Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]

Subject: Folk along the river Medway? [Kent UK]
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 08:40 AM

A family member has a boat moored on the river Medway in Kent - and we are considering a weeks sailing along it in the Summer. No specific date set as yet.

So I'm interested in information on those towns or villages situated anywhere along the river Medway, where we might find folk clubs, sessions, singarounds, festivals etceteras?

Or indeed anything else of interest!?

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: melodeonboy
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 09:14 AM

Off the top of my head:

MONDAY:

Pilot, Maidstone - 1st., 3rd. and 5th.

Swan, Maidstone - 2nd.

Nellie's Folk Club, Tonbridge - 1st. and 3rd.

The Barge, Gillingham - every Monday

TUESDAY:

Good Intent, Rochester - 2nd. and 4th. (singarounds), 3rd. (concert night)

Bull, Snodland - last Tuesday in month

Flower Pot, Maidstone (open mic) - every Tuesday


Irregular events (e.g. Travelling Folk sessions) will crop up from time to time. It'd be a good idea to post again once you've got some dates.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 09:34 AM

Further downstream, there are Faversham Folk Club at the Chimney Boy pub in Faversham, and open mike at the Smack in Whitstable, both on Wednesday nights.

And if you cross the river and head down the north bank, there is the Village Folk on Sundays near Tilbury. I believe there is some activity in the Leigh on Sea/Southend area too.

Don T.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 09:37 AM

There's also a very well attended third Sundays session at the Walnut Tree, Tonbridge Road, Maidstone, about fifteen minutes walk from the Bridge over the Medway (providing you're not packing a piano).

Don T.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 10:29 AM

You need Carey's book cataloguing the Medway crossings. I am by no means sure that the Medway is navigable past Tonbridge, and I am fairly sure it goes nowhere near Faversham.

Try these pages for info on the river: -

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~srmulti/medway/images/catchment.gif&imgrefurl=http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~srmulti/medway/index.html&h=287&w=514&sz=11&tbnid=fZHWflXqYSGeJM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3DRiver%2BMedway&usg=__WowpssDs2FoznfbkP6nPvTE3-Iw=&ei=-cNZS9XRLIfw0gTZ8JX3BA&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=3&ct=image&ved=0CBAQ9QEwAg

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 02:50 PM

""I am by no means sure that the Medway is navigable past Tonbridge, and I am fairly sure it goes nowhere near Faversham.""

It does however join the Thames which is navigable and does go past Sheerness, Whitstable and Faversham.

Or have I got the tributary relationship Medway/Thames wrong?

Don T.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 03:01 PM

OOPS!

Should have looked first.

Mayhap the Estuary is a bit too much for a river boat that far down, and Faversham of course is up a side creek near Oare.

Gillingham would seem to be the last practicable stop, unless the boat were adequate for coastal use.

Apologies Richard
Don T.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 03:27 PM

They might be able to nip round to the Swale...

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 03:36 PM

Do you know any other boaties? We could have an illegal flash folk rave on Deadman's Island...

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 04:39 PM

also remember sweeps festival may bank holiday weekend.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 06:23 PM

"Do you know any other boaties? We could have an illegal flash folk rave on Deadman's Island..."

Not anyone else on the Medway unfortunately (though I know a few river rats on the Blackwater & Deben.)

Do you know any boat folks in Kent?
A flash folkie rave sounds like something well worth a punt!

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 06:34 PM

I used to know a water gypsy called "Togs" but I have not seen him for years.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: melodeonboy
Date: 22 Jan 10 - 08:42 PM

"Do you know any other boaties?"

My brother and I have got a boat at Wateringbury, so I suppose I must be a boaty!

(It is, however, out of the water at the moment, and might well be up for sale this year. So if you're not a boaty but would like to be one, have a word with me!)

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 04:40 AM

Isn't the Rochester Sweeps held over May Day BH? worth noting.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 07:11 AM

Sweeps is 1st May holiday and Medway Council will put up a brochure in its own fekking time. When that happens someone will start a thread about it.

Meanwhile back to the topic of summer folk along the Medway. I love the idea of a folk rave but how do people get to the island if they have no boat? Parachute in?

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 07:50 AM

And if they DO parachute in, how the hell do they get out again. I don't feel up to the idea of drinking fifty gallons of Red Bull, which is what I calculate might give me sufficient lift.

Don T.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 23 Jan 10 - 12:31 PM

Actually Deadman's Island is rather forbidding.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 24 Jan 10 - 09:56 AM

Actually, with fifty gallons of Red Bull, I could quite possibly leave under jet propulsion and VTOL.

Don T.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 24 Jan 10 - 03:53 PM

"Fuck me The TItanic sails at Dawn" anyone want a Ticket ?
"Better then trying to navigate the Bloody Medway its worse then the Themes ?
Whata Palava?
I have Canoed the Medway several times and I tend to hug the banks at Tide high when its      running fast. Does it run fast too out in Mid stream. I went out mid stream ,

Honestly Mid steam on the Medway in a Canoe theirs no paddling it all slap supports or your out and under. very tiring and the tide was turning that time? Its 4ft high wind wakes out there mid stream on Ebb tide.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 24 Jan 10 - 03:59 PM

The Medway has I think the second most violent rip at full ebb or flow in the UK. I think the first might be the Clyde.

