All are invited to the Friends’ group Annual General Meeting at 10am on Saturday 15 February at The Pantry, Fort Amherst, Dock Road, ME4 4UB.

Connecting Gillingham, Chatham and Brompton, the Great Lines Heritage Park is Medway’s most prominent green space, winning a Green Flag Award since 2014.

The park is a unique historic landscape. It includes a line of defensive ditches, the Chatham Lines, which were built to protect Chatham’s naval dockyard from a land-based attack. Soldiers used the open space for military exercises and parades – as described in Charles Dickens’ first novel, Pickwick Papers.

In recent years, it has seen major improvements such as lighting the Chatham Naval Memorial, and construction of a footbridge linking the park to Fort Amherst with its newly opened greenspaces and amphitheatre. Today, it’s the location for Medway’s annual fireworks, Armed Forces Day and Great Lines parkrun every Saturday morning.

The Friends of Great Lines Heritage Park is an independent community group which aims to preserve and promote the park for all to enjoy. Volunteers help keep the park looking good with regular litter picks. For more information visit Medway Great Lines Facebook page.