River Medway. The River Medway is a river in South East England.
It rises in the High Weald, East Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a total distance of 70 miles. About 13 miles of the river lies in East Sussex, with the remainder being in Kent.
It has a catchment area of 930 square miles, the second largest in southern England after the Thames. The map opposite shows only the major tributaries: a more detailed map shows the extensive network of smaller streams feeding into the main river.
Those tributaries rise from points along the North Downs, the Weald and Ashdown Forest. Former minor tributaries include the Old Bourne River, which flowed through the Brook, Chatham.
The river and its tributaries flow through largely rural areas, Tonbridge, Maidstone and Medway being the exceptions. The Medway itself initially flows in a west–east direction south of the North Downs; at the confluence of the River Beult, however, it turns north and breaks through the North Downs at the Medway Gap, a steep and narrow valley near Rochester, before its final section to the sea. Until 1746 the river was not navigable above Maidstone. Below that point each village on the river had its wharf or wharves: at Halling, Snodland, New Hythe and Aylesford. Cargoes included corn, fodder, fruit, stone and timber. In 1
It rises in the High Weald, East Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a total distance of 70 miles. About 13 miles of the river lies in East Sussex, with the remainder being in Kent.
It has a catchment area of 930 square miles, the second largest in southern England after the Thames. The map opposite shows only the major tributaries: a more detailed map shows the extensive network of smaller streams feeding into the main river.
Those tributaries rise from points along the North Downs, the Weald and Ashdown Forest. Former minor tributaries include the Old Bourne River, which flowed through the Brook, Chatham.
The river and its tributaries flow through largely rural areas, Tonbridge, Maidstone and Medway being the exceptions. The Medway itself initially flows in a west–east direction south of the North Downs; at the confluence of the River Beult, however, it turns north and breaks through the North Downs at the Medway Gap, a steep and narrow valley near Rochester, before its final section to the sea. Until 1746 the river was not navigable above Maidstone. Below that point each village on the river had its wharf or wharves: at Halling, Snodland, New Hythe and Aylesford. Cargoes included corn, fodder, fruit, stone and timber. In 1
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