Upnor - Upper Upnor

Upper Upnor

Upper Upnor comprises a village street leading to Upnor Castle, including many houses displaying Kentish weatherboarding, as well as some terraced streets formerly used by the MOD and also Castle Street. It is on Chatham Reach directly opposite St Mary's Creek.

The Royal Engineers still have a presence in Upper Upnor; the Royal School of Military Engineering (Riverine Operations section) maintains classrooms, workshops and a hard in Upnor for the training of Royal Engineers Assault Boat Operators and Watermanship Safety Officers, who continue to operate craft on operations all over the world. The section operates Mk 1 and 3 Rigid Raiders, and Combat Support Boats, as well as teaching use of the Mk 6 Assault Boat. The area is also used for other training purposes by the RSME including practice and test Bomb Disposal tasks by the Defence EOD School, until its move to Bicester.

Though Upnor Castle was only operational for about 100 years (1559–1667), it was retained as a magazine and ammunition store until the end of the First World War.