Medway Street Angels are not closing
Plus Gills latest, the Silent Postman, adults at Poco Loco, our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more
Events can have unintended consequences, and today we lead on the unfortunate knock-on effect for a similarly named charity following Gillingham Street Angels' closure announcement. Further down, we have the latest on a mixed season for Gillingham FC, a look at a near-forgotten working-class novel by a Rochester postman, we review adults and others at Poco Loco, our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more.
Medway Street Angels are not closing
Medway Street Angels was established as a charity by Amber Gilbert in 2017, after she had been providing soup kitchens and support for the homeless in Medway. Now, after the closure of a similarly titled charity, they are at risk due to confusion over their names. Amber and volunteer Kay Emerick spoke to us to make it clear that they are not closing and that they need your support.
Amber Gilbert started supporting Medway’s homeless population in 2014 and officially launched Medway Street Angels (MSA) as a charity in 2017. Their main goal is to support people by providing home-cooked, nutritious food and by operating a large soup kitchen that currently feeds people on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the large car park to the rear of the former Debenhams in Chatham.
Registered as an unaffiliated organisation, Amber is keen to highlight that it is completely volunteer-led, with no staff or assets. Kay started after working for Amber, who runs a full-time business whilst managing MSA. All of the volunteers are trained in mental health support, suicide prevention and drug and alcohol addiction, amongst other services. Kent Police have trained them to identify victims of gangs, signpost them to appropriate support, and manage safeguarding referrals. They also run a needle exchange, helping to keep the HIV and hepatitis rates down in Medway.
There is currently no connection between Medway Street Angels and Gillingham Street Angels. GSA founder Neil Charlick volunteered at MSA briefly in 2017. Since then, they have worked to establish a distinction, even officially rebranding as MSA. However, their focus on support and lack of marketing have continued to confuse people, leading to donations of food and furniture they were unable to accept.
Since the announcement of the closure of Gillingham Street Angels, MSA has received multiple notifications that small donor direct debits have been cancelled. MSA has also had to contact all of its significant donors to inform and reassure them that it is not closing.
Kay and Amber are understandably concerned, as this is the busiest time of year for the work they do, with nights getting colder, and they are starting to put together their Christmas care packages. All the support they can get is needed. If you are able to help them this Christmas, you can let people know they are still working and/or support them with items they need. - Steven Keevil
Local Democracy Café correction
Yesterday we announced our second Local Democracy Café, and in our excitement, included the wrong date. To be clear, we have not scheduled it for the past, and we will be discussing the question Does Medway Culture Matter? on Thursday, 20 November.
Attending the café is free, but booking is essential. You can reserve your spot via Eventbrite.
What happened to Gillingham FC in October?
October saw Gillingham gearing up for Halloween with a horror show of league form: one draw and three defeats. And yet, sitting in 8th place in League Two, just a point from the play-offs and three from the automatic places, is conversely still somehow encouraging. Ben Hopkins recalls a month to forget…
MK Ultra-Underwhelming: 1375 lonely people travelled up to MK Dons’s soulless, largely unoccupied stadium to back the Gills… and soon wished they hadn’t. Given the turmoil of Gareth Ainsworth’s temporary departure to undergo heart surgery and the strong opposition, it wasn’t too surprising that Gills made a creaky start to quickly go behind. But they were still looking rudderless and feckless as they slipped to 3-0 down with 21 minutes to play. At that point, I’d estimate 300 away fans immediately headed for the exit.
Then, Gills at least showed a little spirit to claw two goals back, courtesy of Jonny Williams and a first for Seb Palmer-Houden as he headed towards full fitness. Admittedly, it was too little too late, but it was something.
Shoot Shoot Shoot Shoot Shoot: I’ll end the Nine Inch Nails reference there to keep this column PG-rated. At home versus Cheltenham, Gillingham had 30 shots on goal - a figure you’d expect to usually be enough to win two or even three games. So what happened? The opposition took an 87th-minute lead with their only shot on target. Gills’ ragged determination at least paid off in part when substitute Elliot Nevitt hit an equaliser deep into stoppage time - his first since April.
Dear Gills, have some read cards, love from the ref: Gillingham rarely seemed to have a good time when Trevor Kettle was refereeing, so all Gills forums had a bit of whinge when it was announced his son, Zac Kennard-Kettle, would be the man in the middle away to Grimsby. But really, how bad could it be? The answer was… very bad.
Gills had been playing fine for the first half hour until Remeao Hutton dallied on a backpass, appeared to be fouled and then hauled down the opponent who had nudged him over. Kettle Jr. flashed up a red card, and a promising afternoon was effectively done. Hutton’s suspension for the incident was quickly overturned.
