85-650: John Bingle (1796–1882) was an English-born sailor who became a businessman and landowner in Newcastle, New South Wales. John Bingle was born on 15 May 1796 in Gillingham , Kent, England. He was the only surviving son of John Rayden Bingle. He was educated at Chatham . He was employed in the naval dockyard from 1812 to 1817 when he joined the merchant marine , namely the East India Company . Bingle arrived in Australia at
170-480: A naval war memorial in the shape of a white stone obelisk was set up on the Great Lines. 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 . Gillingham has been the scene of two notable disasters: on 11 July 1929 a public demonstration by Gillingham Fire Brigade went wrong , resulting in 15 fatalities; and in
255-399: A chairman and councillors. The councillors were elected for a three-year term in a similar way to councillors in urban districts. They were elected for parishes or groupings of parishes, and were also the representatives for those areas on the board of guardians. In a few cases a parish or handful of parishes were administered by a rural district council in a neighbouring county. In this case
340-425: A chairman at its annual meeting. The parish councils were given the following powers and duties: Parish councils were generally limited to a rate of three pence in the pound, although this could be increased to sixpence in the pound with the permission of the parish meeting. Loans could not be obtained without the permission of both the parish meeting and the county council. Borrowing for certain specified purposes
425-502: A decision had been made that all those with a population of 300 or more were to have a parish council. This limit had been chosen as the Local Government Board already possessed powers to group parishes below this population for the election of guardians. There were approximately 6,000 small parishes in this category. Parish councils were to be limited in their expenditure, and were to be confined to charging rates of one penny in
510-410: A freer voice will be given to the community than it has ever had before. New depths of life will have been stirred in the most neglected portions of our community, and we shall find among the labourers of the fields, as we have found among the artisans of the towns, a resolution that the condition of our people shall, so far as laws can better it, be bettered ... The Earl of Kimberley explained to
595-517: A full list of schools serving Gillingham and the Medway area. Within Gillingham there are many churches from different Christian denominations. There are three Church of England churches: the historic parish church of St. Mary Magdalene; the evangelical St. Mark's; and St. Augustine's. There are also Baptist , Methodist and Roman Catholic churches. The Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene ("The Church on
680-405: A handsome tower steeple at the west end'. In 1811, Thomas Mears added two treble bells to make eight. In 1868, architect Sir Arthur Blomfield restored the church and tower and to mark the completion of the restoration, the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne replaced the stained glass in the east window, based on a design by Henry Holiday . In 1896, Our Lady of Gillingham Roman Catholic Church
765-515: A meeting in Reading : The Tories cannot conceal from themselves the fact that all over the land – in the towns, in the villages, in the country districts, in the urban districts - there is a resolute determination that Parliament shall put its hand in earnest to the great work of social regeneration ... parish councils may sound dull and mechanical, we know that they will go to the very root of national life, and that when we have achieved these reforms
850-546: A meeting in Walworth that the party wanted to create: ... a complete hierarchy of councils popularly elected and with full powers belonging to such bodies. The Liberals tried to amend the Agricultural Smallholdings Act 1892 as it passed through parliament, seeking to add clauses creating parish councils which would have the power to buy and sell land in order to increase the number of smallholdings. In rejecting
935-400: A parish council varied from 5 to 15 members, the number being fixed by order of the county council. The entire council was elected annually on 15 April. To be eligible for election to the council, a person was required to be resident within the parish, or within three miles of it, for at least twelve months prior to the election. The entire council was elected annually. The parish council elected
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#17328735459611020-575: A series of posters for Royal Dutch Shell . A copy is held in Tate Britain . Brompton Barracks have long been the home of the Royal Engineers . Today Gillingham is home to the Royal Engineers Museum . Gillngham has been the subject of potential redevelopment in the last decade. Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 ( 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an act of
1105-674: A vessel for the coal called the Eclipse. He worked as magistrate and was famous for catching a bushranger in Scone . He built the first courthouse in 1832 in Scone. He became the first chairman of the chamber of commerce in 1856. He designed the coat of arms of the City of Newcastle and had a key role in the adoption of the New South Wales flag. The first telegraph from Sydney to Newcastle on 11 January 1860
1190-412: A vessel for trade with Newcastle. He acquired 1800 acres of land which he named Puen Buen in 1820s. He became a squatter on property which is located at Dartbrook . Drought caused him to sell his land and start businesses in Newcastle. Later he sold his land to John Robertson . He became business partners with Robert Coram Dillon and established a business at No.2 Watt Street, Newcastle. His business
