NEARLY 500 former Chatham Dockyard workers took a trip down memory lane today when they attended a reunion to mark the 20th anniversary of the yard’s closure.

Among them were shipwrights, electricians, coppersmiths, slingers, sail makers, caulkers and others with a wide and varied range of skills, many of them now in their 80s.

Together with their wives, they were given the freedom to tour the Historic Dockyard, and see the displays in the buildings where they once worked. These included the Wooden Walls exhibition, the Dockyard Museum and the three historic ships.

Bill Ferris, chief executive of the Historic Dockyard Trust, said: “The response has been tremendous. It’s great that many of the men have been accompanied by their wives, who would have been excluded when it was a working dockyard.

“I hope they will see that we have respected the environment that was so much a part of their lives.

“This event is at the heart of the Medway community. It’s not just about the Historic Dockyard, it’s about the re-emergence of Medway as a great place to live.

“The message is going out that there is a real success story here.”

Mr Ferris paid special tribute to Medway Council for its help in organising the event.

Among the first to arrive was Tom Harris,81, who signed up as an apprentice at the yard in 1939, and who was accompanied by his wife Margaret. They had come all the way from Alresford in Hampshire.

“I remember working on badly damaged ships during the war including the submarine Triumph which came in with its bow blown off,” said Mr Harris. “I worked here up to 1982, and if I had the chance I would do it all again.”

During the open day, the Victorian sloop HMS Gannet was opened to the public for the first time. Performing the opening ceremony was a lady dressed as Queen Victoria who arrived by horse and carriage.

She went aboard the newly restored vessel to the accompaniment of songs from HMS Pinafore, performed by Gillingham Operatic Society.

The former dockyard employees were welcomed by Admiral Sir Nicholas Hunt, Chairman of the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, and by the leader of Medway Council Cllr Rodney Chambers.