Gillingham, Dorset

:"Not to be confused with Gillingham, KentInfobox UK place
official_name= Gillingham
local_name=
shire_district= North Dorset
shire_county= Dorset
country= England
region= South West England
static_

static_image_caption=
population= 9,323 [Census 2001]
os_grid_reference= ST805265
map_type= Dorset
latitude= 51.0375
longitude= -2.2748
london_distance=

post_town= GILLINGHAM
postcode_area= SP
postcode_district= SP8
dial_code= 01747

constituency_westminster= North Dorset

website=

Gillingham (Audio|En-uk-Gillingham(Dorset).ogg|pronunciation) is a town in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. The town is the most northerly in the county. It is 3 miles south of the A303 lying on the B3095 and B3081. It is near to the town of Shaftesbury which lies 7 miles to the south east. Neighbouring hamlets included Peacemarsh, Bay and Wyke. These hamlets have now however become part of Gillingham as it expanded.

Gillingham is pronounced with the G as in 'goat'. It is not to be confused with Gillingham in Kent, in which the G is pronounced as a J as in the girl's name Jill.

History

There is a stone age barrow [ [http://www.thedorsetpage.com/locations/place/G010.htm The Dorset Page's Gillingham Page] ] in the town, and evidence of Roman settlement in the second century and third century. The town was really established by the Saxons. The church of St Mary the Virgin has a Saxon cross shaft dating to 800-900AD. [ [http://www.gillinghamanglican.org.uk/history/ St Mary the Virgin] ]

The name Gillingham was used for the town in the Saxon charter of the 10th century, and also in the annals of 1016 as the location of a battle between Edmund II of England and the Danish Vikings. In the Domesday book of 1086 it is "Gelingham", and later spellings include "Gellingeham" in 1130, "Gyllingeham" in 1152 and "Gilingeham" in 1209. The name implies a “homestead of the family or followers of a man called Gylla”, a model consistent with the occupation of Dorset by the Saxons from the 7th century.

In October 1348, fifty percent of the 2,000 people living in the town died of the Black Death in the following four months. [Times 1/2/07 Simon de Bruxelles "Lost documents shed light on Black Death]

In the Middle Ages, Gillingham was the seat of a royal hunting lodge, visited by King Henry I, Henry II, John and Henry III. A nearby royal forest was set aside for the king's deer. The lodge fell into disrepair and was destroyed in 1369 by Edward III.

Edward Rawson, the first secretary to the Massachusetts Bay Colony was born in Gillingham.

Gillingham became a centre for local farming, gained the first Grammar School in Dorset in 1526 and a mill for silk in 1769. Gillingham's church has a 14th century chancel, though most of the rest of the building was built in the 19th and 20th centuries. Many other buildings in the town are of Tudor origin.

In the 1850s, the arrival of the railway to the town brought prosperity and new industries including brickmaking, cheese production, printing, soap manufacture and at the end of the 19th century one of the first petrol engine plants in the country. In the second world war Gillingham's place on the railway, which went from London to Exeter, was key to its rapid growth. In 1940 and 1941 there was large scale evacuation of London, and other industrial cities, to rural towns, particularly in the north, southwest and Wales. Gillingham, being on the railway, grew rapidly because of this, and has not stopped growing since. Gillingham's position 4 miles south of the A303, the main London to southwest England road, means it remains a popular commuter town.

Gillingham was the centre of a Liberty of the same name. John Constable's painting of the old town bridge is in the Tate Gallery.

Today

In the 2001 census, the town had a population of 9,323; a large increase from 6,187 in 1991. 35% of the population are retired. The town has 70 shops, and the Gillingham education area has 7 primary schools (4 in the town) and 1 secondary school. Gillingham railway station is on the Exeter to London railway line, and 4 miles away from the A303, the main London to south-west England road.

Mrs S Dobie is the town clerk of Gillingham town council. [ [http://www.north-dorset.gov.uk/parish_councils Parish council info] ]

See List of hundreds in Dorset.

References

External links

* [http://www.north-dorset.gov.uk/ North Dorset District Council]
* [http://www.catnip.co.uk/gillingham/ Photographs of the town]