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1. INTRODUCTION AND ROCHESTER

Strood, Chatham, Gillingham, Rainham, Rochester,

One boundless conurbation,

Sweeping across a river’s estuary shores.

Scenes of fierce struggle,

Siege, trade & fortune;

Arcadian elegance, affluence and deprivation.

Captains of Industry.

No ordinary estuary

But a highway and an anchorage;

The second oldest school in the land,

And the second oldest Cathedral.

So come with us,

As we recall through History’s lens

Turning points of Medway.



1. Thirty miles from London town,

Stories lie at every turn.

Historic place of great renown,

Tide and trade were its concern.

Timeless stronghold of antiquity,

A castle fortified with stone,

Whose ramparts speak of desperate siege,

In Rochester.



2. Kings and Queens have rested here:

History and mystery.

City walls beneath the soil,

Heritage and industry.

Flying boats and Road

Rollers

Were pioneered right here in

Rochester,

Thoroughfare to foreign lands;

Rochester,

Nexus of sea and land and air.



3. Dusty alleyways of charm,

Terraces of elegance,

Tales of justice and of harm,

Social conscience and defence.

See inside the Norman keep

Whose ramparts tell of desperate siege.

Barons held it from King John,

Seven weeks it took to breach.



4. Rising up in Medway air,

200 stairs so rough, so steep,

Climb up high to reach the top,

Enjoy the view, beware the drop!

Rochester:

Literary centre which Dickens called home,

In Rochester, iconic mystery,

Replete with history.

Home to the second oldest school in the land,

Rochester: and the second oldest cathedral,

Rochester: and the first best Choral Society!

How do we define who we are? (In Rochester!)

Feelings we attach to where we live and work and breathe.

Rochester: Locale influences relationships,

Place is a harbinger of our lives!

ROCHESTER!

—-

2. THE RIVER MEDWAY

1. The view beyond the bridge befits a dream,

To see an esplanade beside a surging stream,

Within those ancient walls, a Norman keep,

Be still and careful now: our path is steep.



2. When even empires fall, time holds the cards,

And when the music stalls, the river onward flows.

As the years rescind silt slows us down;

We learn to ride the wind, and not to drown.



3. Through times of pestilence, in times of pain,

We turn to nature’s side, sometimes in vain,

Yet as we journey on toward the setting sun,

Borne onward by the tide, try to be kind.



4. Throughout our early years, time seems so slow,

But as ambition grows, where does time go?

We try to use it well, so far we’ll roam,

We’ll have such tales to tell, when we come home.

5. And as the years roll by, we sing a sweeter song,

And make our peace with sometimes being wrong,

And with an outward life in tune with inner life

We reach an ever radiant plain.

Both time and tide are ever-flowing,

Unstoppable, unrelenting,

Indifferent to our own life’s journey;

And our greatest gift is time.

—---------------------------------------------------------

3 GATEWAY TO EUROPE

When Romans came to Rochester,

Bringing their ordered sense of power,

Caesar’s imperial majesty

Was very fine to see.

When legions reached the river,

They built a bridge right over,

And a fine, straight road delivered,

All the way from Dover.

When Saxons came, they renamed the town Rofesceastre,

Building houses with wattle and daub as plaster,

They didn’t care for fighting folks

Or wearing suits of armour,

Just a bunch of average blokes

Who wanted to be farmers!

Vikings sailed up in their boats,

Proceeding to pillage village by village,

And took it even further:

They just liked to murder!

Then, coming by river,

The Danes plundered Rochester,

Committing senseless cruelties.

Their attack in 886

Led King Alfred to send a ‘naval’ force

Into East Anglia,

Which could mark the birth of the

Royal Navy in the Medway.

-------------------------------------

4. THE CATHEDRAL

1. When Ethelbert was King of Kent,

He saw the godly light,

Investing Bishop Justus here

To aid the people’s plight,

He built a church in Rochester (built - plus strings and piano)

In 604AD,

A place of holy sanctuary.



2. Such truth to tell,

All shall be well!

They heard the clerics say;

The truth that Jesus spoke of then

Is still sublime today;

A strengthening community

By lure of Godly rite,

With ritual as their guiding light.



3. From birth to resurrection,

And through death to life’s unknowns,

A place of sacred unity

With history in its stones.

A symphony of psalmody

Of glories thus observed,

Embodying the holy word.

Then Gundulf left a legacy

And rebuilt what was there,

God’s vision for to share,

When fortunes rise and fall,

An ‘Amen’ is our hopeful call.



4. Through every intervening year

Good Christians came to pray,

A life of servitude to God

Which ever-flowed each day.

