This event was one of our year's highlights: not only was it superbly organised but it was the most tremendous fun. There were battles and living history encampments at each end of the main street, but the real stars were the local people who had invested so much time and enthusiasm in their participation. There was a local history opera, children were learning and singing sea shanties, there was music, an elephant* and it was all to celebrate - a defeat.

In June 1667 the Dutch under Michiel de Ruyter sailed up the Medway and Thames, burned the English ships laid up at Chatham, bombarded and captured the town of Sheerness and to add insult to injury, towed away the English flagship, The Royal Charles. On the plus side, it did bring the second Anglo-Dutch war to a fairly swift conclusion.

Roll forward to 2007 and Queenborough is now a fairly quiet conservation area that has had a noisy past: Sir Francis Drake knew it having served an apprenticeship there, Lord Horatio Nelson lived there - so did Lady Hamilton. In fact he attended church there just before sailing off to Trafalgar. It has seen a wide range of industries through the years and the Georgian houses show its past prosperity. For the last weekend of September something of that noise and bustle returned with stalls lining the streets, spontaneous music, challenges, a hanging and executions by the military. Captain Sparrow lookalikes were spotted, drunken sailors sang in the streets and members of the Guild turned their hand to a spot of piracy. Members of the public took in good part the suggestions that they might like to be relieved of the great weight of their jewels (pearls were a favourite) and were intrigued by invitations to buy illegal substances which had been picked up at sea. Both cloves and tea were subject to heavy levies at the time because of the Dutch.

We had a wonderful time and would like to thank all the friends we made for making us so welcome.  The size of our gallery is an indication of what fun it all was, and as always our thanks to everyone pictured. If you see yourself in a photo (including the elephant) please feel free to share it with us. 

*the elephant. This is a local story which was so good you can find it elsewhere on the website.