Culture and The River
The Medway's 'marriage' to the Thames is given extensive treatment by Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene in the 16th century (Book IV, Canto xi). Joseph Conrad describes the view up the Medway from the Thames Estuary in The Mirror of the Sea (1906).
For the 1999 film The Mummy the river was filmed at Chatham Dockyard, in an imitation of a “port at Cairo”. The scene is brief but involves the main protagonists departing on their mission to the city of the dead.
Every year a festival is held in Maidstone to celebrate the River Medway. Maidstone River Festival, which has been running since 1980, is held on the last Saturday of July. It features events on and around the river and attracts thousands to Kent's county town. The Maidstone River Festival is celebrated during the last weekend in July every year. In 2009, the festival celebrated its 30th anniversary.
"Medway Flows Softly" is a song by local man George Gilbert; it was written in the mid 60s and is often played in local folk clubs and at festivals in Kent.
The River Medway is featured at Maidstone in the studio backdrop of the ITV1 regional news programme Meridian Tonight.
At 7.15 p.m. on 1 May each year, local morris dancers Kettle Bridge Clogs dance across Barming Bridge (otherwise known as the Kettle Bridge) to mark the official start of their morris dancing season.
Recreationally the river is used by many. For example individuals and many clubs have trips to paddle along many different parts of the Medway (e.g. Bewl Canoe Club). Individuals and clubs members paddling on the Medway and most other rivers should be members of the BCU.
Read more about this topic: River Medway
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