New year, new public visiting season! Medway Queen is preparing to welcome visitors again from Saturday February 15th.
The volunteer Saturday Team are raring to get started and to welcome you all to see this historic vessel and learn her story and to see the fantastic work the restoration team has been doing. For an annual ticket of just £10 you can visit the ship and take the guided tour as often as you like for a complete calendar year. Accompanied children under 16 are admitted free of charge.
Medway Queen is open to the public at Gillingham Pier (ME7 1RX) on Saturdays from 11am to 4pm, last admissions 3pm – www.medwayqueen.co.uk
Improved facilities
Image: Bob Wilde
An ongoing visitor limitation on board PS Medway Queen has been disabled access to the ship’s main deck, where the principal saloons and engine room are situated. The promenade deck can be accessed from Gillingham Pier by the ramp as long as an eye is kept on the tide as this can cause the ramp to be steeply inclined, but until now anyone unable to manage stairs has been restricted to that promenade deck.
This limitation has now been lifted, thanks to a grant from the Jessel Baronetcy Fund, arranged through the Kent Community Foundation. A contract to supply and fit the equipment was placed with Abilityplus, a Kent based specialist company, and in December and early January their team came onboard to survey the site and fit the stairlift. It is sited on the forward companionway, leading down to the coffee and souvenir shops, from where the engine-room, toilets and upper aft saloon have almost level access. The specialist nature of the work demanded that it be done professionally, with volunteers only in support roles. It will make life easier for visitors with limited mobility and allow them to make their facilities available to a wider range of visitors.
Dunkirk Anniversary
The ship’s claim to fame, or one of them, is, of course, Dunkirk. In this 85th anniversary year of the evacuation they’ll be pushing hard at getting her story told and making people aware of the tremendous effort that her crew (and the crews of other vessels) made to bring home the British Expeditionary Force in May and June 1940. The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships are planning their five yearly commemoration based in Ramsgate and they are looking into the possibility of joining them there. If you are thinking of visiting Medway Queen in the second half of May or first half of June, please do check the website to see where she’ll be.
