Watts Opening 8th & 9th September​
As part of the national Heritage Open Days event celebrating England's heritage and culture Watts Almshouses will open to the public on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September 10am-4pm. Visitors can tour the grounds with a guide and view an almshouse; one of the original almshouses will be open where possible. You can also visit the exhibition in the Board Room and discuss the services provided by Watts Charities. Refreshments and home-made cakes will be on sale.
Watts Opening 8th & 9th September​
As part of the national Heritage Open Days event celebrating England's heritage and culture Watts Almshouses will open to the public on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September 10am-4pm. Visitors can tour the grounds with a guide and view an almshouse; one of the original almshouses will be open where possible. You can also visit the exhibition in the Board Room and discuss the services provided by Watts Charities. Refreshments and home-made cakes will be on sale.
Watts Opening 8th & 9th September​
As part of the national Heritage Open Days event celebrating England's heritage and culture Watts Almshouses will open to the public on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September 10am-4pm. Visitors can tour the grounds with a guide and view an almshouse; one of the original almshouses will be open where possible. You can also visit the exhibition in the Board Room and discuss the services provided by Watts Charities. Refreshments and home-made cakes will be on sale.
Watts Opening 8th & 9th September​
As part of the national Heritage Open Days event celebrating England's heritage and culture Watts Almshouses will open to the public on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September 10am-4pm. Visitors can tour the grounds with a guide and view an almshouse; one of the original almshouses will be open where possible. You can also visit the exhibition in the Board Room and discuss the services provided by Watts Charities. Refreshments and home-made cakes will be on sale.
For the first time Watts' Heritage Open Day exhibition is now available to view digitally. The exhibition is intended to provide you with a flavour of how the Charity has developed and grown over the last 440 years. By clicking on the links you can access further information and view documents normally held in Medway Archives.
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Richard Watts and the Travellers' House
​​​​​​​Richard Watts
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The Charity was founded in 1579 by the will of Richard Watts which stated that Marian, his widow, would retain his assets until she married or passed away. Upon her death or marriage his properties were to be sold and the interest raised used to support an almshouse in Rochester. Marian re-married in 1586 and Richard's will was set in motion with the opening of The Six Poor Travellers' House in Rochester.​​
Under the agreement of 1615, children who were educated in the Travellers' House were also eligible for apprenticeships. RWC continued to arrange these apprenticeships until 1855 when the new scheme governing the Charity stated that £100 must be set aside to provide apprentices premiums to children living in Rochester. ​​
Travellers hopeful of a nights' stay​​
Includes signatures of Charles Dickens 1st page, 3rd entry and Wilkie Collins 2nd page, 4th entry
Application Register 1883-1885
A sample of applicants
Governance, Administration and
Watts Public Baths
Richard Watts Charities (RWC) is governed by a set of rules and guidelines referred to as "The Scheme". The scheme currently in operation was established in 1977. The Board of Trustees can ask the Charity Commission for permission to amend the scheme. This was done successfully in 2017 when RWC's catchment area was expanded to include all of ME1 and ME2 postcodes.
Better known for almshouses and grants, Watts also ran a Public Baths from 1880 for over fifty years.​​​​​​​
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The Board Room today
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In 1855 following following lengthy legal proceedings the assets of RWC were transferred to the Rochester Municipal Charities by one of many orders from the High Court Chancery. Following this court order the 1855 Scheme was established.​ In 1977 a new scheme dissolved the Rochester Municipal Charities and entrusted administration to a new body called Richard Watts and the City of Rochester Almshouse Charities although it is more commonly known as Richard Watts Charities, or locally as Watts. RWC also administers other Rochester charities such as The Charity of Symond Potyn (1315), which explains why charities in the title is plural.
Prior to the availability of copiers, letters would have been copied by hand. Here are some examples of letters sent from the Clerk of Richard Watts Charity to the Rochester Municipal Charities, and copied into the letter book in 1842.
Like many men of his generation Richard Watts profited when Henry VIII sold off land belonging to the church. The income generated enabled him to buy more property; he continued to purchase properties right up until 1578, the year before he died. Rents generated from property and land continue to fund the work of Richard Watts Charities today.​
Watts Public Baths
Rental Roll 1851
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Watts Public Baths came into operation in 1880, at the site of an old existing baths on The Esplanande in Rochester. The old baths were owned by the Castle Club and it was from them that Watts' trustees agreed to buy the building. ​The new baths were divided into two parts, the Private Baths and the Swimming Baths. The Private Baths were divided into three classes; First Class, Second Class and the Plunge Baths. ​​By 1882 the Public Baths were firmly established and 15,917 bathers were recorded as having visited that year.​
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Richard Watts Charities remained responsible for the Public Baths until they passed into the hands of the Rochester Corporation on 1st January 1935.