From there on, things got worse: a clumsy challenge from Sam Gale was the kind of foul you sometimes see given and sometimes don’t. But: penalty, goal, Gills go 1-0 down. Five minutes later, Williams then received a second yellow and with it, the team’s second red of the afternoon. That galvanised Gills to make a new heroic effort against the odds, but you’re never going to do much with a two-man deficit. Game over.
I said hey… What’s going on? It was back-up goalkeeper Jake Turner’s turn to pick the pre-match warm-up music at home to Salford. In retrospect, his choice of 4 Non Blondes’ god awful ‘What’s Up?’ must have been a hex cast upon first choice Glenn Morris, who soon went off injured and, in the process, likely handed Turner the gloves for several weeks to come. Salford scored almost immediately. I can’t decide if Turner was brave or foolhardy to run out so far in an attempt to stop it.
When your luck is out, it’s really out. Bradley Dack wasted an opportunity to equalise with a flaccid penalty, so naturally Salford quickly scored a second. Josh Andrews reduced the deficit with a sleek turn-and-shot that suggests he has the ability to score far more than he so far has. But… well, that was that. The diluted magic of the FA Cup is barely worth mentioning, so I’ll keep it brief: Nevitt and Palmer-Houden both scored again (hopefully a better omen) to draw 2-2 with Newport before losing on penalties. - Ben Hopkins
In brief
👨🎨 Local eco-artist Kieran Poole (of Rubbish Idea) has produced a 3,000-strong lid remembrance mural at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham, which is available to see in person until 17 November. You can see photographs of the mural being built on Instagram here.
🖼️ Don’t forget that Second Chance Medway is organising an art auction at Sun Pier House, as a fund to provide Medway residents with food support at Christmas. The exhibition of artworks will be from Thursday 13 November until Saturday 15 November, open for silent and blind bidding. You can learn more about the Second Chance Medway Art Auction via their dedicated website for the event.
📚 Local literary leaders Barry Fentiman-Hall and Sam Hall have been interviewed by ‘cene magazine.
🎺 John Emmett, known locally as John E Jazz, has passed away at the age of 84. John spent over 50 years putting on jazz gigs across the Medway Towns.
Jack Saunders: The Silent Postman
Kalomera was published in 1911, written by a Rochester postman and described as the first working-class novel. Chris de Coulon-Berthold, fresh from appearing at the Medway River Lit launch, writes about the book…
William John “Jack” Saunders (1873–1928) was a Rochester postman whose quiet life concealed an extraordinary achievement: He is believed to have been Britain’s first working-class novelist.
Born in Ironmonger Lane, Rochester, the second of thirteen children of George and Sarah Saunders, Jack grew up amid overcrowded housing, poor sanitation, and grinding poverty. His father, a former Royal Marine and avid reader, kept a small library of adventure stories and moral fictions by writers such as G. A. Henty and Charles Kingsley. From these, Jack absorbed not only a love of reading but also a belief in moral progress and the potential for self-improvement.
Educated at St Margaret’s National School, he left at fourteen to work for the Post Office, first as a telegraph boy, then as a postman, a job he would keep for life. Yet his curiosity and intellect far outstripped the limits of his slight formal schooling. Encouraged by the establishment of the Rochester Free Library in the 1890s, Saunders educated himself in his spare hours, studying literature, philosophy, science, and foreign languages. By his thirties, he could read French, German, Italian, and Spanish, and had a working knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
Walking was both his work and his passion. On his holidays, he took long walking tours across Britain and Europe, travelling through Ireland, Norway, France, and Switzerland, journeys that fed both his independence of mind and his imaginative landscapes. Colleagues called him “the Silent Postman,” a nickname that hinted at a reserved, inwardly focused man.
In 1911, after years of study and reflection, Saunders published Kalomera: The Story of a Remarkable Community, a utopian socialist novel envisioning a world without poverty or prejudice. Written from the perspective of a traveller who discovers a rational and compassionate society, Kalomera proposed shared labour, universal education, and ethical religion. It was published three years before The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and more than two decades before Love on the Dole, placing Saunders at the very beginning of the genre of working-class fiction.
Kalomera received modest local praise, but its quiet idealism appeared out of step with the turbulent years of the Great Unrest (1911–14), when strikes and class conflict dominated headlines. Lacking connections, wealth, or publicity, Saunders earned nothing from his writing. His wages as a postman never exceeded thirty shillings a week. Even so, he wrote a second novel, The Nazarene (1915), a religious romance seemingly now almost entirely lost.
A lifelong trade unionist, Saunders served as Vice President of the Rochester branch of the Union of Postal Workers. His socialism was moral rather than revolutionary, a belief in justice, compassion, and education as the foundations of a fairer world.
