The Medway Queen Preservation Society has been nominated for the Pride of Medway Award.
Brian Goodhew (our press officer) is attending a meeting at the Corn Exchange Rochester on Friday 31st January to receive a Pride of Medway certificate.
Judges will decide the outright winners and then awards will be given out on March 29th.

The Medway Quee Preservation Society 2014 Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 12th July. 
The venue this year is hopefully going to be on board the PS Medway Queen, if this cannot be done, the meeting will be held on our site.
If members of the society would like to attend the 2014 AGM:
The meeting starts at 2pm, at Gillingham Pier, Pier Approach Rd, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 1RX
Parking is available.
For any questions please call 01634 575717.

On the 16th of January 2014, the INTERREG IV A 2 Seas Programme capitalisation working group has approved the application for cluster “Maritime Heritage Skills: Preserve, Develop, Share” (MHS) of which the New Medway Steam Packet Company Ltd is the Lead Partner.

The Heroes 2C project will join forces with the “Traditional Maritime Skills” (TMS) project, another 2 Seas project which aimed at preserving traditional boat building skills in the 2 Seas area.

The MHS cluster will concentrate on consolidating & disseminating the results achieved by Heroes 2C and TMS projects in terms of training for disadvantaged groups of society and preservation of traditional maritime skills.

This new cross border partnership is ERDF funded and will enable the society to work and collaborate with the following partners across the 2 Seas region:

Cornwall Marine Network (UK)

MidKent College (UK)

Association Tourville (FR)

VDAB (BE)

Vzw De Steenschuit (BE)

Province of Zeeland (NL)

Foundation for Cultural Heritage Zeeland (NL)

Rotterdams Welvaren (NL)

Project activities will start on 1st of March 2014 and will be directed towards the organisation of promotional events in Cornwall (UK) and Zeeland (NL) where cross border training programmes in traditional maritime skills will be presented to young people and other disadvantaged groups of society.

We are delighted to be leading this project and to be working with our new (and old) European partners in the very near future !

Antoine Porteneuve

MHS Cluster Coordinator

New Medway Steam Packet Company Ltd

A date for your diary: It was the society’s habit while at Damhead Creek to celebrate the ship’s birthday on or around the anniversary of her launch. This tradition can now be revived and with her 90th birthday coming up this April plans are in hand for a celebratory event on one or both days of the weekend of 26th-27th of April. Details depend on completion and acceptance of the new gangway and other safety requirements. The details will be announced on www.medwayqueen.co.uk or you can phone the society in April for more details.

Visitors
At the time of writing, early in the year, the Visitor Centre is open from 11am to 3pm on Saturdays with very limited access to the ship. It is intended that the hours will be extended when a better gangway is provided for the vessel but ship access will always be limited to the non-working days of the restoration team.

Forward Restoration Plan
The project is being scheduled within the society’s current resource limits and the first priorities are acceptable public access to the ship and commencement of a maintenance regime to safeguard what we have already achieved. The restoration priorities will be the aft saloon and the ship’s engine room. The former will be restored as the ship’s restaurant to allow fundraising to take place on board. The latter, widely seen as the heart of the ship, is planned to be a visitor attraction and is a major aspect of her restoration to working order. The aim is to present the ship in her 1939 condition as accurately as the available information will allow. The rate at which this work progresses is entirely dependent on availability of funding and skilled volunteers – see above.

The work carried out so far has only been possible with significant support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. This phase is now completed and we have to raise considerable amounts of money to complete the restoration. The project needs the help of volunteers with practical ship fitting skills as well as administrators and people to deal with the public. 

This is your chance to get involved in this fantastic maritime heritage project and all offers of help should be made to the society at Gillingham Pier or on 01634 575717 (daytime, Monday to Thursday). MQPS Gillingham Pier, Pier Approach Road, Gillingham. ME7 1RX

The Heroes 2C Final Event was held on the 12th and 13th of December 2013.
The venue was the Commissioners’ House, in Chatham Historic Dockyard.
The Commissioners’ House is one of the oldest buildings in England and reported to be haunted.

The master of Ceremony for the two days event was Miss Sandrine Stiernon, Event Coordinator & Organiser.

Thursday 12th of December: Tourism Development Seminar

On arrival between 9.00 and 9.45am coffee was served and at 9.45 Brian Burton, Chairman of the MQPS welcomed the participants and started the day off.

10am Mr Bill Ferris Chief Executive for the Historic Dockyard gave a lecture on how to run a successful tourism project based on heritage assets.

11am it was the turn of our French partners Mrs Marie Leclerc and Mrs Helene Brazy who talked about tourism projects in the Gravelines area.

All lectures were followed by a question & answer session.

After lunch, transport was provided to visit the PS Medway Queen and guided tours of the ship were given by staff and apprentices.

Back to the Commissioners’ House where Mr Dries Debruyne, Territorial Facilitator for INTERREG 2 Seas and Mr Antoine Porteneuve, Heroes 2C Project Coordinator gave lectures on the prospects, benefits and inconveniences of the new generation of European Territorial Cooperation projects (INTERREG V 2014-2020).
4.00pm Q&A session on the day proceedings followed by departure at 4.30pm.

Friday the 13th of December: Heroes 2C Project Final Event

9.45am The Mayor of Medway, Josie Iles, welcomed the participants and talked about maritime history in the Medway area.

10am – 1pm Presentation of the 3 Maritime Heritage projects involved in Heroes 2C by the managers, trainees and apprentices.

This included Mr Robert Stokes, Project Manager for MQPS (UK), Mr Christian Cardin, President of Association Tourville (FR) and Mr Eddy Stuer, Project Coordinator for The New Belgica project (BE).

Social Exclusion and Inclusion was the subject of the presentation given by Mr Carlo De Smedt from the VDAB, 4th partner in the Heroes 2C project, specialised in social inclusion aspects.

After lunch, a visit to the Medway Queen was repeated and on arrival back to the Commissioners’ a talk about tourism in the Antwerp area was given by Mrs Sabine Denissen, Tourism Advisor.

Mr Gregg McDonald presented the Heroes 2C final movie, a 20mn film showcasing the projects achievements in the 3 partners regions.

End of the two days event came with members of the three societies promising to keep in touch and promoting the friendship that have been created and looking back the promoters can be happy that 130 delegated attended!

Mr Brian Goodhew, Press Officer MQPS

Mr Antoine Porteneuve, Heroes 2C Project Coordinator

Happy New Year to you all!

Were all back to work here at Gillingham Pier, luckily the ship survived the horrible weather we had over Christmas, shes still in tip top shape!

The apprentices and instructors are working to get a proper gangway installed for safe access. And the rest of us are working hard at fundraising!

As you all know we have been lucky enough to have been given help by the GMB and Medway Council, so we have started this year fresh and full of hope for this year.

Keep an eye on this page for updates on what is happening with us!