Gravesend

Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles east-southeast of Charing Cross on the south bank of the River Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the Diocese of Rochester, it is the administrative centre of the borough of Gravesham. Gravesend marks the eastern limit of the Greater London Built-up Area, as defined by the UK Office for National Statistics. It had a population of 58,102 in 2021.
Its geographical situation has given Gravesend strategic importance throughout the maritime and communications history of South East England. A Thames Gateway commuter town, it retains strong links with the River Thames, not least through the Port of London Authority Pilot Station, and has witnessed rejuvenation since the advent of High Speed 1 rail services via Gravesend railway station. The station was recently refurbished and has a new bridge.

Name

Recorded as Gravesham in the Domesday Book of 1086 when it belonged to Odo, Earl of Kent and Bishop of Bayeux, the half-brother of William the Conqueror, its name probably derives 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". Frank Carr asserts that the name derives from the Saxon Gerevesend, the end of the authority of the Portreeve.
In the Netherlands, a place called 's-Gravenzande is found with its name translating into "Sand belonging to the Count". The s is a contraction of the old Dutch genitive article des, and translates into plain English as of the. In Brooklyn, New York, the neighbourhood of Gravesend is said by some to have been named for 's-Gravenzande, though its founding by the English religious dissenter Lady Deborah Moody in 1645 suggests that it may be named after Gravesend, England. Lady Deborah was originally from London and is credited with being the first woman to found a settlement in the New World.
The Domesday spelling is its earliest known historical record; all other spellings – in the later Domesday Monachorum and in Textus Roffensis the town is Gravesend and Gravesende, respectively. The variation Graveshend can be seen in a court record of 1422, where Edmund de Langeford was parson, and attributed to where the graves ended after the Black Death. The municipal title Gravesham was formally adopted in 1974 as the name for the new borough.

History

implements have been found in the locality since the 1900s, as has evidence of an Iron Age settlement at nearby Springhead. Extensive Roman remains have been found at nearby Vagniacae, and Gravesend lies immediately to the north of the Roman road connecting London with the Kent coast – now called Watling Street. Domesday Book recorded mills, hythes, and fisheries here.
Milton Chantry is Gravesend's oldest surviving building and dates from the early 14th century. It was refounded as a chapel in 1320/21 on the original site of a former leper hospital founded in 1189. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Gravesend has one of the oldest surviving markets in the country. Its earliest charter dates from 1268, with town status being granted to the two parishes of Gravesend and Milton by King Henry III in its Charter of Incorporation of that year. The first mayor of Gravesend was elected in 1268 but the first town hall was not built until 1573. The current Gravesend Town Hall was completed in 1764: although it ceased to operate as a seat of government in 1968 when the new Gravesham Civic Centre was opened, it remained in use as a magistrates' court until 2000. It now operates as a venue for weddings and civil partnership ceremonies.
In 1380, during the Hundred Years' War, Gravesend was raided by a French fleet.
In 1401, a further royal charter was granted, allowing the men of the town to operate boats between London and the town; these became known as the "Long Ferry". It became the preferred form of passage, because of the perils of road travel.
On Gravesend's river front are the remains of a device fort built by command of King Henry VIII in 1543.
In March 1617, John Rolfe and his Native American wife Rebecca, with their two-year-old son, Thomas, boarded a ship in London bound for the Commonwealth of Virginia; the ship had only sailed as far as Gravesend before Rebecca fell ill, and she died shortly after she was taken ashore. It is not known what caused her death. Her funeral and interment took place on 21 March 1617 at the parish church of St George, Gravesend. The site of her grave was underneath the church's chancel, though since the previous church was destroyed by fire in 1727 her exact resting place is unknown. Thomas Rolfe survived, but was placed under the supervision of Sir Lewis Stukley at Plymouth, before being sent to his uncle, Henry Rolfe whilst John Rolfe and his late wife's assistant Tomocomo reached America under the captaincy of Sir Samuel Argall's ship. Pocahontas is an important figure in both American and British history.
At Fort Gardens is the New Tavern Fort, built during the 1780s and extensively rebuilt by Major-General Charles Gordon between 1865 and 1879; it is now the Chantry Heritage Centre, under the care of Gravesend Local History Society. The fort is a scheduled monument.
Journeys by road to Gravesend were historically quite hazardous, since the main London-Dover road crossed Blackheath, notorious for its highwaymen. Stagecoaches from London to Canterbury, Dover and Faversham used Gravesend as one of their "stages" as did those coming north from Tonbridge. In 1840 there were 17 coaches picking up and setting down passengers and changing horses each way per day. There were two coaching inns on what is now Old Road East: the Prince of Orange and the Lord Nelson. Post coaches had been plying the route for at least two centuries: Samuel Pepys records having stopped off at Gravesend in 1650 en route to the Royal Dockyards at Chatham.
A permanent military presence was established in the town when Milton Barracks opened in 1862.
Although much of the town's economy continued to be connected with maritime trade, since the 19th century other major employers have been the cement and paper industries.
From 1932 to 1956, an airport was located to the east of the town. On Sunday 5 February 1939, Alex Henshaw commenced his record-breaking flight to Cape Town and back from here. He completed the flight in 39 hours 36 minutes over the next four days; his record still stands. Originally a civilian airfield, during World War II it became a fighter station, RAF Gravesend, and so Gravesend was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe. In 1956 the site was taken over by Gravesend Borough Council; a large housing estate, known as Riverview Park, was built on its site.

