Gillingham, Kent
Gillingham | |
---|---|
Town | |
High Street, Gillingham | |
Location within Kent | |
Population | 108,785 (2020 ONS)[1] |
OS grid reference | TQ775675 |
• London | 35.6mi |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | GILLINGHAM |
Postcode district | ME7 |
Dialling code | 01634 |
Police | Kent |
Fire | Kent |
Ambulance | South East Coast |
UK Parliament | |
Gillingham (/ˈdʒɪlɪŋəm/ ⓘ JIL-ing-əm) is a town in the unitary authority area of Medway, in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham. It is also the largest town in the borough of Medway. In 2020 it had a population of 108,785.
Etymology
Gillingham's name is Old English in origin and means "the homestead of Gylla's people".[2] The names of Gillingham in Dorset and Gillingham in Norfolk have the same etymology,[2] despite the differing pronunciation.[3]
Status
Gillingham became an
Town hall
The Municipal Buildings in Canterbury Street were built as council offices for Gillingham Borough Council. They were opened by the Lord
When Gillingham Borough Council later merged with
Geography
The town grew along the road from Brompton on the great lines (military barracks), to the railway station. As such it was a linear development. Close by was the road along the shore line, linking The Strand, and the tiny village of Gillingham Green. Later, communities developed along the top road - Watling Street – turnpike linking Chatham with Dover. All these communities merged into the town that is called today Gillingham.
Climate
Gillingham experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom. Due to its southerly, sheltered, marine position near the European continent the climate is among the warmest in the whole of England.
Climate data for Gillingham, Kent 1981–2010 | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 8.0 (46.4) |
8.1 (46.6) |
11.1 (52.0) |
13.8 (56.8) |
17.4 (63.3) |
20.4 (68.7) |
23.3 (73.9) |
22.7 (72.9) |
20.0 (68.0) |
15.7 (60.3) |
11.2 (52.2) |
8.4 (47.1) |
15.0 (59.0) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 2.6 (36.7) |
2.0 (35.6) |
3.9 (39.0) |
5.4 (41.7) |
8.3 (46.9) |
11.5 (52.7) |
13.8 (56.8) |
13.7 (56.7) |
11.4 (52.5) |
8.4 (47.1) |
5.2 (41.4) |
2.8 (37.0) |
7.4 (45.3) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 66.6 (2.62) |
40.5 (1.59) |
40.2 (1.58) |
44.9 (1.77) |
48.6 (1.91) |
40.9 (1.61) |
38.3 (1.51) |
44.0 (1.73) |
51.2 (2.02) |
60.1 (2.37) |
61.9 (2.44) |
57.0 (2.24) |
594.2 (23.39) |
Average rainy days | 10.7 | 8.6 | 9.3 | 9.1 | 8.0 | 7.8 | 7.1 | 7.6 | 8.4 | 10.3 | 11.6 | 10.6 | 109.1 |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 44.0 | 64.5 | 106.8 | 167.5 | 185.1 | 189.5 | 208.0 | 201.2 | 152.6 | 120.5 | 67.7 | 41.9 | 1,549.3 |
Source: Met Office[9] |
History
The name Gillingham is recorded in the
The Strand was once owned by the Davenport family in 1635, the Davenport family included a Mayor of Gillingham,[11] pie makers and key holders of Gillingham. The Davenport family had a road named after them in 1920. The Davenport estate was in Ashford, Kent. The estate comprised around 15000 acres and was called The Davenport Manor. The Davenports lost the estate in 1889. The Davenport family were among the investors in the Chatham Dockyard.
In
The Seven Years' War began in 1756 and the government immediately gave orders for the defence of the dockyard; by 1758 the Chatham Lines of Defence were built. Over a mile long, they stretched across the neck of the dockyard peninsula, from Chatham Reach, south of the dockyard, across to Gillingham Reach on the opposite side. One of the redoubts on the Lines was at Amherst. The batteries faced away from the dockyard itself to forestall an attack from the landward side; the ships and shore-mounted guns on the river were considered sufficient to protect from that side. The lines of defence are now part of the Great Lines Heritage Park and also the Lower Lines Park (near MidKent College, Gillingham Campus).
War with France began again in 1778, and once more it was necessary to strengthen the defences. Fort Amherst was the first to be improved; it was followed by work beginning in 1800 to add others at Fort Pitt, Chatham, plus Fort Delce and Fort Clarence (both in Rochester); later in the 19th century others were added, including one at Fort Darland in Gillingham. This work, and the expansion of the dockyard, meant that more homes were needed for the workers. The position of the Lines meant that this building could only happen beyond, and so New Brompton came into being. The population rose to 9,000 people by 1851.
