Sheerness: Exploring the Coastal Town’s History and Attractions

Sheerness is a port town located in the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 11,938, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby town of Minster which has a population of 21,319. The town began as a fort built in the 16th century to protect the River Medway from naval invasion.

In 1665, plans were first laid by the Navy Board for Sheerness Dockyard, a facility where warships might be provisioned and repaired. After the raid on the Medway in 1667, the older fortification was strengthened and in 1669, a Royal Navy dockyard was established in the town, where warships were stocked and repaired until its closure in 1960.

Today, the Port of Sheerness is one of the United Kingdom’s leading car and fresh produce importers, and industry continues to play an important role in the town’s economy.

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Sheerness beginnings as a fort

Sheerness has a rich history dating back to the 16th century. Its first structure was a fort built by order of King Henry VIII to prevent enemy ships from entering the River Medway and attacking the naval dockyard at Chatham. In 1666, work began to replace the fort with a stronger one, but it was destroyed in 1667 by the Dutch Naval Fleet in what would be known as the raid on the Medway.

The Sheerness Dockyard

After the destruction of the fort, Samuel Pepys, the Secretary to the Admiralty, ordered the construction of Sheerness Dockyard as an extension to that at Chatham.

Since there was no established settlement in the vicinity of Sheerness, the workers were initially housed in hulks. By 1738, dockyard construction workers had built the first houses in Sheerness, using materials they were allowed to take from the yard.

The grey-blue naval paint they used on the exteriors led to their homes becoming known as the Blue Houses. This was eventually corrupted to Blue Town, which is now the name of the north-west area of Sheerness lying just beyond the current dockyard perimeter.

The town of Sheerness

The town of Sheerness has its origins in Mile Town, which was established later in the 18th century at a mile’s distance from the dockyard. In 1797, discontented sailors in the Royal Navy mutinied just off the coast of Sheerness.

By 1801, the population of the Minster-in-Sheppey parish, which included both Sheerness and the neighbouring town of Minster, reached 5,561.

The bakery and food Co-operative

In 1816, one of the UK’s first co-operative societies was started in Sheerness, chiefly to serve the dockyard workers and their families. The Sheerness Economical Society began as a co-operative bakery but expanded to produce and sell a range of goods. By the middle of the 20th century, the society had spread across the Isle of Sheppey and had been renamed the Sheerness and District Cooperative Society.

The town & dockyard expansion

In the early 1820s, a fire destroyed the old Blue Houses. New houses and a major redevelopment of the dockyard followed. A high brick wall and a moat were constructed around the yard to serve as a defence measure and remained in place until the end of the 19th century.

As the settlement expanded eastwards, away from the dockyard and the Blue Houses, the wider area became known as Sheerness, taking its new name from the brightness or clearness of the water at the mouth of the River Medway. The rebuilt Dockyard contained many groundbreaking new buildings and structures, such as the Sheerness Boat Store, completed in 1860 and still standing today, which was the world’s first multi-storey building with a rigid metal frame.

The Royal Navy School

In 1904, the Royal Navy established a torpedo school in Sheerness, with HMS Actaeon used as a training hulk. The school closed in 1922. From the completion of the dockyard until 1960, Sheerness was one of the bases of the Nore Command of the Royal Navy, which was responsible for protecting British waters in the North Sea. The command was named after the Nore sandbank in the Thames Estuary, about 3 miles (5 km) east of Sheerness.

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First railway station

In 1863, mains water was installed in the town, and the Isle of Sheppey’s first railway station opened at the dockyard. Towards the end of the 19th century, Sheerness achieved official town status and formed its own civil parish, separate from Minster-in-Sheppey.

The 1901 Census recorded the Sheerness parish as having 18,179 residents and 2,999 houses. The town’s low rainfall and ample sunshine made it popular as a seaside resort, with tourists arriving by steamboat and train.

The Sheppey Light Railway opened in 1901, connecting the new Sheerness East station with the rest of the island. However, by 1950, lack of demand led to the railway’s closure. The Sheerness and District Tramways, which opened in 1903, only lasted until 1917.

The sinking of SS Richard Montgomery

In 1944, the United States cargo ship SS Richard Montgomery ran aground and sank 1 mile (1.6 km) off the coast of Sheerness, with large quantities of explosives on board. Due to the inherent danger and projected expense, the ship and its cargo have never been salvaged.

If the wreck were to explode, it would be one of the largest non-nuclear explosions of all time. A 2004 report published in New Scientist warned that an explosion could occur if seawater penetrated the bombs.

During the Second World War, the Shoeburyness Boom, which ran across the Thames Estuary to protect shipping from submarine attack, ran from Sheerness to Shoeburyness in Essex.

The town centre has the largest freestanding cast iron clock tower in Kent, which stands at 36 feet tall and was built in 1902 to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII. The clock tower was restored in 2002 to celebrate the Silver and Golden Jubilees of Queen Elizabeth II.

Sheerness Mills

Sheerness, a town in Kent, previously had four windmills. The first was the Little Mill, a smock mill that was present before 1813 and unfortunately burned down on February 7, 1862. The second was the Hundred Acre Mill, a small tower mill that was last used in 1872 and was demolished in 1878, leaving only the base which remains today.

The third was the Great Mill, which was a smock mill. The construction of this mill began in 1813 and was completed in 1816. However, it was demolished in 1924, with only the base remaining. A replica mill body was built on the base to serve as flats.

The fourth windmill was said to have been a vertical axle windmill designed by Stephen Hooper, but little is known about it. On January 23, 2008, a fire started in the mill tower, but it was declared not to have been a case of arson.

Sheerness famous people

Sheerness has been home to many notable people throughout history. Some of the most prominent figures include:

• Thomas King (before 1660 – 1725), who was a soldier, MP, and lieutenant-governor of Sheerness from 1690 to 1725.
• Thomas Bilbe (1811–1896), a shipbuilder and shipowner who built tea clippers and was involved in the opium trade with China.
• Sir Edward James Reed, KCB, FRS (1830–1906), a naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was also a Liberal politician in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1906. Reed was born in Sheerness and was a naval apprentice there.
• Charles Hezlet DSO (1891–1965), an Irish soldier and amateur golfer who was runner-up in the 1914 Amateur Championship and was in the British Walker Cup team in 1924, 1926, and 1928.
• James McCudden (1895–1918), a First World War flying ace who was awarded the Victoria Cross. He lived in Sheerness from 1909 and attended the Sheerness garrison school.
• Sir Stanley Hooker (1907–1984), a mathematician and jet engine engineer who was the first inventor of the VTOL engine. He was born in Sheerness.
• William Penney, Baron Penney (1909–1991), a mathematician and professor of mathematical physics who was a leading figure in Britain’s nuclear weapons development. Penney was raised in Sheerness, Kent, and was educated at Sheerness Technical School for Boys from 1924 to 1926.
• Richard Beeching (1913–1985), commonly known simply as Dr Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways, severely cutting the British rail network.
• Barbara White (1923–2013), a British actress.
• Geoff Beynon (1926–2012), a teacher and trade union leader who was joint general secretary of the Assistant Masters and Mistresses Association.
• Uwe Johnson (1934–1984), a German writer and scholar who lived on Marine Parade.
• Rod Hull (1935–1999), an English comedian who appeared with Emu, a mute, highly aggressive arm-length puppet.
• Richard Carpenter (born 1972), a footballer with Gillingham F.C. and Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.

This blog post was originally published on 15 January 2024 and last updated on 15 January 2024