Everyone knows that Rochester, NY was named after Col. Nathaniel Rochester, who came from Maryland along with William Fitzhugh and Charles Carroll to buy an abandoned mill site on the Genesee River. They could see commercial opportunity here.

But I got wondering what the name Rochester means. I looked it up, and discovered that it means rocky fortress. I’m assuming that Col. Rochester’s name came from the city in Kent, Great Britain. That city is old, old, old. It’s original name was dorubrevi, duro meaning fortress, and briva meaning bridge. Rochester, Kent has a river running through it just like we do. It also has a huge old castle and an even huger (is there such a word?) cathedral, but what caught my eye was this 100 year old catalpa tree outside the cathedral and how they are trying to preserve it.

 Rochester, Kent also has ties to Charles Dickens. This building called Eastgate House was a school.

Dickens supposedly used it as his model of Westgate House in the Pickwick Papers and as The Nun’s House in The Mystery of Edwin Drood. So, it’s no surprise that Rochester, Kent has a Dickens Festival every year.

But I was delighted to find out that Rochester, Kent also has a Sweeps Festival every year. It’s all about chimney sweeps. It commemorates the time when sweeps were given a holiday on May 1 and had a parade through the town. There are still parades and lots of music. People dress up as sweep with charcoaled faces. Some of the entertainment is provided by Morris dancers, who wear colorful costumes and incorporate sticks into their dance routines. More research led me to find out that thid type of folk dancing derived from the Moors and that the sticks replaced the Moors’ swords.

All that because I was curious about the name Rochester.