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Gillingham Leasing

Did You Know?

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".

Gillingham Football Club, known then as New Brompton FC, were formed at the Napier Arms pub in May 1893, but changed to the current name in time for the 1912/13 season. The share capital was set at £1,500 and a plot of land, subsequently to become known as Priestfield Stadium, was purchased for £600.

Gillingham became a local farming centre, gained the first grammar school in Dorset in 1516 and a silk mill 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.

It is also the birthplace of some famous, and not so famous, people - Will Adams was born here, as was Gary Cooper's mother (I did say not so famous). Sir David Frost and Gary Rhodes attended Gillingham Grammar School.

At the time of the Norman Conquest, Gillingham Kent was given to the half-brother of William I of England, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, who rebuilt the parish church at Gillingham Kent and constructed an Archbishop's Palace on land bordered by Grange Road, the ruins of which could still be seen in the last century.

A busy town with a history that dates back to at least the 10th century. In the 11th century, Gillingham was the site of an archbishop's palace, built by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and half-brother of William the Conqueror, and for centuries it has been strongly linked to the naval dockyards at nearby Chatham and to navigation on the River Medway.

One of the early buildings around the green was a timber church, of unknown dedication. Sometime around 1070 Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury built a new stone church dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. Not surprisingly, Gillingham's parish church is known as 'the Church on the Green'.

On a steep ridge between Gillingham and Chatham is a former Field of Fire that formed part of the landward defences protecting Chatham Royal Dockyards. The defences were dubbed the Chatham Lines, and have been preserved as a heritage park.