Guess the Place

[MartinR]

That sounds like Thomas Cook & Son, but where the connection to an area off the tourist trail yet near Rochester is I've no idea.

[Stewie]

I believe that the owners of the building were early exponents in international finance and credit and were also involved in escorted tours of foreign lands 🤓

[Stewie]

Getting warmer johnfilmer

[johnfilmer]

Rochester?

[Stewie]

Not Nettlestead Place JohnWalker. Third Clue: The building and surrounding estate was granted to a religious order by Henry II and may also have acted as a lodging house for travellers journeying between London and the continent.

[John Walker]

Nettlestead Place ?

[Stewie]

Second Clue: There is a river slightly further away than the railway line.

[Stewie]

First Clue, the place in question is a little bit off the tourism beaten path but is very close to a railway line.

[Stewie]

Not Chartwell House JohnWalker, I shall start the clues tonight

[John Walker]

Chartwell House?

[Stewie]

No not Faversham.

[DaveTheTrain]

Maison Dieu in Faversham?

[Stewie]

Thank you MartinR. My next one for your deliberations, where was I when I took this photo?

[MartinR]

That's exactly what they were used for.

What I'm after is what the originals were used for and where.  Bragging rights if you can name the museum

Stewie got the what and where: Launching and recovering the Dungeness Lifeboat but Shoot999 gets bragging rights for landing in Chatham.

They are in the RNLI Historic Lifeboat Collection within The Historic Dockyard, Chatham.  They're called "Back Stays" and were used by the female launchers of the Dungeness lifeboat to stop them sinking into the shingle.  The "design", if you can call it that, originates from the 18thC and were used to walk across shingle.  Their use died out when tractor launching was introduced and also when in 1936 a concrete road was laid out towards Dungeness point.

Over to you Stewie.

[Stewie]

Is it something to do with either launching or recovering a lifeboat?