1275-553: 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. Gillingham's name is Old English in origin and means "the homestead of Gylla's people". The names of Gillingham in Dorset and Gillingham in Norfolk have
1360-399: Is administered is as admirable as it is possible for the ingenuity and humanity of man to devise", and he called on the government to drop the proposals. Sir Charles Dilke , from the government's own benches, was unhappy that county councils would have the power to divide or group parishes. He felt that they were susceptible to influence by local landowners whose wishes might overcome those of
1445-561: 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 news and television programmes are provided by BBC South East and ITV Meridian from
1530-640: Is the Fairview Infants and Junior Schools and in Hempstead, the Hempstead Infant and Junior Schools. Gillingham also hosts MidKent College , a Further Education College which introduced Higher Education courses in 2012 and Universities at Medway , a university campus complex comprising University of Kent , Canterbury Christ Church University and University of Greenwich on the former HMS Pembroke barracks buildings. See List of schools in Medway for
1615-544: Is to be within one county, that the district of every District Council is to be within one county, and that the County Councils shall have the duty of readjusting the existing overlapping areas and divisions. We think the County Council far the best tribunal to undertake this duty. They understand the localities, and how the districts can best be divided. They are to have 12 months in which to discharge their duty; and if at
1700-504: The 1951 Gillingham bus disaster , 24 Royal Marine cadets aged 10 to 13 were killed in a road accident. 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. Since the 1980s, Gillingham has rebuilt its economic base and
1785-639: The Bluebell Hill TV transmitter. Local newspapers for Gillingham include the Medway Messenger , published by the KM Group . The area also has free newspapers in the Medway Extra (KM Group) and yourmedway ( KOS Media ). In 2011, Medway News and Medway Standard , both published by Kent Regional News and Media, closed down. The local commercial radio station for Gillingham is KMFM Medway , owned by
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#17328735459611870-465: The Charity Commissioners could provide for the parish council to become the trustees. Annual accounts of the charity were to be laid before the parish meeting. A parish council, or one-tenth of the electors of a parish, could apply to the county council for the division of the parish into wards. This was to be done where "the area or population of the parish is so large, or different parts of
1955-559: The Commons on 21 March 1893, Fowler set out the complicated system of local government that was in need of reform. England and Wales were divided into: 62 counties, 302 Municipal Boroughs, 31 Improvement Act Districts, 688 Local Government Districts, 574 Rural Sanitary Districts, 58 Port Sanitary Districts, 2,302 School Board Districts ... 1,052 Burial Board Districts, 648 Poor Law Unions, 13,775 Ecclesiastical Parishes, and nearly 15,000 Civil Parishes. The total number of Authorities which tax
2040-467: The Gillingham Business Park was set up 3 miles (4.8 km) from the town centre, to attract investments and diversify economic activity. The business park and ice rink were an early commission for Grimshaw Architects . Gillingham has a marina called Gillingham Marina . Gillingham is an important retail centre serving a substantial part of Medway. The town has a large street market in
2125-682: The Hertfordshire County Council split the parishes of Bushey and Watford into Bushey Urban and Watford Urban parishes in Watford Urban District and Watford Rural and Bushey Rural parishes in the Watford Rural District . The county council could also group small parishes under a joint parish council. The act specified that the first elections to the district councils and reconstituted boards of guardians would take place on 8 November 1894, or such other date that
2210-721: The Medway Tunnel opened, giving Gillingham a second link to the M2 and Strood . The London, Chatham & Dover Railway opened its line between Chatham and Faversham on 25 January 1858; and a country station was opened here called New Brompton. This was to serve the dockyard labourers' homes that had sprung up during the Napoleonic Wars . A branch line led into the dockyard. The station later became Gillingham railway station . Services improved significantly when in July 1939, Gillingham became
2295-681: The Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London . The act followed the reforms carried out at county level under the Local Government Act 1888 ( 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41). The 1894 legislation introduced elected councils at district and parish level. The principal effects of the act were: The new district councils were based on
2380-650: The pound unless they had the consent of both the parish meeting and the district council. Turning to the government of towns he explained: We shall convert the Improvement Commissioners and Local Boards into Urban District Councils; we shall abolish all plural voting; we shall propose to abolish all qualifications, for we think the only qualification a man ought to possess is the confidence of his constituents; and we propose to make women capable of serving on these District Councils. He then turned to reform of rural authorities: Then as regards rural districts,
