Gillingham, Kent

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 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.…

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 Queen Elizabeth II in 1984.

The Gillingham Open Lines Project is a proposed regeneration scheme developed by Medway Council in collaboration with Peel L&P, submitted in 2022 as part of a bid for nearly £20 million in funding through Round 2 of the UK Government's Levelling Up Fund. The project proposes the creation of a 1.4-kilometre pedestrian and cycle route, referred to as "The Greenway" along the disused Gillingham to Chatham Dockyard Railway Link in Gillingham, Kent. The greenway is intended to improve connections between Gillingham Waterfront and Gillingham town centre, linking key sites such as Chatham Waters, the University Technical College (UTC), and local university campuses. and the development of a green…