Culture And Memory

The Franklin Festival - celebrating the rich historical connection between Gravesham and the Thames

We wish to invigorate Gravesham’s rich riverside history by establishing a Franklin Festival. The Franklin Festival will reference the final voyage of Sir John Franklin whose expedition left Greenhithe in 1845 in a beleaguered attempt to discover the Northwest Passage. The ships used on this voyage, Erebus and Terror, have relatively recently been discovered in the frozen seas around Canada and we will be reaching out to Parks Canada and the Nunavut Inuit as well as working with the National Maritime Museum to establish stronger links with this important aspect of our heritage. Whilst this festival will put Sir John, his crew, his indomitable wife (Lady Jane) and the ships at its heart, it will be using the stories and traditions of our historical riverside past to create a programme of activity to demonstrate to current and future generations how Gravesham and the Thames are inextricably and forever linked.