Gillingham

Gillingham

Gillingham, Priestfield Stadium
Illustration from Gillingham FC www.gillinghamfootballclub.com

What to See
You’ll find accounts of Gillingham’s tourist attractions (and the Medway area) in Towns of Two Halves (and of 91 other places: order the book now for £8 from info@townsof2halves.co.uk). For additional information plus shopping, eating out etc there’s Visit Medway or Visit Kent.

Medwau Queen, Dunkirk, paddle steamer, Gillingham
The Medway Queen: resplendent

Links to local attractions include:
Great Lines Heritage Park
Historic Dockyard Chatham
Huguenot Museum
Medway Queen
Rochester Castle
Rochester Cathedral
Rochester Guildhall Museum
Royal Engineers Museum
The Strand Leisure Park

Rochester, Rochester Castle
Rochester: ‘a castle that has trees in the grounds gives the impression that in times of danger not only would the peasants and their herds be offered shelter, but also the local vegetation’

Towns of Two Halves extracts
“I can hardly claim to have visited Gillingham at all. Rochester, on the other hand, is a self-consciously delightful place. It makes the most of the heritage it has and, equally, makes up for the deficiency where it hasn’t. Romans? Check. Charles Dickens? Check. Olde England? Check.”
“I like a castle that has trees in the grounds. It gives the impression that in times of danger not only would the peasants and their herds be offered shelter, but also the local vegetation. The pigs would continue to have roots to snuffle around and the caterers of the liege lord might find truffles to grace his table.”
“In fact Dickens grew up in Chatham, not Rochester, and spent his declining years a little further away again in Gads Hill. But Rochester has no intention of allowing its association with the author to slip its mythical moorings.”
These are taken from the Gillingham chapter of Towns of Two Halves, published in 2018. To buy a copy, email info@townsof2halves.co.uk.