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Sittingbourne

Sittingbourne (Kent)
Sittingbourne

Sittingbourne shown within Kent
Population 55,000
OS grid reference TQ905635
District Swale
Shire county Kent
Region South East
Constituent country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town SITTINGBOURNE
Postcode district ME9, ME10
Dialling code 01795
Police Kent
Fire Kent
Ambulance South East Coast
European Parliament South East England
UK Parliament Sittingbourne and Sheppey
List of places: UK • England • Kent

Coordinates: 51°20′N 0°44′E / 51.34, 0.74

Sittingbourne is an industrial town about eight miles (12. KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format In Biology a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular Species; in Sociology The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties are one of the four levels of Subdivisions of England used for the purposes of Local government outside Greater London KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format The region, also known as the government office region, is currently the highest tier of local government sub-national entity of England, with only one South East England is one of the nine official Regions of England. Constituent country is a phrase used often by official institutions in contexts in which a country makes up a part of a larger entity or grouping England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland This list of sovereign states, alphabetically arranged gives an overview of States around the world with information on the extent of their Sovereignty. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system UK Postal codes are known as postcodes. UK postcodes are Alphanumeric. The, also known as the Rochester postcode area, is a group of twenty postal districts around Medway in Kent, England. The UK Telephone numbering plan, also known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, is the system used for assigning Telephone numbers in the United There are a number of law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom. Kent Police, a Home Office police force polices Kent in England, including the unitary authority of Medway. The fire service in the United Kingdom operates under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Kent Fire and Rescue Service is the Statutory fire and rescue service for the County of Kent covering a geographical area south of London The South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb is the NHS Ambulance Services Trust for south-eastern England, covering Kent (including Medway South East England is a Constituency of the European Parliament. This is a list of the 646 constituencies currently represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as at the 2005 general election Sittingbourne and Sheppey is a Constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. A Gazetteer of place names in the United Kingdom showing each place's County, Unitary authority or council area and its geographical coordinates List of places --> List of cities in the United Kingdom List of towns in England Lists of places This is a list of places in Kent, England split by local government district and sorted alphabetically A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system. 9 km) east of Gillingham, beside the Roman Watling Street off a creek in the Swale, a channel separating the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent. Gillingham ( is a town in the Unitary authority of Medway in South East England. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC Watling Street is the name given to an Ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Celts mainly between the modern The name The Swale refers to the strip of sea separating North Kent from the Isle of Sheppey. This article is about the Isle of Sheppey in northern Kent not to be confused with Shepway in south-eastern Kent KENT (1400 AM) is a Radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format The town is growing rapidly due to a number of large residential developments, and its train line links to central London in around an hour.

The town is served by Sittingbourne railway station. Sittingbourne railway station is on the Chatham Main Line and the Sheerness Line in north Kent 72 km (44¾ miles south east of London Victoria


Contents

Orgins of the Name

Most Sittingbourne residents know the origins of the name coming from the fact there is a small stream running underground in part of the town, so it was a town Sitting-on-the-Bourne.

Sittingbourne Heritage Museum says on its website:

"Hasted writing in the 1790s in his History of Kent states that "Sittingbourne was anciently written Sedingbourne, in Saxon, Saedingburga, i. e. the hamlet by the bourne or small stream. " The Oxford Dictionary of English Place names quotes Sittingbourne as written Sidingeburn in the year 1200. It goes on to say that this probably means "Stream of the dwellers on the slope" derived from the Old English side+inga+burna. Side meaning hillside; inga meaning belonging to or associated with, and burna meaning stream. Canon Scott Robertson in his paper written in 1878 entitled "On the Names of Lands and Houses in and around Sittingbourne, their antiquity and origin" says that "Sittingbourne was commonly written as Sedyngburne in the middle ages. " He argues that the first part of the name refers to the name of the clan or tribe of Soedingas who settled here. The second part simply means a brook. It has to be said, however, that the evidence for a Belgic tribe named Soedingas in this area is very slim. In the "Old Dover Road", it is suggested that Sittingbourne simply means Seething burn or brook. One thing is certain. There was a stream which flowed across the High St. close to the junction with Bell Road. Dr. Scott Robertson says "Persons now living still remember the stream at the east end of the street, through which the Dover and Canterbury coaches used to splash and many still recollect stepping stones just east of the churchyard. " Crown Quay Lane was in those days known as The Water Lane. The stream is still there but now underground. There was another stream at the west end of the town which flowed into Milton Creek and if pilgrims did sit down on the higher ground it seems most likely it was to dry their feet. "

History

In the Middle Ages, Sittingbourne was a popular place for pilgrims to Canterbury and offered a thriving market. A settlement existed in the area as far back as 1086 when Norman records a village pond.