An endless stream of worship

That could heal both heart and mind,

A heavenly promise so divine.

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5. SEVEN WEEKS

(The Siege of Rochester, 1215)

CHORUS:

Seven weeks to reclaim the castle!

Seven weeks of endless battle

To reclaim the castle!

BARITONE SOLO:

King John was a tyrant king;

Nobles had no faith in him.

CHORUS:

Callousness was his domain!

The worst King to ever reign!

1215, Magna Carta;

Peace agreed by Royal Charter.

Rights implemented,

Barons protected.

John proved he was dishonest!

Neither side kept their promise!



SOPRANO AND BARITONE SOLO:

Rebels seized Rochester Castle,

For it was valuable

To block the King’s approach to the capital.

CHORUS:

King John couldn’t sit and watch them!

He formed an army to stop them,

And try to entrap them!

SEVEN weeks to reclaim the castle

Seven weeks to hinder the enemy!

Seven weeks to batter the castle!

To RECLAIM the castle!

The King’s forces entered the city

On the 11th of October.

The siege would last two months

Before it was over!

Gundulf’s outer wall was battered,

But John’s initial hopes were shattered

When defenders drew back

Within the cross-wall.

BARITONE AND SOPRANO SOLO:

Now King John may have been disputed;

But he wasn’t stupid,

Suddenly he had one last idea!

CHORUS:

He sent for forty pigs,

To use their fat,

To burn in a vat,

To bring fire

Beneath the tower,

And that was that!

It took the fat of forty pigs

To burn the pit,

To burn the base of the south-east tower;

To breach the tower,

To reach the keep,

To starve the rebels,

To reclaim the castle!

What unpleasant fun and games:

Forty porkers up in flames!

But garrison refused to surrender,

Even when the King’s army managed to enter,

Until their horse-flesh and water

Ran out!

King John had to use retribution

To show control of his institution,

But by a strange mark of his constitution

He only hanged one crossbowman who had

Previously worked for him.

Captured Knights were sent to prison,

Soldiers were given to John’s men

To ransom.

The castle was resolutely held for so long,

But don’t mess with John!

------

6. DOWN TO THE DOCKS (CHATHAM DOCKYARD, 1759)

BARITONE SOLO:

1. Such Pride as you had never saw

Was felt that day at the Masthouse door,

For we launched our finest ship,

All fitted out for war.

And she was a Chatham ship,

A triumph of marine design,

A fine ship with stunstails set:

The first-rate of her line.



2. Down to the Docks and away we went,

Her gallant keel was the pride of Kent.

The finest warship of her time,

With wind abaft her beam.

Off from the docks we roamed,

Our hopes held high by thoughts of home.

We sailed from the Medway shore,

All fitted up for war.



3. In wooden walls with hearts of oak,

They paid us pence, so we were broke.

And all our working shifts were woke

By the tolling of a bell:

We dreamed we were in hell!

“Hey ho! My bully boys blow”,

“To sea we go” the Boatswain sang,

And hey, ho, from Medway go

To fight both fear and foe.



4. Us sailors berthed in lower decks

With little hope to be at ease;

Unwashed and packed right to our necks,

And riddled with disease.

A four and a two-hour watch

Were the key to war and the way to win,

Each shift had to be top-notch

With not much sleep between.



5. By laws and customs used at sea

The wayward would be whipped aboard,

From sails through to carpentry,

Most men were on the guns.

Down to the Gunport door

Awhile the raging seas do roar,

Ahoy! To our man o’ war

And o’er the waves she’d soar.



6. “Hey ho! My bully boys blow,

We’re heading in” the Boatswain sang

And rang on the bell no more

As we closed the Gunport door.

And our ship was a Chatham ship,

It’s deck maintained by the bosun’s mate;

No other ship was worth her weight,

And Victory was her name,

And victory was her game!

—----

7. GAD’S HILL, 1857

(Inspired by the letters of Charles Dickens).

–

RECIT - BARITONE SOLO (Charles Dickens):

That house

Has always a curious interest for me,

For when I was a small boy,

I thought it the most beautiful house I had ever seen.

My father said that if I grew up to be a clever man

Perhaps I might own that house.

I have always looked to see

If it was to be sold or let,

For it has never been to me like any other house,

And I, Charles Dickens,

Brought this pretty house

To be my family home,

To which I’m much attached

And by choice I have sold my home in London.

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8. Rochester’s Victorian High Street, 1860

1. The cries and calls of the High Street

Are quite pronounced today,

From the scores of well-worn traders,

Manning stalls of baffling wares.

