Gillingham

Gillingham, situated in the Blackmore Vale, is the most northerly town in Dorset and located 4 miles north-west of Shaftesbury at the junction of the B3095 and B3081, with the A303 trunk road being just 4 miles away. Gillingham has a long history as the Longbury Barrow, a mile north-west of the church, dating from the New Stone Age can testify.

With the advent of the railway in 1859, opportunities were in abundance allowing Gillingham to grow and thrive. Many industries were established and the main street furnished with a variety of shops. Among the new industries were several serving the farming community, particularly for dairy products which could now be dispatched several times daily to London and other large towns to arrive in a fresh condition. Brick and pottery works, gloving, engineering, glue making, brewing, bacon factory, were the main manufacturing industries with markets, service and retail businesses covering virtually every need of the Victorian era.

The Freame family collection of local historical documents and artefacts were given to the town of Gillingham by Mr Sidney Carter, benefactor of the items from the will of the last surviving Freame. Housed in various places throughout the years, it was realised that more modern premises to support the growing collection were needed. It was decided to build an extension to the new library which would meet the access and conservation criteria required to meet the 21st century. After much fund raising and a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund in their very first round of awards, Gillingham Museum was finally officially opened in October 1996.

The artist John Constable was a friend of the Reverend John Fisher vicar of Gillingham, and visited the town in 1820 and 1823. As a result five oil paintings of the area and four sketches were produced. Reproduced as near to actual size as possible colour copies of each of these can be seen in the Gillingham Museum, along with much information on his friendship with the Reverend and his family, and his reasons for his visiting Gillingham.

Gillingham is a shopping centre for a large surrounding area and its facilities include two large modern supermarkets and a wide range of assorted retail and service businesses. A new library with a large book stock has recently been completed in the Chantry Fields development. Three primary schools within the town feed the recently rebuilt and excellently equipped Comprehensive school, catering for education through to A level courses. The town also has a Youth centre.

Gillingham has grown rapidly in the past twenty years and has been successful in attracting a variety of new industries. The town's population has grown to over 10,000, most of whom live in recently constructed and competitively priced housing. The town has a considerable amount of land available for employment purposes and an internal relief road, built in the early 1990's, has improved the main shopping street in the town. The town has its own railway station on the Exeter to London line.