Watts Almhouses, the Nursing Branch
and St Bart's Hospital
Built in 1858 Watts Almshouses were originally built to accommodate twenty people, five of which had to be nurses responsible for the almsmen and women (inmates as they were then known) plus the general community of Rochester.
The Watts Nursing Branch provided care to the almshouse residents and to the people of Rochester for over 100 years until the service was disbanded in 1958.
Richard Watts Charities provided a £4,000 grant in 1855 for the building of a new hospital, St Bart's, on the New Road in Rochester.​
Application Register 1859
for almsmen and women, outpensioners and nursing staff​​​​​​​
Draft rules with notes by W.H. Bell, Clerk, regarding the government of Watts Almshouses. Rule No. 5:
"That none of the inmates shall carry on any trade or profession whatsoever, in the almshouse or elsewhere. Nor shall they be allowed to keep any dog, pig, rabbit or any kind of poultry whatever in their apartments or on any part of the grounds of the almshouses."
Residents and staff were moved to Eylesden in Sutton Valence in 1939 due to the outbreak of war. The Minute Book 21st September 1939 records Matron as saying that the residents had settled down well. (Page197, p44 on PDF). They returned in 1945.​​
Advertising Poster 1859
John Tuffey's agreement 1908 that he would comply with the rules of the almshouse and that his residency could be terminated if he did not.
Application from Henry Paterson for accommodation at Watts in 1923. His employment history shows a previous connection in 1868. ​​
North Gate 1938
The gates were removed after these photos were taken as they were considered unsafe. Board meeting minutes of 15th December 1938 confirm that the work was carried out by Mr. Wallis for £360 14s 2d.​​
The date of this photo is unknown but obviously prior to the gates removal in1938. Sadly one of the trees is no longer, but the one remaining has established itself as a well-known landmark of Watts Almshouses today.​​​
During early 1941 the County Council of Kent asked if Trustees would lease Watts Almshouses to the Council to use as an emergency feeding and rest centre for the people of Rochester for the duration of the war. The Charity Commission were consulted and after many letters back and forth it was agreed that the lease could go ahead at £1 per annum.
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The Nursing Branch of the Charity was established under the 1855 Scheme with a remit to provide free nursing care to the almshouse residents, the poor in the local community and a maternity service for the women of Rochester. ​​
​The Head Nurse's General Report Book 1862 provided a record of visits and nursing branch business.
Nurse Stevens, it would seem, was causing the Head Nurse some bother on 7th July 1862, she was dismissed a week later.
St Bart's was originally founded as a leper hospital by Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, in 1078. In 1855 it received £4,000 from Richard Watts Charities to build a new hospital on New Road. After the new hospital opened RWC continued to donate £1,000 annually towards its upkeep.
Sister Shorthouse's claim for a new pair of stockings made me smile and wonder about this nurse who would bother claiming for one pair of stockings. However, I was telling this story to an older friend, who reminded me that stockings were precious items in 1948 so perhaps it was not so surprising after all. ​​
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The Nursing Service continued through both wars and you can see from the Quarterly Report by Miss Megarry that the nurses carried out almost 6,000 visits in that quarter. The year is unclear but it would have been sometime during WW2 when the residents were at Eylesden. Sister Shorthouse crops up again and is praised for her "interest and energy". Nurse Weaver who despite "working well on the district" is apparently not "very domesticated" and is declared "rather a detriment to her household equipment".
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This leaflet shows the mode of transport bought in for Watts Nursing Staff: the new light- weight Corgi Motorcycle. Sister Shorthouse did not agree that is was easy to lift as her letter to Matron makes clear.
"Now, about putting it in the house, it is absolutely impossible for me to lift it."
It seems that the Watts' Nursing Service really was appreciated, many letters of thanks, similar to this one, appear in the archives.
The service was eventually disbanded in 1958 due to the arrival of the NHS and a decline in the need for the service.
The annual donation was given on the proviso that the trustees could nominate patients to the hospital. not exceeding twenty at any one time. The donation was increased to £1,500 in 1886 and continued until the National Health Service was established in 1948.
St Bart's Hospital, Rochester