There are people bargaining too:

Wouldn’t you?

See the butcher sharpening knives

Standing by his stall selling meat,

And a chimney sweep

Sat on a rooftop,

Scouting out the scene:

It’s Market Day.

Buy me’ tasty onions”

Yells a pungent little boy.

Red or brown from London;

Try a precious Saveloy!

“First class spuds and carrots sent

From farmland by the coast in Kent.”



2. For those whose life is a street-life,

There’s no such thing as home.

There are some who beg for lodgings,

And some who live to roam.

There can be no easy labour

For a man whose toil is real,

And a vagrant life can be quite short,

Or can end up in jail!

On Market Day.

Buy your brooms and brushes

Down at number forty-two,

Shoe-blacks and young dustmen

Line the street at every avenue.

Curtiss Sons Removals

Say they’re handsome men with Hansom cabs!



3. The thrills and spills of the High Street

Show the breadth of human life

While the Rich are often buying,

Vagrant poor do suffer strife.

Shady grocers mix in their fruit,

Hiding bad fruit in with the good,

And you cannot bet that money spent

Will reach the farms of Kent!

On Market Day.

“Thomas Shaw’s the shoe shop is of notable renown,

As is Brice the Tailor, who declares his price is best in town.

Mrs Giles’s sweet shop sells the finest liquorice for miles.



4. A blind man stands there begging,

In quite profound despair,

To see such earthly suffering:

Society isn’t fair.

There’s a family standing there

Who are poor, yet still on the square,

With their husband standing sobbing

Holding his head down in shame.

On market day.

“3 halfpenny bootlaces”

Might tempt the passers-by,

But chelsea buns or crumpets,

Now those really catch the eye.

Local businessmen are meeting

Traders at the Bull Hotel.

Then at nine, when all their trade is done,

They’ll run down to the music hall.

---

10. Epilogue: OUR CHANGING WORLD (2022) - (SOCIAL CONSCIENCE and

contemporary world)



1. The place we’re born and the place where we live:

Both will alter our choices and who we become,

Condition our spirit and what it can give,

And how we strive.



2. Living today in a globalised world

Where a ripple can trigger a tidal wave,

The planet is warming by worrying trend,

In faithless age.



3. If joy and pain could be balanced indeed,

So the poor could be free and the rich would concede,

With plentiful service and unified wealth,

And sense of self.



SOPRANO AND BARITONE SOLO:

4. Whoever we are and wherever we’re from,

One blink and the decades have rapidly gone.

If none are immune to the passing of time,

Let us be kind.



5. As learning is key to be thriving and free,

May knowledge be open and accessed by all,

Corruption and fraud must be made to feel small,

For love must live.



6. Our Earth is warming, but now is our chance

To build a new future and take a new stance.

Let’s rewrite our history right now in advance

And make our mark.



7. King Charles has taken his place on the throne.

This is a new age which enlivens us all

To rise up in hope to find new faith and love:

So on we go.

Who we choose to love,

And how we choose to live,

And how we spend our time,

Our time,

Your time,

Our time,

Our greatest gift is time.

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11. THE MEDWAY HYMN

1. A thousand hearts and voices singing

Of souls that speak of distant earthly past,

Such precious moments everlasting

Whence hope can reign steadfast,

And with their song comes understanding

Of the trials of time,

Now past and future meet at last.



2. We will accept the challenge clearly,

To tend our earth, this place where we reside;

To love our friends and neighbours dearly

And hold our love beside;

Earth is not ours, we must respect it;

It must be our guide,

May it be never cast aside.



3. What of the truth that Jesus taught us,

To heal our ills and earthly pain and stress?

To bring the hope that he had bought us:

Such fears he will assuage.

To live and love with understanding,

That God is love,

A precious gift from age to age.



4. Of all the years that follow after,

We came from dust; to dust we shall return.

To breathe a dream of global living

Which peace will fast endow.

Not what we take, but what we’re giving,

May our leaders learn

That they must start the process now.

5. Though whence we come is unimportant,

We shall salute our elders and their graft;

To give the precious gift of kindness,

And spread it through our craft.

We’ll build an ever better future

With a binding chain;

Such buoyant heights we will attain.

6. Then when one day we’ll meet in heaven

To greet the souls of distant earthly past,

Whose daily lives were full of trials

Not all so far from us.

Through all the years of love and laughter,

This is our refrain:

Until the day we meet again.

Thank you for joining us!

Please always keep singing!

(…and do come and visit Rochester!)

Music & Words © Vivum Music Ltd. 2023