Welcome to Rochester Esplanade Gardens and Churchfields Park

Welcome to Rochester Esplanade Gardens and Churchfields Park. . The Esplanade is surrounded by lots of thing to see, including the Castle and Bridge, the River Medway, Churchfields, St. Margaret's Church, and a wide variety of wildlife, plants and trees., Esplanade Gardens , Esplanade Gardens is a valuable public open space, including a riverside walk. The greenspaces here include gym equipment, a children's playground, picnic benches, a sensory garden, places to sit and lots of open spaces to enjoy., A Force For Good , Voluntary group Friends of Rochester Churchfields and Esplanade (FORCE) have restored the three raised flower beds to create a beautiful Sensory Garden. The gardens have been designed to celebrate the memory of Medway's own women's suffrage pioneer Vera Conway Gordon. She led a group of law-abiding local suffragists, marched The Great Pilgrimage of 1913 and lived all her life here in one of the houses overlooking the Esplanade. The plants have been chosen to reflect the colours of the suffrage movement Bags, create a more vibrant, biodiverse environment and be stimulating to all senses for recreational and education purposes., Churchfields , Churchfields Park is an open, green space on a slope overlooking the river Medway. Its situation on a hillside above the river offers one of the best panoramic and scenic views in Rochester, in particular for watching sunsets, and for sledging when it snows. In the past Churchfields has been known as Backfields, Willis Fields and Church Mead, and was once pasture land for cattle. Churchfields was acquired through public philanthropy, being donated to the City of Rochester in 1906 by Councillor Charles Willis, later to become an Alderman, Mayor and Freeman of the City., A Little History , Short Brothers, famous for their 'Sunderland Flying Boat', started off as a seaplane manufacturer on the Isle of Sheppey, but later moved to Rochester esplanade in 1914 for larger facilities. Here they expanded considerably over a 3.4 hectare site until 1947 when production was moved to Belfast. The site was then home to a number of factories and industrial premises until it was redeveloped for housing in the late 1980s. There are three jetties built by the factory that are still visible along the foreshore: an early wooden jetty, a subsequent metal one and a later concrete jetty and apron that now houses the Rochester Rowing Club. These were used for launching and mooring seaplanes and flying boats.