2465-543: The raid on the Medway . The Dutch eventually retreated, but the incident caused great humiliation to the Royal Navy . 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
2550-485: The unitary Medway Authority in 1998, the buildings were still used as council offices and for meetings for several years afterwards. Later, Medway Council then moved into the former Lloyd's of London headquarters at Chatham Gun Wharf, and the Municipal Buildings were considered surplus to requirements. They were sold off in 2008 under a contract which turned them into a residential care home. The town grew along
2635-554: The 2012–13 season under manager Martin Allen. They were relegated to EFL League Two in 2022. 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
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2720-648: The Bronze. These were also held in Medway Park. 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. In the Women's Final, Lena Schoneborn (of Germany) got Gold, Adrienn Tóth (of Hungary ) got Silver and Victoria Tereshuk (of Ukraine ) claimed Bronze. Medway Dragons Rugby League Football Club
2805-514: The Commons completed its consideration of the bill on 8 January 1894. The passage of the bill through the House of Lords was completed on 12 February. The Lords made two amendments to the bill, the first raised the population for forming a parish council back to the original figure of 300, the second amendment provided that parochial charities would only transfer to the administration of a parish council with
2890-493: The English ratepayers is between 28,000 and 29,000. Not only are we exposed to this multiplicity of authority and this confusion of rating power, but the qualification, tenure, and mode of election of members of these Authorities differ in different cases. He explained that the government had chosen the civil parish as the basic unit of local government in rural areas. He estimated that there were approximately 13,000 rural parishes and
2975-678: The Gillingham Technical School), Brompton Academy (formerly New Brompton College and before that Upbury Arts College, Upbury Manor), Rainham Girls School, Chatham Grammar School for Girls and the Robert Napier School . There are also three primary schools in the small residential area called Twydall: Twydall Infant School, Twydall Junior School and St Thomas of Canterbury R.C. School . In Gillingham itself are St. Mary's, Barnsole Road, Woodlands,Saxonway Primary School, Byron, and Napier Community Primary Schools. In Wigmore, there
3060-526: The Green", ) is the oldest building in Gillingham and Grade II* Listed . The Normans built the church in the early 13th century, then in the 15th century a tower was added. More extensions were added during the 14th century. In 1700, Philip Wightman was commissioned to cast and hang a ring of five bells, to the tower. Then in 1737, Richard Phelps added another bell to complete a ring of six. Edward Hasted refers to it in 1798, 'three isles and three chancels, with
3145-656: The Guardians a popularly elected body, we do not propose to disturb the existing machinery. We take the Rural Sanitary Authority as it now exists, but elected and qualified under new conditions, and we continue that as the Rural District Council. Therefore, the Rural District Council will be the old Rural Sanitary Authority altered, and, I think, very much improved ... Then we propose to abolish all separate Highway Authorities in rural districts and to transfer
3230-678: The High Street on Saturdays and Mondays, and is the busiest in the whole of Medway. The Roman road now known as Watling Street passes through Gillingham; and until the opening of the Medway Towns bypass (the M2 motorway ) in the mid-1960s the same route was followed by the traffic on the A2 to Dover . That road had been turnpiked in 1730, as part of the London– Canterbury coaching route. In June 1996
3315-646: 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 . The Gillingham Boys Grammar School, which was opened in 1923, later became The Howard School in 1975, when it merged with the Rainham Campus secondary school for boys. Other secondary schools include Rainham Mark Grammar School (formerly
3400-548: The King's ships do lie". Adams was baptised at Gillingham Parish Church on 24 September 1564. The Strand was once owned by the Davenport family in 1635, the Davenport family included a Mayor of Gillingham, 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
3485-638: 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
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3570-576: 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. The name Gillingham is recorded in the Domesday book of 1086. It is said to have been named after a warlord, Gyllingas—from the old English gyllan , meaning "to shout". He was a notable man in Kent history as he led his warriors into battle screaming and shouting. At
3655-463: The act was 692. All but three of 118 additional districts were caused by the breaking up of cross-county rural sanitary districts (for example Monks Kirby Rural District was the part of Lutterworth RSD that was in Warwickshire , with the rest forming Lutterworth Rural District .) Where new rural districts were created due to boundary changes the county council were to provide names. In some areas
3740-516: The act was the fact that all electors had a single vote, and thus county councillors were popularly elected. The members of other local bodies were elected by a system of weighted voting, with those owning more property having multiple votes. The original Local Government Bill of 1888 had included provisions for creating district as well as county councils. However the President of the Local Government Board , Charles Ritchie , had some difficulty in having
