Chatham, on the River Medway in Kent, is a site of international military significance. It has been vitally important for the defence of the nation for more than four centuries, ever since the Royal Navy used the river here as a safe anchorage for mooring their warships and a dockyard was built.

In this superbly illustrated book, using previously unpublished archives, Peter Kendall tells for the first time the story of the defences that protected the dockyard and the key route to London, from substantial lines of earthen ramparts and ditches to major citadels and innovative forts. Part of his narrative focuses on how the Medway area developed a major role in the storage of explosives and artillery, how the first training school for the Royal Engineers was founded at Chatham in 1812 and how the soldiers were trained in siege exercises, which were huge spectacles attracting thousands of spectators.

The author gives the human side of the military training and conflicts, with his descriptions of the life endured by the new recruits and the terrible conditions in barracks that were gradually improved at Chatham and elsewhere, particularly following on from the Crimean War.