On March 30, 1984, Chatham Dockyard’s gates closed – ending 400 years of the Royal Navy's presence in the town and the surrounding area.
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00:00 40 years ago a decision was made to preserve centuries of Chatham's history all in one
00:06 place.
00:07 After 400 years of Royal Navy presence came to an end, Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust
00:13 came to life.
00:15 And today, four decades on, the site has hosted a variety of exhibitions, had a number of
00:21 Royal visits, plus been the set for Hollywood films.
00:24 As a Royal Navy officer, for me it's a privilege to be able to help steer this dockyard into
00:34 its 40th year, where for the first time we've become self-sufficient financially on a revenue
00:41 basis.
00:42 So that's a huge achievement for us here and for the Trust to enable that.
00:47 And then we've got a really exciting future ahead of us.
00:50 So in many ways we're not just celebrating the 40th, but actually we're looking ahead
00:55 to the next 40.
00:56 And we're going to be a very integral part of Medway, Medway Town.
01:00 A special visit today from the dockyard's first ever visitor, back when the Trust was
01:05 first formed in 1984.
01:08 Forty years ago, almost to the day, I was the first member of the public to come into
01:12 this dockyard through these doors behind me.
01:15 When it first opened I was 15 and a school kid and my parents dropped me off three or
01:21 four hours early.
01:22 So even back then it was kind of, we've got a dockyard on our doorstep, although it had
01:27 actually just about closed as a Royal Navy dockyard.
01:32 But it still had this attraction of everything was behind this door and nobody had seen it
01:36 before.
01:37 It was just a fascinating idea to see what a Royal Dockyard was like.
01:41 Once during its four centuries of supporting the Royal Navy, it built more than 400 ships
01:46 and submarines.
01:47 This was the very first ship to be brought to Chatham's historic dockyard 37 years ago
01:53 now.
01:54 The HMS Gannet was built in Sheerness before she went travelling far and wide across the
01:59 world and then was brought back home to Kent, where it's expected she'll spend the rest
02:03 of her days.
02:04 And it was once Medway's biggest employer.
02:07 During the Second World War, 17,000 workers from more than 26 different trades earned
02:13 a living.
02:14 And in the pipeline are many more exhibitions and plans to sail Chatham's historic dockyard
02:19 into the future.
02:21 Sophia Akin for KMTV in Chatham.
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