3825-571: The administrative county, and to ensure that no parish or district extended into another county. Also parishes that crossed district boundaries were to be divided. Hundreds of orders were made by county councils, and it was not until 1898 that the process was complete. Many county councils took the opportunity to "tidy up" their boundaries with neighbouring authorities, and it was not uncommon for blocks of parishes to be exchanged. The division of parishes led to many ancient parishes being split into "urban" and "rural" portions. As an example, an order of
3910-521: The age of 25 as a second officer on the convict ship Minerva on 16 December 1821. Soon after, he went to Lake Macquarie with Rev. George Augustus Middleton. In January 1822 received instruction from Governor Brisbane to proceed on the ship Sally to Port Macquarie then to sail to search for a large river that was believed to exist between Port Macquarie and Sandy Cape . He was commissioned by Governor to go as far as Moreton Bay . He failed to discover fresh water but received permission to build
3995-548: The amendments, Henry Chaplin , President of the Board of Agriculture , claimed the government intended: ... on a proper and fitting occasion, when opportunity arises, to deal not only with the question of District Councils, but the question also of parochial reform. Parliament was dissolved in June 1892, and a general election called. The Liberals made the introduction of district and parish councils part of their programme. Following
4080-621: The approval of the Charity Commissioners . Both were agreed to. The act received the royal assent on 5 March 1894. In 1893 there were 688 urban Sanitary districts outside boroughs. These had various titles such as Local Government District or Local Board of Health District or Improvement Commissioners' District . Each of these variously titled entities became urban districts in 1894/5. Urban districts continued to be formed, and by 1927 there were 785. Municipal boroughs , while being classified as urban districts, had neither their titles nor constitutions altered. The governing body of
4165-432: The area was the urban district council. All councillors were popularly elected for a three-year term. There were to be no ex officio or appointed members as had existed in some of the predecessor bodies. In order to be eligible for election, a candidate was required to be on the electoral register, and to have resided in the district for twelve months prior to the election. Women were permitted to be councillors. One-third of
4250-452: The area was too small to become a separate rural district, which was required by the act to have at least five councillors. These areas were to "be temporarily administered by the district council of an adjoining district in another county with which it was united before the appointed day" . The councillors elected for these areas were entitled to sit and act as members of the rural district council, although separate accounts were to be kept for
4335-542: The area. These arrangements were usually ended within a few years of the act's coming into force, with the areas being transferred by alteration in either county or rural district boundaries. Some persisted until the 1930s, however, when county districts were reorganised under the Local Government Act 1929 . Exceptionally, the parish of Pennal , Merionethshire, was administered by Machynlleth Rural District in Montgomeryshire until 1955. Rural district councils inherited
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#17328735459614420-417: The bill dealt with poor law guardians and district councils. Among its provisions were that: The third part of the bill detailed the duties of the county council in dealing with divided areas and small parishes. The county council had the power to name divided parishes and to combine areas. The fourth and fifth parts of the bill dealt with the first election of councils and transitory provisions. Speaking in
4505-512: The bill on a number of grounds. He defended the ex-officio guardians who had "proved themselves the most efficient and the most useful members of the Board ;... you will find that the most regular attendants have been the ex officios, and that they have made the best Chairmen and the best members." He believed the reform of boards of guardians was unwarranted as "the system under which the Poor Law
4590-451: The council was elected on 15 April each year. UDCs could, by a resolution passed with a two-thirds majority, change to a system of elections of the whole council every three years. The council elected a chairman at their annual meeting, who was, during their term of office, a justice of the peace for the county. There were 574 rural sanitary districts in 1893, many of them crossing county boundaries. The number of rural districts formed by
4675-480: The county boundaries were so complicated that rural districts were in more than one administrative county. For example, Gloucestershire , Warwickshire and Worcestershire had many outlying detached parishes surrounded by other counties. Accordingly, the rural districts of Shipston on Stour , Stow on the Wold , Tewkesbury and Winchcombe included parishes in two or three counties. Rural district councils consisted of
4760-680: The election the Liberals under William Ewart Gladstone formed an administration with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party . The Local Government Bill (also referred to as the Parish Councils Bill) was published by H. H. Fowler , the President of the Local Government Board, on 26 March 1893. The bill consisted of 71 clauses arranged in five parts. The first part dealt with rural parishes, and provided that: The second part of
