140 Earl Estate – Strood – Rochester – Chatham

The 140 is a proper community route, a circular service that begins and ends on the Earl Estate at the Bligh Way Shops and stitches together the new housing of Marlowe Park with the historic Medway towns. It is not a long ride, but the contrast between residential cul-de-sacs and the heritage skyline of Rochester gives it more interest than most local journeys.

Leaving the shops, the bus winds patiently through Earl Estate and Marlowe Park, calling at Albatross Avenue, Scholars Rise, Southwark Road and Chelmsford Road. The streets are lined with the pale brickwork of recently built homes, pocket greens and young saplings. Past the Medical Centre and Cedar Children's Academy, the route swings round Glamford Road and Lilac Crescent, picking up passengers heading for the shops and the station before turning down towards Strood.

The change of scene at Darnley Arch is sudden. The road dips beneath the railway and the bus emerges into Strood High Street, a working stretch of shopfronts, cafes and the busy crossroads at Canal Road. A moment later the Medway opens out ahead, with the bridge carrying the route across to Rochester and one of the finest urban views in Kent: the Norman keep of Rochester Castle squared against the cathedral's lead roof, with the river bending away below.

On the Rochester side the bus calls at the Guildhall Museum, the railway station and the Community Hub before climbing Star Hill and Jacksons Fields. The High Street here is all timber jetties, Dickensian shopfronts and the gates of the cathedral close, glimpsed in flashes between buildings. From St Bartholomew's Hospital, the oldest hospital foundation in England still on its original site, the route drops into Chatham, calling at the railway station and the Waterfront Bus Station beside the Medway.

The return leg retraces the towns in reverse, this time taking in Matalan, Morrisons and Priory Road on the Strood side before climbing back up through Darnley Arch to Marlowe Park and the Earl Estate. It is the kind of route locals rely on every day, but visitors with a dayrider can use it as a neat loop taking in three of the Medway towns in a single ticket.

The 140 makes a surprisingly useful day out for visitors staying near the Earl Estate or Marlowe Park, threading together three historic Medway towns in a single loop. Board at Bligh Way Shops, settle in for the residential opening through Marlowe Park, and you will be at the river within twenty minutes.

Step off at Strood High Street to wander the canal-side walk towards the Medway, where you can look back at Rochester Bridge with the castle keep filling the skyline. Strood is workaday rather than picture-postcard, but Temple Manor, a small 13th-century Knights Templar hall tucked behind the industrial estate, is one of Kent's quieter heritage sites and well worth the short detour.

Back on the bus and across the river, the Rochester Guildhall Museum stop puts you within a few steps of the High Street. From here you can explore Rochester Castle's keep, one of the tallest surviving Norman towers in England, and the neighbouring Rochester Cathedral, founded in 604 and home to a vivid medieval Wheel of Fortune wall painting. The High Street itself is lined with independent bookshops, antique dealers and tea rooms, with strong Charles Dickens associations at every turn.

For lunch, Rochester offers everything from the Deaf Cat Coffee bar opposite the cathedral to traditional pubs like the Coopers Arms tucked behind the close. If you prefer to push on, stay aboard to Chatham Railway Station and walk down to the Waterfront, where the Sun Pier and the river views are a pleasant pause.

Chatham's main draw is The Historic Dockyard, a short walk or onward bus ride from the Waterfront stand. The 80-acre site preserves Georgian shipbuilding sheds, the submarine HMS Ocelot, and the Victorian warship HMS Gannet, and easily fills an afternoon. Closer to the bus station, the Pentagon Centre and the riverside walk give a flavour of modern Chatham.

Pick up the 140 again at Chatham Waterfront for the return loop, this time seeing Rochester's High Street and Strood's riverside from the opposite direction before the bus climbs back to Marlowe Park. It is a compact, low-cost day that takes in a Norman castle, an Anglo-Saxon cathedral foundation and a world-class naval heritage site, all from a single circular bus.