and rich sounds of an air raid in progress topside.


Manilla barrells in the Ropery – Full Set

In all the site extends over some 80 acres and took us about 6 hours to see most of it. A very worthwhile trip for our first day in Southern England. The full set of 190 shots is on Flickr