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Industry on the Medway
An Introduction....
In the past, the Medway, like other rivers, has been a focus point for industry due mainly to the transportation of goods. Before quality roads were established, rivers were the best means of transporting goods quickly and many things from cake (cattle feed), wheat, rags, soda, cannon shot, paper, candles, cheese, beer, cider, vinegar, barley, ham and brimstone, to name but a few, were transported along the waterways.
In 1620, one ship which was carrying oil, pottery, Spanish wine, cheese and bacon, was wrecked along the Medway and its load never reached the intended target of Maidstone.
Barges:
Barges were also used along the Medway. In some places there was no tow path, so three men known as hufflers, had to pull the barges along. This was a laborous job, sometimes for example, fences went right down to the river edge and the hufflers had to clamber over them to continue along their route. Pulling a barge from Maidstone to Yalding, a distance of around 8 miles, would take an entire day. A huffler was usually paid one pound a day! If the barge had to continue onto Tonbridge, another team took over and another day was required to complete the route.
Hufflers were used up to the 1880's although towpaths for horses were introduced in the 1830's. These changes to the way barges were pulled came too late for most to benefit however, as shortly after tow paths were established, steam powered barges were used and neither men nor horses were required.
Wages:
In September 1931 George Orwell spent 17 days working as a hop picker in Wateringbury at Blest's Farm. Based on these experiences, his novel 'A Clergyman's Daughter' includes a description of hop picking and the working conditions. Orwell wrote:
'As to what you earned by hop picking, it was enough to keep body and soul together, and no more...the rate of pay at Cairn's was twopense a bushel, and given food hops a practised picker can average three bushels an hour. In theory, therefore, it would have been possible to earn thirty shillings by a sixty-hour week. Actually, no-one in the camp came anywhere near this figure. The best pickers of all earned thirteen or fourteen shillings a week, and the worst hardly as much as six shillings. Noddy and Dorothy, polling their hops and dividing the proceeds, made around ten shillings a week each'. [G.Orwell 'The Complete Novels' p323].
It would appear that Orwell earned around nine shillings during his time on Blest's farm which was enough to cover his board, fare back to London and a couple of drinks. However, 20 years after Orwell's death his account was re-published with comments by the (then) owner of the farm who stated that 1931 had been a poor harvest as prices were low, the hops were bad and the weather very wet.
(For examples of established industries along the Medway click on the individual links above right).
Pollution:
Unfortunately, the use of the river for industry lead to pollution and it was not until 1876 the the 'River Pollution Act' was established which stopped sewage being dumped into the rivers. Even in 1950 an official report stated that the water in the Medway between Tovil, through Maidstone to Allington, was 'truly deplorable'. Partly due to this the River Board was established in 1950 and the River Pollution Act amended and its powers to prevent pollution extended.
By encouraging local firms to reduce their pollution, between 1950 and 1958 the new River Board considerably improved the Medway. By 1958 the equivilant of two millions gallons of pollution which would've been dumped into the Medway, was thankfully now diverted into the sewer network.
In 1989 the National River Authority (NRA) was established and ran from 1989 to 1996 and was one of the forerunners of the Environment Agency. The Environment Agency took over from the NRA in 1996 upon its establishment following the Environment Act 1995.
Pollution in many UK rivers is thought to have greatly decreased in recent years.