Recent Articles

Gravesend, England

Gravesend is a town in North-West Kent, England. It is on the south bank of the Thames estuary, opposite Tilbury in Essex. The population of Gravesend was in 1831 just 5079, which by 1921 had risen to 31,137. The road from Gravesend to Rochester runs beside the Thames and offers a fine view of the Hoo Peninsula, at Higham the Falstaff inn takes its name from a scene set on this road in the play Henry V by William Shakespeare.

The first Mayor of Gravesend was elected in the year of 1635, but the first town hall was in place by 1573, and was replaced in 1764, however Gravesend has one of the oldest surviving markets in the country, its earliest charter dating from 1268.

Origin of the name 'Gravesend'.

Myth has it that Gravesend got its name because, during the outbreak of Bubonic Plague in the 1600s, the town was the place where victims were no longer buried on land - they were buried at sea (the town sits next to the Thames Estuary. However, the town is recorded as Gravesham in the Domesday Book in 1086 as belonging to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and called 'Gravesham': a name probably derived from "graaf-ham": the home of the Reeve, or Bailiff, of the Lord of the Manor. Another theory suggests that the name Gravesham may be a corruption of the words grafs-ham - a place 'at the end of the grove'.

Port of London Authority.

Gravesend is the headquarters of the Port of London Authority Thames navigation service. Gravesend is immediately opposite Tilbury docks which were built between 1882-6, the construction of which as mainly undertaken by men living at Gravesend, who were delivered and returned home by way of the old ferry.

General Gordon.

Gravesend is associated with General Gordon, who lived in the town during the construction of the Thames forts and for 6 years devoted himself to the welfare of the towns 'poor boys', he established a Sunday school and provided food and clothes for them from his Army wage. In command of the Royal Engineers from 1865-71, he was responsible for the forts that guard the Thames downstream from Gravesend - Shornemead on the south bank, and Coalhouse on the north.

Gravesend Regatta.

Rowing matches have been taking place on the river Thames at Gravesend since from at least the year of 1698, and the first organized Regatta was in 1715. The first Borough Regatta began in 1882, setting the pattern for an annual event on the Thames that is carried on to this day. The early events were much more popular than they are today with the river and promenade becoming very crowded, but the event is still wort a visit.

Just along from the Promenade has been recorded the archeological remains of a river side fort built at the command of Henry viii in 1543. Also on the river front is a fine example of a cast iron pier, a unique structure with the first known iron cylinders used for its foundation, Steamboat services had begun from London in 1815.

St Georges church.

St Georges church, just opposite the pier, survives as restored 1731 in the Georgian style of the period, after having previously burnt down in august 1727 when a great fire consumed much of Gravesend destroying about 110 houses and the parish church, services being transferred to the town hall until the church was rebuilt. The parish records were lost in the fire so that the site of the burial of the native American princess Pocahontas have also been lost.

Pocahontas.

Pocahontas was to become the first Native American to visit England, and so Europe. The daughter of Powhattan, chief of the tribe, she came into contact with a group of English settlers at Jamestown, in Virginia in 1607, to later famously save the pioneer Captain John Smith from the imediate threat of death from her fathers tribe after an indian raiding party decended upon the hapless setlers, by shielding the Captain from the tomahawk blows of his captors in throwing herself upon him a legend was born.

After John Smith had returned to England she was made a hostage by the English settlers to attempt a procurement of good behaviour from the chief Powhattan his daughter was falsely informed that Smith had died.

She later sailed with Rolfe to England, with their infant child, where she was received at the court in London meeting with queen Anne and James I, and, something of a celebrity, was 'taken up by society'.

It is reported she met up with John Smith in London and that the shock broke her heart. She later died on board a vessel at Gravesend in March 1617, before her homeward journey, and is buried in the parish Church yard of St Georges, although the exact location of her grave is unknown.

---

Gravesend was the first town in England to regularly employ the services of a stagecoach, this was in 1825. The first railway connection shortly followed in 1833 and by 1845 a service was running from the town to Woolwich, Greenwich and London.

Thames and Medway canal.

The Thames and Medway canal was opened for barge traffic in the year 1824, by 1846 it had proved to difficult a route for navigation between the Thames and Medway and was left to silt up with the tunnel rescued to provide a route for the railway. The reasons for this change of use generally because the canal had suffered from the problems caused by the differing tides between the two rivers to such an extent that a steam engine had to be used often in pumping water into the tunnel to compensate for low tides. A steam tug was also used in assisting with the pulling of the barges through the tunnel.

---

Of related interest:

No essay on Gravesend would be complete without reference to the towns clock tower built at the top of Harmer street, which leds away from the town toward the river front. The foundation stone was laid on September the 6th, 1887. The memorial stone states that the clock tower was erected by public subscription (£700 was raised toward its construction) and it was dedicated to queen Victoria, to commemorate the 50th year of her long reign. Built with Portland and Dumfries stone, backed with hard stock brickwork, the design of the structure was based on the Westminster tower that houses Big Ben. The center of the clock itself is measured at 50 foot above the ground and the face is 5ft 6 inches in diameter.

The Gravesend Hospital was demolished in 2004, but was originally established in 1850, as a chemists on the Milton road. By 1893 4699 locals had benefited by its presence. In 1884, by the donation of a parcel of land in what is now Bath Street by the lord Darnley it became possible toestablish the Gravesend Hospital.

Windmill hill named for its old windmill and offers extensive views across the Thames, and was a popular spot for Victorian visitors to the town, because of the Camera Obscura installed in the old mill. The hill, itself 179 ft above the high water mark of the river was the sight of a beacon in 1377, the beacon was instituted by Richard II, and still in use 200 years later at the time of the Spanish Armada, although the hill was then known as 'Rouge Hill', it was during the reign of Elizabeth I the first windmill was placed at top the highest point in Gravesend. the mill burnt down in 1763, but was replaced the following year, but demolished in 1894, considered a dangerous structure.

During the time Gordon was at Gravesend (1865-71) the composer Rimsky-Korsakov was an officer in the Russian navy and was posted to Gravesend, where he wrote part of his first symphony, said to be the first ever such style of composition attempted by a Russian composer.

On land by the river, close to Northfleet, at what became the property of the imperial paper mills their was once a pond which had the curious tendency of draining when the river was at full tide and filling again when the tide subsided. This strange behaviour was explained by the submerging of the springs that fed the pond with the tidal waters, when the tides receded the springs were once again able to drain into the pond.

As of August 2003, it held the record as the place to have recorded the highest temperature since records began in the United Kingdom, with a reading of 38.1 Celsius (100.6F).