Rochester

Rochester stands at the lowest crossing of the River Medway in Kent, on the road from London toward Canterbury. Its cathedral and Norman castle grew beside the bridge; the castle guarded the crossing and was besieged in 1215 and 1264. During the Reformation, Bishop John Fisher was executed under Henry VIII, and Bishop Nicholas Ridley was later executed under Mary I. Rochester's position near the Thames and the developing naval dockyard at Chatham gave the river strategic importance. In 1667, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, a Dutch fleet broke through the defences at Upnor and reached Rochester Bridge, capturing or burning English ships. The town's older cathedral and bridge thus stood beside a maritime landscape increasingly shaped by naval power.