Sittingbourne became a popular resting place for distinguished travellers as well as pilgrims, especially those visiting mainland Europe via the port of Dover. Dover is a town and major ferry port in the county of Kent, England. King Henry V of England stopped at the Red Lion Inn, formerly The Lyon, on his way back from the Battle of Agincourt, and Henry VIII visited Sittingbourne in 1522 and 1532, and reportedly ate at the Red Lion as well. Henry V (16 September 1386 &ndash 31 August 1422 was one of the most significant English warrior kings of the 15th century The Battle of Agincourt was an English victory against a larger French army in the Hundred Years' War. Henry VIII (28 June 1491 &ndash 28 January 1547 was King of England and Lord of Ireland, later King of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of It is also reported that Queen Victoria stayed at the Rose Inn, which is now the towns high street Woolworths store, but a Red Rose engraved above the store front reminds visitors of its history. Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901 was from 20 June 1837 the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Sittingbourne has, over its long history, developed significant links with the history of the river barge, still evident today. At the centre of the town's paved high street is the sculpture of a bronze bargeman. The Dolphin shipyard was formerly the barge yard of cement works and brickmakers C Burley, and is on a tidal inlet running from Sittingbourne to the Swale.

Today, paper manufacture at Kemsley Paper Mill and fruit preserving and packing are the main industries. During the 20th century, Sittingbourne Paper Mill was the largest producer of newsprint in the world, supplying the demands of Fleet Street. Fleet Street is a street in London, England named after the River Fleet. Sittingbourne Paper Mill closed in 2007.

The current MP, Derek Wyatt was elected to the newly created constituency of Sittingbourne and Sheppey in 1997 and re-elected in 2001 and 2005. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. Derek Murray Wyatt (born 4 December 1949) is a British Politician, and Labour Member of Parliament for Sittingbourne In the United Kingdom (UK, each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one or more members to a parliament or assembly

Geography

North Kent is geologically rich in chalk, which is not found in many other places in Europe in such abundance. This naturally led cement manufacturers to settle in the area, and the modern industry still flourishes locally today. Barges were needed to move many other raw materials and finished goods into the Thames and to London and beyond; Sittingbourne was ideally suited for this purpose and a flourishing barge-building industry developed at Milton Creek and elsewhere along the coast. The Thames ( is a major River flowing through southern England. The earliest known barge was built in the area by John Huggens in 1803.

These industries flourished during the 19th century when, as a result of the industrial revolution, Sittingbourne developed into a port from which Kent produce was transported to the London markets. Paper mills and brickfields were fed by barges that brought in sand, mud and household waste such as cinders for brick making, and took away the bricks once made.

During this era over 500 types of barges are believed to have been built, but after World War II, these activities began to fall into a decline, so that only the Burley yard continued with the repair of barges until about 1965. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including This lack of activity led the creek to become silted and derelict, but the 200-year-old wooden sail loft and forge was later converted to the Dolphin Sailing Barge Museum by a local enthusiast. It has now closed.

Shipbuilding

One prominent local shipwright was the son of Alfred White who owned a yard at Sittingbourne, and had a barge yard at Blackwall in London during the 1880s where he built Swimhead barges for Goldsmith of Grays in Essex. This entry concerns the area of London known as Blackwall For the type of merchant sailing ship first built there and named after it see Blackwall Frigate Essex is a county in the East of England. The County town is Chelmsford, and the highest point of the county is Chrishall Common Alfred Marconi White took over the Conyer yard from John Bird in 1890 after serving his apprenticeship at the Blackwall yard. Conyer, a hamlet of the village of Teynham, once inhabited by the Romans, is found at the head of a small creek between Sittingbourne and Faversham. Teynham is a large village and Civil parish in Kent, England, in the district of Swale. Faversham (fævɜʃəm is a town in Kent, England, in the district of Swale, roughly halfway between Sittingbourne and Canterbury

The shipwright John Bird (born 1832) is reputed to be the first of the barge builders to settle at Conyer and records exist for a sailing barge built there in 1866, the year he began his work at the yard. The White family prided themselves in the construction of the fastest barges available locally. Alfred Marconi at his Conyer yard, near brickfields, built many different types of barge. Some continued to exist as house barges well into the 1960s. The last of the many sailing barges was built at the Conyer yard in 1914, but repair works continued well into the 1930s, with several barge yachts built in the 1920s.

Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway

To the west of the Dolphin yard is the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway, which served as transport for the paper making industry.

A mill was opened in 1877 by the News Chronicle owner Edward Lloyd, between Sittingbourne and the Milton creek, where the raw materials such as china clay, coal and pulping timber for the paper were easily imported by barges that also took away the finished product. A wharf was built and a narrow gauge horse-drawn tramway added to carry these materials to and from the creek.

In 1906 the first steam locomotive, Premier, came into service, followed by Leader the same year and in 1908 a third loco, Excelsior. All were Brazil-class 0-4-2 tank locomotives.

The waters below the wharves at Sittingbourne were prone to rapid silting, and with the expansion of the paper mill a new dock was developed four miles from Sittingbourne at Ridham, taking advantage of the Swale's deep waters.

Kemsley Mill led to the foundation of a company village which was built about 1924, and by the 1960s 13 locomotives were in regular use on the line, one diesel and one battery electric and 400 wagons, with about 14 miles of track. Kemsley today is a suburb of Sittingbourne in Kent, England. At the end of the 19th century it was simply a row of cottages beside a Brickworks The railway was after the Second World War used to carry passengers to and from the docks and mill, with carriages provided for the mill workers of Kemsley.

In 1965 it was decided that the railway was uneconomic, with the significant progress made in the use of the car, and so lorries were more commonly used for transporting produce. Consequently by 1969 the Bowater Light Railway, much loved as it was by the firm (and with assistance of Capt Peter Manisty) handed it over to the Locomotive Club of Great Britain to be preserved and operated as the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway. Bowater is an American pulp and paper company based in Greenville South Carolina. It has since become a significant feature in the town's tourist industry. The railway also provides the only method of transport to the annual Sittingbourne Beer Festival.

Air raids during the First World War

The area around Sittingbourne was subject to constant air raids by Zeppelins and aeroplanes during the First World War. A Zeppelin is a type of Rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century based on designs he had outlined The Germans used the town as a reference point for bearings on the way to London.

The first visit by a German aeroplane happened on Christmas Day 1914. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Guns at Sheerness fired at the lone invader but still one shell dropped into a field at Iwade. Sheerness (ˈʃɪərnɪs is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England The next event was to occur on 16 January 1915 when another solitary pilot from a German aerodrome in Belgium bombed Sittingbourne. Events 27 BC - The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate. Year 1915 ( MCMXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those This aircraft, a Taube, was pursued by two local airmen, but managed to escape after dropping a couple of bombs.

About 100 air raid warnings were sounded in Sittingbourne during the First World War and anti-aircraft batteries were strengthened in 1917. The last big raid to pass over the town on Whit Sunday (19 May 1918), carried out by a number of Gothas, eliciting perhaps the most ferocious barrage from the ground defences the town had ever seen.

The local newspaper, the East Kent Gazette, reported:

"The first of these duels occurred about an hour after the raid had been in progress, and probably this machine was caught while on its way to London. It was engaged by a daring aviation officer while at a great height. The British airman attacked his opponent so fiercely that the German was forced down to a lower height, and ultimately, to the joy of the onlookers, the Gotha burst into flames, seemed to break in two and came down piecemeal, all aflame. The wrecked machine and the three occupants fell by a farm. Two of the Germans fell into marshy ground and their bodies were deeply embedded in the mud. The third man's head struck a wall and was shattered like an eggshell. All three bodies were removed to a local aviation establishment. The fall of the burning Gotha was seen for miles around. "

The second Gotha was surrounded by British fighters shortly after, returning from a successful raid on London.

Sport

Motorcycle speedway racing has been staged near Sittingbourne for a number of years. The track was originally used for training alone but since 1994 the Crusaders have taken part in the Conference League and other competitions.

Sources

External links

Museum]

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