4845-470: The end of that period they have not made this readjustment, it will devolve upon the Local Government Board to interfere and carry the matter out. The bill returned, in amended form, for a second reading in November 1893. In reintroducing the bill to the Commons, Fowler outlined the objections that had been made, and the government's response. Walter Long , the opposition spokesman on local government attacked
4930-429: The existing urban and rural sanitary districts . Many of the latter had lain in more than one ancient county, whereas the new rural districts were to be in a single administrative county . The act also reorganised civil parishes , so that none of them lay in more than one district and hence did not cross administrative boundaries. Although the act made no provision to abolish the hundreds , which had previously been
5015-399: The legislation passed by Parliament, and dropped the district council clauses for fear that the entire bill might be lost due to opposition from the government's own backbenchers. The Liberal opposition berated the government for failing to create district councils. At the same time they put forward proposals for establishing councils at parish level. John Morley , MP for Newcastle , told
5100-536: 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 Jezreel's Tower on Chatham Hill. The tower was never completed but stood until its demolition in 1961. There is still a Jezreels Road off Watling Street. The tower was painted by Tristram Hillier in 1937 as part of
5185-571: The new Football League Third Division (south). They were voted out of the league in 1938, only to be re-elected when the league expanded in 1950. They spent the next 50 years moving between the two lower divisions before finally reaching the second tier (then Division One ) in the 1999–2000 season after beating Wigan Athletic in the Play-Off Final at Wembley. They spent five years at this level before being relegated twice, and in 2013-22 played in League One (third tier), into which they were promoted after winning their first championship for fifty years in
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#17328735459615270-564: The number of elected Guardians, but there is required to be one Guardian for every constituent parish. There is a property qualification and plural voting, and voting by proxy. We could not ask the House to continue the existing powers in, much less to confer new powers upon, an authority so constituted and so irresponsible ... We therefore propose to abolish, firstly, all ex officio or non-elective Guardians ... there shall be no plural voting, no proxy voting , and no voting papers, but voting by Ballot and One Man One Vote ... Having made
5355-494: The only widely used administrative unit between the parish and the county in size, the reorganisation displaced their remaining functions. Several ancient hundred names lived on in the names of the districts that superseded them. The Local Government Act 1888 ( 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) had introduced elected county councils. The passing of the act had been part of the price for Liberal Unionist support for Lord Salisbury's minority Conservative administration. An innovation in
5440-468: 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
5525-493: The parishioners. The bill then entered the committee stage. Arguments over the population at which parish councils should be established continued to be made, with amendments proposing limits of 100, 200, 500, 600 and 1,000. The figure finally reverted to the government figure of 200. Major Leonard Darwin , Liberal Unionist MP for Lichfield unsuccessfully introduced an amendment to create parish councils in urban districts containing more than one parish. After 34 days of debate,
5610-539: The population so situated, as to make a single parish meeting for the election of councillors impracticable or inconvenient, or that it is desirable for any reason that certain parts of the parish should be separately represented on the council" . Separate elections of councillors for each ward would then be held. The responsibility for defining the areas of the districts was given to the county councils established in 1888 . County councils were supposed to have regard to areas of existing sanitary districts and parishes in
5695-560: The powers of both the rural sanitary authority they replaced and any highway board in their area. In all rural parishes with a population of 300 or more, a parish council had to be elected. In parishes with more than 100 but less than 300 population, the parish meeting could request the county council to make an order to establish a parish council. Urban parishes (those within an urban district) were not given separate parish councils, but were directly administered by their urban district council or municipal borough council. The membership of
5780-522: 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. Gillingham experiences an oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfb ) similar to almost all of
5865-454: The same etymology, despite the differing pronunciation. Gillingham became an urban district under the Local Government Act 1894 , gaining municipal borough status in 1903. John Robert Featherby was the first mayor of the Borough of Gillingham. In 1928 Rainham was added to the Gillingham Borough. Under the Local Government Act 1972 it became a non-metropolitan district which also covered Hempstead, Wigmore and Rainham. This district
5950-404: The terminus of the electrified system of the Southern Railway . Gillingham was served by an electric tram system operated by the Chatham and District Light Railways Company from 1902 to 1930. Gillingham Public Library is located in the High Street. The town is home to Gillingham F.C. , who play at Priestfield Stadium and were first elected to the Football League in 1920 as members of