Gillingham was still only a small village; eventually it, too, was swallowed up, and the name of the whole settlement changed to Gillingham. In the 1891 census its population was 27,809, and in 1901, it was 42,530.
In 1919, after World War I, a naval war memorial in the shape of a white stone obelisk was set up on the Great Lines.[13] Additional structures were added in 1945 to commemorate the dead of World War II. Similar monuments stand in the dockyard towns of Portsmouth and Plymouth.
Disasters
Gillingham has been the scene of two notable disasters: on 11 July 1929 a public demonstration by Gillingham Fire Brigade
Economy
The main source of employment was at Chatham Dockyard, two-thirds of which lay within the boundaries of Gillingham. When it ceased to be a naval base in 1984, there was significant unemployment. A World Heritage Site application has been made for the Dockyard and its defences.[15] Since the 1980s, Gillingham has rebuilt its economic base and the Gillingham Business Park was set up 3 miles (4.8 km) from the town centre, to attract investments and diversify economic activity.[16] The business park and ice rink were an early commission for Grimshaw Architects.[17]
Gillingham has a
Transport
Roads
The
In June 1996 the Medway Tunnel opened, giving Gillingham a second link to the M2 and Strood.
Railways
The
Services improved significantly when in July 1939,
Trams
Gillingham was served by an electric tram system operated by the Chatham and District Light Railways Company from 1902 to 1930.[20]
Culture
Library
Gillingham Public Library is located in the High Street.
Sport
The town is home to
The area boasts a sub-regional sports centre (the Black Lion Leisure Centre, now Medway Park) with three indoor pools for swimming and SCUBA diving, gym, sports hall and squash courts also in the same area is Jumpers Rebound Centre for trampolining a world-famous facility for the sport.
There is an outdoors sporting centre located at the Strand which provides sailing and motor boat courses for both adults and children. The Strand Leisure Park has an open-air swimming pool on the banks of the River Medway as well as other leisure attractions including tennis courts and a narrow-gauge railway.
Gillingham Ice Bowl is the home ice rink for Kent's premier Ice Hockey Club, the Invicta Dynamos, who were originally called the Medway Bears. The Ice Bowl was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 1984.[22]
Modern Pentathlon World Cup 2010
The
Modern Pentathlon European Championships 2011
These were also held in Medway Park.[25] Andrei Moiseev (of Russia) got Gold for the Men's Final, Serguei Karyakin (also of Russia) got Silver and Dmytro Kirpulyanskyy (of Ukraine) got the Bronze. James Cooke of GB was a close fourth.[26] In the Women's Final,
Rugby League
Medway Dragons Rugby League Football Club is based in Brompton having been founded in 2007. The Dragons run teams from Under 6 to Masters (over 35) and a Wheelchair Rugby League Team. The First Grade have a fine history and won the London & The South Championships in 2016 and 2021. They are the current holders of the Harry Jepson Trophy.
Local media
Television
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC South East and ITV Meridian from the Bluebell Hill TV transmitter.
Newspapers
Local newspapers for Gillingham include the Medway Messenger, published by the
In 2011, Medway News
Radio
The local commercial radio station for Gillingham is KMFM Medway, owned by the KM Group. Medway is also served by community radio station Radio Sunlight. The area can also receive the county wide stations BBC Radio Kent, Heart and Gold and Smooth, as well as many radio stations in Essex and Greater London.
Education
The Gillingham Boys Grammar School, which was opened in 1923,
Gillingham also hosts
See List of schools in Medway for a full list of schools serving Gillingham and the Medway area.
Religion
Within Gillingham there are many churches from different Christian denominations. There are three
The Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene ("The Church on the Green",
In 1896,
It followed after other Roman Catholic churches in the area, the closest,
A local Roman Catholic school was established on the site of the church in 1894. The schoolrooms were used until 1972, when the infant section of the school relocated to nearby Greenfield Road. In 1988, after more building work on the new site, the whole school was reunited on its new site at Greenfield Road. The Church (Our Lady of Gillingham) celebrated its centenary in May 1996, two years after the local school.
Gillingham also has the Jāmi’ah mosque and a Hindu Sabha Mandir.
James Jershom Jezreel, founder of the Jezreelite sect which flourished in the area during the 19th century, began the building of
Military
Brompton Barracks have long been the home of the Royal Engineers. Today Gillingham is home to the Royal Engineers Museum.
Notable people associated with Gillingham
This article's list of residents may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. (May 2019) |
- William Adams – nautical adventurer, advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu, western samurai
- David Bell – Victoria Cross recipient
- Chelsea FC
- Sara Forbes Bonetta – princess and god-daughter to Queen Victoria, lived for six years in Palm Cottage, Canterbury Street.[31]
- William Cuffay – chartist
- Nicholas Day – actor.
