Ship Shape & Bristol Fashion, Upnor

It was yet another glorious day today, even warmer than yesterday, so we decided to take a short trip to Upnor for a walk along the edges of the River Medway. It is in fact two villages, Upper Upnor and Lower Upnor, both in the parish with the wonderful name of Frindsbury Extra, on the western bank of the Medway.
Upper Upnor has the most wonderful, steep cobbled high street that leads down to Upnor Castle. This was an Elizabethan artillery fort that helped protect Chatham Dockyard on the opposite bank of the river.
Between Upper and Lower Upnor were the huge ordnance yards that were used for the storage and maintaining of artillery shells (the massive  long wall of which is still very visible). They were Royal Naval armaments depots until the mid 1960's. I particularly liked the names of some of the buildings on this site - the dry guncotton store, the mine testing room (!) and the filled shell store.
Today's main shot was taken in Lower Upnor where all the boatyards and yacht clubs are based. I spotted this couple fixing up their boat right by the river's edge and I loved how they were framed by the larger boats. Also, in the background you can see the huge housing complex being built on the sight of the old dockyard in Chatham.
The extra is one of the yacht clubs' lookout posts boarded up. I loved the saturated colours against the summer blue sky.