Editing Tonbridge (section)

===17th and 18th centuries===
During the [[English Civil War|Civil War]], the town was garrisoned by the Parliamentarian side who refortified the castle. Royalist sympathisers made several attempts to take the town but were repulsed.
[[File:TonbridgeBigBridge0075.JPG|thumb|The Wharf on the [[Medway Navigation]], downstream of the Big Bridge.]]
In 1740 an [[Act of Parliament]] was passed to make the River Medway navigable to Tonbridge by the [[Medway Navigation]] Company,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jim-shead.com/waterways/History.php?wpage=MEDW |title=River Medway |publisher=Jim-shead.com |date=24 January 2009 |access-date=26 March 2014 |archive-date=27 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327234818/http://www.jim-shead.com/waterways/History.php?wpage=MEDW |url-status=live }}</ref> allowing such materials as coal and lime to be transported to the town, and gunpowder, hops and timber to be carried downriver to Maidstone and the Thames. For a hundred years the Medway Navigation Company was highly profitable, paying out good dividends to its investors, but after the arrival of the railway in 1842 the company went into a steep decline and all commercial traffic ceased in 1911 when the company collapsed. Some of the original warehouses and the wharves are still recognisable today, downstream of the town's main bridge.

Later, the town and its surroundings became famous for the production of finely inlaid wooden cabinets, boxes and other objects called [[Tunbridgeware]], which were sold to tourists who were taking the waters at the nearby springs at Tunbridge Wells. Another speciality in the town was until recently the production of cricket balls (the original cricket ball factory in Preston Road was demolished in 2012 to make way for housing)<ref>visual</ref> and other sports goods. The [[Corn Exchange, Tonbridge|Corn Exchange]] in Bank Street, which was originally conceived as a chapel, dates from 1790.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tonbridgehistory.org.uk/photos/other-churches/slides/8J.001.html|title=Old Tonbridge in pictures: Other churches|publisher=Tonbridge History|access-date=24 September 2017|archive-date=24 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924183510/http://www.tonbridgehistory.org.uk/photos/other-churches/slides/8J.001.html|url-status=live}}</ref>