- H. D. Everett, novelist, born in Gillingham
- David Frost – television presenter.[32]
- Hector Gray GC – RAF officer posthumously awarded the George Cross for conduct under torture by the Japanese army in 1943.[33]
- John Hartnell – explorer on Franklin's lost expedition to find the Northwest Passage[34]
- David Harvey– eminent human geographer.
- Jack Hues – musician, most notably as the lead singer of new wave band Wang Chung
- James Jordan – professional dancer, appears on Strictly Come Dancing
- James McCudden – World War I flying ace[35]
- Fernley Marrison – first-class cricketer and British Army officer
- Brian Moore– sport commentator and journalist
- Dee Murray – bass player with Elton John
- Paul Nihill – Four-time Olympian, European champion, Olympic silver medallist and world record holding racewalker
- Stel Pavlou – novelist and screenwriter
- Gary Rhodes – chef and restaurateur
- Vaughan Smith – journalist (founder of Frontline Club), organic farmer who is giving refuge to Julian Assange
- R. N. Taber – poet and novelist
- Rosemary Tonks, poet and novelist, born in Gillingham
- Rik Waller – singer, seen on reality TV show Pop Idol in 2003.
Twin towns
- William Adams.
See also
- Medway
- Strood
- Rochester
- Chatham
- Rainham
- Gillingham Football Club
- Gillingham Borough Council elections for the political history of the borough covering the town which was abolished in 1998.
Notes
References
- ^ Population figures for all major UK towns and cities https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/populationfiguresforallmajoruktownsandcities
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-960908-6.
- ISBN 0-19-282745-6.
- ^ Sharp, Peter (2011). "Gillingham – from Rural District to Unitary Authority". The Salvation Army Gillingham Corps. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
- ^ "The Featherby Family Tomb". Historic Medway. 18 June 2012. Archived from the original on 28 September 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
- ^ Local Government Commission for England https://s3-eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/lgbce/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/8200/der-medway-towns-draft-recs-sep1996.pdf
- ISBN 978-1-4456-2288-0.
- ^ John Clancy Gillingham & Around Through Time, p. 46, at Google Books
- ^ "Gillingham FC Climatic Averages 1981–2010". Met Office. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ^ WILL ADAMS: Gillingham's own Samurai.[full citation needed]
- ^ CityArt, Medway Council. Archived 3 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine t
- ^ "Stephen Rayner, "A piece of Hastings … in a corner of Gillingham", Medway memories". Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2012.
- ^ ISBN 9780851155876.
- ^ "Medway Council: "Fireman's wedding disaster"". Archived from the original on 10 January 2008.
- ^ "Chatham Dockyard and its Defences". UNESCO World Heritage Site tentative List. 2012.
- ^ Medway Council https://democracy.medway.gov.uk/mgconvert2pdf.aspx?id=4711
- ^ Architects Journal https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/archive/lets-not-skate-over-the-question-of-money
- ^ Gillingham Town Centre Development Framework
- ^ "Electric Railways". Stendec Systems. 2007. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 16 February 2007.
- ISBN 1-873793-40-5.
- ^ "Gillingham 0–2 Rotherham United". BBC. 20 April 2022. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
- ^ "Royal Visit to Maidstone and the Medway Towns 31 October 1984". cityark.medway.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
- ^ a b "Modern Pentathlon website". Archived from the original on 18 August 2012.
- ^ "Jonathan Liew, "Britain's Mhairi Spence clinches bronze at Modern Pentathlon World Cup", The Telegraph, 11 April 2010". 11 April 2010. Archived from the original on 26 September 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
- ^ ""Modern Pentathlon European Championships 2011", Medway What's On".
- ^ a b "Senior European Championships 2011, Modern Pentathlon". Archived from the original on 20 August 2012.
- ^ Horn, Jenni (21 June 2016). "Former MP Ann Widdecombe helps to raise cash for St Mary Madgalene church in Gillingham". kentonline.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 April 2018. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
- ^ a b "Church of St Mary Magdalen". Archived from the original on 18 April 2018. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
- ^ a b "History of Gillingham". kentpast.co.uk. 2010. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
- ^ Hasted, Edward (1798). "Parishes". The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent. 4. Institute of Historical Research: 226–249. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
- ^ Jordan, Nicola (16 October 2016). "Queen Victoria adopted my great-great grandma". Kent Online. Archived from the original on 29 May 2018. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
- . Retrieved 18 February 2019.
- ^ "Hector Bertram Gray". TracesOfWar.com. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
- ^ "Lost cannibal sailor expedition ship that set sail from Greenhithe in 1845 found in Canada". KentOnline. KM Group 2018. 10 September 2014. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34694. Retrieved 18 February 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)