Governance

Gravesend is the principal town of the Borough of Gravesham. The borough was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Gravesend and Northfleet Urban District along with several parishes from Strood Rural District. Gravesend was incorporated as a Municipal Borough in 1835 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 and Northfleet was constituted an Urban District in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894: Gravesend absorbed Milton, Denton, Chalk and part of Northfleet, including Claphall, Singlewell and King's Farm.

Geography

Gravesend is located at a point where the higher land – the lowest point of the dip slope of the North Downs – reaches the Thames. To the east are the low-lying Shorne Marshes; to the west, beyond Northfleet and the Swanscombe Marshes. The settlement was thus established as it was a good landing place: it was also sheltered by the prominent height of what is now called Windmill Hill ; although Windmill Hill still remains a dominant feature, Gravesend's highest point is actually further inland at Marling Cross, adjacent to the A2.
From its origins as a landing place and shipping port, Gravesend gradually extended southwards and eastwards. Better-off people from London visited the town during the summer months; at first by boat, and then by railway. More extensive building began after World War I; this increased after World War II, when many of the housing estates in the locality were built.
Gravesend's built-up areas comprise Painters Ash, adjacent to the A2; King's Farm ; and Christianfields. The latter housing estate was completely rebuilt in a 6-year project from 2007 to 2013. There is also the aforementioned Riverview Park estate built on the old RAF field in the south-east, in the 1960s, and Singlewell, which is adjacent to the A2 in the South
Part of the southern built-up area of the town was originally two separate rural parishes: viz, Cobham and Northfleet.

Climate

Gravesend has an oceanic climate similar to much of southern England, being accorded Köppen Climate Classification-subtype of "Cfb".
On 10 August 2003, Gravesend recorded one of the highest temperatures since records began in the United Kingdom, with a reading of, only beaten by Brogdale, near Faversham, to the ESE. Gravesend, which has a Met Office site, reports its data each hour.
Being inland and yet relatively close to continental Europe, Gravesend enjoys a somewhat more continental climate than the coastal areas of Kent, Essex and East Anglia and also compared to western parts of Britain. It is therefore less cloudy, drier, and less prone to Atlantic depressions with their associated wind and rain than western parts, as well as being hotter in summer and colder in winter.
Thus Gravesend continues to record higher temperatures in summer, sometimes being the hottest place in the country, e.g. on the warmest day of 2011, when temperatures reached 33.1 °C. Additionally, the town holds at least two records for the year 2010, of 30.9 °C and 31.7 °C. Another record was set during England's Indian summer of 2011 with 29.9 °C., the highest temperature ever recorded in the UK for October. In 2016 the warmest day of the year occurred very late on 13 September with a very high temperature of 34.4C