He died in 1928, aged fifty-four, and was buried in St Margaret’s Cemetery, Rochester, his grave unmarked. For decades, his name was absent from literary history, remembered only in local archives. Yet Kalomera remains a remarkable testament to working-class imagination, a postman’s dream of a better world, composed in silence, one step at a time, along the streets of Rochester. - Chris de Coulon-Berthold
Chris will be speaking about Kalomera at the William Cuffey Festival, which starts at 12 noon on Saturday 8 November at Rochester Baptist Church, Crow Lane.
Medwayish has launched a crowdfunder to bring Kalomera back into print. Due for publication in 2028, the centenary of the author’s death, you can advance pre-order your copy today.
Careful Now take Chatham
A change of location for twee indiepop promoters Careful Now from The Oast to Poco Loco stands opening act Snidefinder in good stead, the luminous backdrop shedding fluorescent light on one of Medway’s most enduringly idiosyncratic performers. The ultimate DIY artist, Simon Williams accompanies himself through a looped percussion track formed by strategically hitting his guitar with his own hands, a hairbrush (I think) and a chopstick. Giving us a career retrospective tonight, his esoteric and often hilarious observational lyrics are delivered with elements of the vocal presentation of a more biddable Mark E Smith and are met with satisfying bafflement from the audience. But this is a CNP audience, more than open to being discombobulated, and increasingly supportive of this splendid, off-kilter music for people who have ever wondered “What does a chimp know?”
Félicette are something of an indie pop supergroup, and although some members have appeared in other bands for CNP, this is their debut in this ensemble. They are immediately impressive, displaying tight synchronicity despite their self-deprecating commentary between songs. Swapping vocals and blending harmonies between Sophie Mackenzie and Rose Asprey, their sound is reminiscent of the glory days of early 90s American indie alt-rock. Veruca Salt, Belly and Juliana Hatfield are all touchstones, and the band members are delighted to have these comparisons made. There are vitriolic edges to the lyrics, and they make a hell of an energetic noise behind the sweetness of the vocal harmonies. A highlight of the set is a song which might be titled ‘She’s a Pleaser’ but resides on the set list as ‘Cheesy Pizza.’ Félicette are a joy to watch, good humoured, fierce and revelling in enjoying playing together. The audience truly takes them to heart, their feline appeal not lost on a crowd with a recognised tendency towards cat appreciation.
adults, who embrace the lowercase like an overdriven e e cummings, have to follow this and do so with aplomb. Making a triumphant return to CNP shows, they have the crowd on side even before it is revealed that they have taken the time to learn some fascinating facts about Chatham’s erstwhile traffic cone receptacle, Thomas Waghorn. Like a punkier Los Campesinos!, vocals are traded between Joely and Tom, allowing for a call and response effect in places, coinciding then clashing in others. They have, perhaps, overestimated the capacity of a Medway crowd for audience participation, though. Whilst we have been primed to shout a two-syllable band name 20 seconds into ‘TfL Have A Lot To Answer For,’ everyone is standing by with a response (“Pip Blom!”, “What’s a syllable?”), but we collectively miss our cue. No one minds. Dynamic drumming and fuzzed out guitars are the backdrop to a soaring anthemic rendition of ‘All We’ve Got//All We Need’ as three vocals combine to screaming effect. Tom pays tribute to Colin and Robin’s cultivation of the CNP community, and it seems undeniable that no other promoters have done as much to increase female and non-binary representation in Medway’s live scene as these two. With entertainment like this on a Sunday night in Chatham, long may they continue. - Moira Mehaffey
Events this week
🎻 Sat 8 Nov - City of Rochester Symphony Orchestra // First concert of 2025-26 season sees orchestra perform British classics from Elgar to Parry. Central Theatre, Chatham. Tickets from £15.
🎸 Sat 8 Nov - The Penrose Web + South Shore // Local bands play local show. Rochester Social Club. Free, donations welcome.
🎥 Wed 12 Nov - Dogma: Resurrected! + Q&A // 25th anniversary re-release of Kevin Smith’s controversial comedy about an abortion clinic worker with a special heritage. Odeon, Chatham. Tickets from £6.50.
🗣️ Thu 13 Nov - Special Full Medway Council meeting // One-off edition to discuss local government organisation and the potential abolition of Medway Council. St George’s Centre, Chatham. Free.
🎷 13 - 14 Nov - Rochester Cathedral Jazz and Blues Festival // Third edition of festival features performances from BBC Big Band and James Taylor Quartet. Rochester Cathedral. Tickets from £10.
Footnotes
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