Gillingham (/ˈɡɪlɪŋəm/ⓘGHIL-ing-əm) is a town and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. It lies on the B3095 and B3081 roads, approximately four miles (six kilometres) south of the A303 trunk road and five miles (eight kilometres) northwest of Shaftesbury. It is the most northerly town in the county. In the 2011 census the civil parish had a population of 11,756. The neighbouring hamlets of Peacemarsh, Bay and Wyke have become part of Gillingham as it has expanded.
Gillingham is pronounced with a hard initial "g" (/ɡ/), unlike Gillingham, Kent, which is pronounced with a soft "g" (/dʒ/).
The name Gillingham was used for the town in its 10th century Saxon charter, and also in an entry for 1016 in the annals, as the location of a battle between King Edmund Ironside and Danish King Cnut.[citation needed] In the Domesday Book in 1086 it is recorded as Gelingeham,[4] and later spellings include Gellingeham in 1130, Gyllingeham in 1152 and Gilingeham in 1209.[citation needed] The name derives from a personal name plus the Old Englishinga and hām, and means a homestead of the family or followers of a man called Gylla.[4]
Half of the town's population of 2,000 died of the Black Death in the four months following October 1348.[5]
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. Many other buildings in the town are of Tudor origin.
In the 1820s, the artist John Constable stayed at Gillingham vicarage and, being impressed by the beauty of the countryside, executed several local sketches and paintings. His painting of the old town bridge is in the Tate Gallery.[6] 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 position on the railway 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 grew rapidly because of this.[citation needed]
Gillingham was the centre of a liberty of the same name.
Demography
In the 2011 census Gillingham civil parish had 5,345 dwellings,[7] 5,107 households and a population of 11,756.[1]
The population of the parish in the censuses between 1921 and 2011 is shown in the table below:
Census Population of Gillingham Parish 1921—2011 (except 1941)
Gillingham has good transport links, being 4 miles (6 kilometres) south of the A303, the main road from London to the South West, and having a railway station on the Exeter to London railway line. Salisbury is about 30 minutes away by train, and 50 minutes by car. It is approximately two hours into central London, with trains arriving at Waterloo.
The town has 70 shops and two commercial estates (Brickfields Business Park and Brickfields Industrial Estate) and the Gillingham education area has 7 primary schools (4 in the town) and 1 secondary school.
The town plays host to the annual 'Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show', which is an agricultural show held every August at the showground on the outskirts of the town. Gillingham Town Carnival is held every October.
Until 2009, when it ceased for financial reasons, Gillingham hosted an annual 10-day festival of music and sport. Gillingham has had a brass band since 1928 and perform at civic events and carnivals.
Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West and ITV West Country. Television signals are received from the Mendip TV transmitter. [11]
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