On the Medway it's the large pools just downstream of Rochester Bridge that need to get past Deadman's Island, I suspect.

Ask Blossom at any Bishop Gundulf stand: he's a diver so his life may depend on knowing.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 24 Jan 10 - 04:40 PM

In days beyond recall
I was a member of B,S,A,C, once. I used to dive the river Muff, Its between the isle,s of thigh?
Not far from Midway?

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 24 Jan 10 - 04:42 PM

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: GUEST,Gavin Atkin
Date: 24 Jan 10 - 06:10 PM

I'm a Kent boatie, among other things. And yes, having been turned away by the folks of Essex a few months ago I found myself motor-sailing up the Medway in full ebb. We did it, but it was slow, hard work, and we were very pleased to tie up at Queenborough, which for sailors at least is a consistently friendly place.

There are no moorings for visitors anywhere near Leigh, apparently, and I was particularly disappointed as it was the land of my birth!

Gav

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: GUEST,Gavin Atkin
Date: 24 Jan 10 - 06:12 PM

Actually, I'm ridiculously boaty. I run this thing:

http://intheboatshed.net

Gav

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 24 Jan 10 - 06:22 PM

Are you any relation to the Atkin who makes wooden things wot don't float, namely Atkin guitars?

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 25 Jan 10 - 09:19 AM

Hi Gav,
Are you related to Tommy Atkins to whom the British soldiers are known has Tommie,s
From where the Germans gave the Sherman tank the name Tommy cookers during W,W,2
from the famed nursery rhythm
                                           Tommy ,Tommy was a pipers son.
Tommy Atkin was convicted of stealing a pig and was given the choice of transportation to South Austrailia or join the British Army.
He done well for himself and fought bravely against the French he climbed to fame and shot through the ranks after he captured the french eagle He became a close adviser to
The duke of Wellington.
                   There is a famed Folk song over the hills and far away.
    I sing it at folk gatherings. The King George version.
    whereby Richard above does a very good Queen Anne version.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: melodeonboy
Date: 25 Jan 10 - 09:22 AM

Following on from my previous posting, I am willing to offer a discount on our boat to genuine folkies.

To qualify for this special offer, you'll be expected to demonstrate a high level of folkiness by singing a murder ballad of at least twenty verses in the boatyard after which you'll have to sing "Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum" (with appropriate drunken gestures and movements) whilst actually on the boat. Eligibility for this once in a lifetime offer will be decided on by a panel of folk experts, headed by Richard Bridge.

Applications from men with beards and sandals are particularly welcome.

NB:

Terms and conditions apply.

Any songs sung in the boatyard may be recorded for training purposes.

Singer/songwriters are required to complete form FIE/1 (finger-in-ear assessment form) and to provide a stamped and signed certificate of folkiness from their local folk club before their applications can be considered.

The above offer is only valid when used in conjunction with the "Buymelodeonboyapintwheneveryouseehim" payment plan.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 25 Jan 10 - 09:23 AM

I think we should have a folk session on Dead mans island and invite the river police or they,lll be bound to gate crash it?

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 25 Jan 10 - 09:35 AM

Melodeon Boy can I be part of the above crew. I have a Sailors out fit and hat?
I got the uniform from the Camden Market Army surplus store. Trouble is its German.
I wear the tunic top for Richards Lower Stoke session next Sunday?

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jan 10 - 10:09 AM

No relation to Atkin of the guitars, I'm afraid. Actually I'm not related to anyone famous unless you count the story that my grandmother's maiden name, Eldred, was a corruption of Ethelred, which by family legend makes me a descendent of King Ethelred the Unready.

Some might say that explains certain things about my personality. Others will argue that by now most people will have some connection with the old king... And Wikipedia points out that he wasn't unready so much as badly counselled http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86thelred_the_Unready

Btw, I wear a beard, but not sandals.

Gav

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 25 Jan 10 - 10:20 AM

As I remember an article in a narrowboat magazine (c 1976). To get to the Medway from the Thames you had to lash two narrowboats together for the lateral stability and you had to go in convoy, probably with marine lights, port and starboard.

Unless you are already in the river.

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: melodeonboy
Date: 25 Jan 10 - 10:34 AM

I was talking to a narrowboat owner on the Medway a few years ago and he told me that he'd got tugs to take them round the estuary!

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 25 Jan 10 - 10:34 AM

They look like *proper* sailing boats Gavin, much posher than what we'll be using.. ;-)

Yeah, my old fella said the Medway is tidal, so that'd be something to watch. As far as getting from Essex to Kent was concerned it was originally sailed out of the Blackwater estuary into the North sea, and around the coast a wee tad and then into the Medway. So we know it floats at least!

Subject: RE: Folk along the Medway River? [Kent UK]
From: GUEST,Gavin Atkin
Date: 25 Jan 10 - 01:36 PM

I know someone who hired a pilot to take a narrowboat down the Thames and up the Medway. From hearing them tell the story I gather it was quite an experience.

Any way, while I'm here, if it's your kind of thing don't forget the trad and old fashioned session at the Bell & Jorrocks, Frittenden this Sunday evening from 8 to Nelly Dean...

I'm sorry it isn't closer to the Medway. But here's a thing - years ago there was a plan to build a canal from the Medway down to the south coast - and it was to go through Fritt on the way. The locals still talk about it, or at least some of them do.

Gav