Gillingham factfile

How to get to Gillingham
Sitting at the mouth of the River Medway in Kent, Gillingham lies around 35 miles to the east of London. The town has direct rail and bus services into the capital, and is conveniently located for access to London Stansted and London City airports.

How Gillingham got its name
The name Gillingham can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086. It's believed that the town was named after an old English warlord known as Gyllingas. He got his name from the old English word "gyllan", meaning to shout, because he would typically lead his warriors into battle screaming and shouting.

Gillingham through the ages
Gillingham's history is bound up in its strategic importance as a dockyard. In medieval times the Grange area of Gillingham was part of the Cinque Ports network, and it retained its maritime importance until the end of the World War II.

The area was invaded by the Dutch in 1667, and the dockyards played a major role in the Seven Years War (1756—1763), as well as during subsequent hostilities against France in the late 1770s.

It's worth remembering, too, that a large part of the mighty Chatham Dockyard, founded by Queen Elizabeth I and only closed in 1984, actually lay not in Chatham at all, but in Gillingham.

Shopping in Gillingham
Just outside Gillingham is Hempstead Valley, which offers a wide array of shops, ranging from large stores to smaller independent retailers. Slightly further afield is the impressive Bluewater centre at Greenhithe, Europe's largest retail and leisure complex, with hundreds of stores and eateries among its vast halls.

Things to see and do around Gillingham
Part of what was once the mighty Chatham Dockyard is now open to the public as a museum managed by the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust. At the height of its 400-year history, the dockyard employed over 10,000 people, extended over 400 acres, and was a pioneering force in shipbuilding technology.

Built by Queen Elizabeth I in 1559 as an artillery fort to defend the dockyards, the beautifully preserved Upnor Castle looks out over the River Medway, surrounded by rolling countryside and historic riverside villages.

Natural beauty spots around Gillingham
The chalk grassland area around Gillingham boasts many unusual species of plant and animal life, in particular a wide variety of reptiles including lizards and adders.

The area is also well known for being home to some of Britain's rarer moths and butterflies, and even glow-worms can be found here.

Try your wildlife spotting luck at Darland Banks country park, which lies between Gillingham and neighbouring Chatham.