6035-424: The then modern-day dockyard lay within the boundaries of Gillingham. The dockyard was founded by Queen Elizabeth I on the site of the present gun wharf, the establishment being transferred to the present site about 1622. In 1667 a Dutch fleet sailed up the River Medway and, having landed at Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey and laying siege to the fort at Sheerness , invaded Gillingham in what became known as
6120-734: The time of the Norman Conquest , Gillingham was given to the half-brother of William I of England , Odo, Bishop of Bayeux , who rebuilt the parish church at Gillingham and constructed an Archbishop's Palace on land bordered by Grange Road, the ruins of which could still be seen in the last century. At the time Gillingham itself was a small hamlet , built around the parish church and surrounded by large farm-holdings, of which St. Mark's Parish formed part, being part of Brittain Farm. William Adams mentioned Gillingham in his writings, saying: "... two English miles from Rochester and one mile from Chatham, where
6205-400: The union is the administrative area with which we have to deal. Except in 25 cases, in which, if I may use the expression, the union consists of a single parish, the union is an aggregation of parishes. There are 648 unions altogether. There are 137 in two counties and 32 in three counties. The Guardians by whom the union is administered are elected or ex officio. The Local Government Board fixes
6290-513: The whole powers of the Highway Board or the highway parish to the Rural District Council. Finally he described how the boundaries of the districts and parishes were to be arrived at: At present we have rural sanitary districts, partly within and partly without the county, and we have parishes partly within and partly without rural sanitary districts. We have 174 rural sanitary districts and some 800 parishes so situate. We propose that every parish
6375-466: 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,
6460-645: Was abolished in 1998 before it merged with the other Medway Towns (in the City of Rochester-upon-Medway district) under the 1990s UK local government reform , to become part of the Medway unitary authority. The Municipal Buildings in Canterbury Street were built as council offices for Gillingham Borough Council. They were opened by the Lord Mayor of London , Sir George Broadbridge , on 25 September 1937. The Lord Mayor
6545-517: Was built close to Saint Mary Magdalene Church, and overlooks the River Medway . It followed after other Roman Catholic churches in the area, the closest, St Michael 's in Chatham (built 1863). Our Lady of Gillingham was built on the town of New Brompton, as Gillingham was then called, to mainly cater for the new workforce – those employed at Chatham Dockyard . The church itself was started in 1890, and
6630-534: Was called The Davenport Manor. The Davenports lost the estate in 1889. The Davenport family were among the investors in the Chatham Dockyard. In medieval times the part of Gillingham known as Grange was a limb of the Cinque Ports and the maritime importance of the area continued until the late 1940s. Indeed, a large part of Chatham Dockyard lay within Gillingham, and when it was closed in 1984, two-thirds of
6715-500: Was completed by 1896, being opened on 12 May 1896. 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
6800-583: Was dissolved in 1824. Bingle & Co established the first regular trading service between Sydney and Newcastle in 1822, carrying coal, cedar and merchandise in the Sally. Bingle sold his interest in venture after convicts stole his ship, the Eclipse. Five years after selling Puen Buen, he became director of two banks, a member of the diocesan committee of Christ Church and chairman of the Exchange. After he retired from His Majesty's services he applied for leave to build
6885-451: 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
6970-602: Was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1984. The Medway Park leisure centre (formerly the Black Lion) hosted the Modern Pentathlon World Cup. In the Women's Final, it was won by Amelie Caze of France, Donata Rimsaite of Lithuania got Silver (2nd place) and Mhairi Spence of Great Britain got Bronze (3rd place). In the Men's Final, it was won by Ádám Marosi of Hungary , Ondrej Polivka (Czech Republic) got Silver and Alexander Lesun (Russia) claimed
7055-532: Was received at Gillingham Railway Station by a guard of honour of boys of HMS Arethusa . Before the Second World War, air raid sirens were placed on the Municipal Buildings, and the local Civil Defence headquarters were in a single-storey building, to the rear of the car park. In about 1953, beneath part of the car park, Gillingham Borough Control Centre was built underground. When Gillingham Borough Council later merged with Rochester upon Medway to form
7140-644: Was sent from his office. In August 1824 in Hobart Bingle married Mary Cross. They had a son and two daughters. He gave many donations to church and hospital funds . He moved his family to England in 1837, but returned to Australia in 1842. Bingle died on 10 April 1882 at age 80. He was highly respected in Newcastle and flags were flown at half-mast in his honour. He was buried in the Christ Church graveyard. Gillingham, Kent Gillingham ( / ˈ dʒ ɪ l ɪ ŋ əm / JIL -ing-əm )
7225-403: Was subject to the approval of the Local Government Board. No right of way could be extinguished or diverted without the permission of both the parish and rural district council. Parish councils could take over the maintenance of public footpaths within their parish, other than those along the edge of highways. Where a charitable trust (other than an ecclesiastical charity) existed in a parish,
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