Gravesend, Kent

Historical Description

Gravesend, a town, a parliamentary and municipal borough, and a parish in Kent. The town stands on the river Thames, opposite Tilbury fort, and has stations on the L.C. & D.R., S.E.R., and London and Tilbury railway, 24 miles from London. The area of the municipal borough is 1256 acres; of the parliamentary, 3141 acres; population of the municipal borough, 23, 876; of the parliamentary, 35, 079. The Thames here is more than half a mile wide, and has a depth at low water of about 48 feet, and it begins to expand below, forming there the Hope, the last of its many reaches; yet it is supposed by some writers, for reasons of merely fancied changes of depth of channel, to have been forded at Higham, about a mile lower down, in the year 43, by Aulus Plautins, the lieutenant of Claudius. A rising ground occupied by the town is the nearest one to the sea on the river's bank, and to some extent commands the passage. Only a hytbe or landing-place was here at Domesday, but this bore the name of Gravesham, or the town of the grave, graef, or chief magistrate-seemingly an allusion to its being at the extremity of the jurisdiction of the chief magistrate of London-and that name has become corrupted into the modern one, Gravesend. The place belonged to Bishop Odo, and passed to successively the Cremilles, the Uffords, St Mary's Abbey, and the Earls of Darnley. A town of some consequence appears to have risen soon after the Conquest. The watermen of Gravesend so early as 1293 possessed exclusive right of ferry between this place and London. The French and Spaniards in 1380 burned and plundered the town, and carried off most of its inhabitants, and a grant of increased privileges of ferry was given to it by Richard II. to enable it to retrieve its losses. Outward-bound ships from about the 15th century lay here to complete their cargoes; early voyagers, as Sebastian Carbot in 1553, and Martin Frobisher in 1576, assembled here their little fleets, and the magistrates and city companies of London received here all distinguished strangers arriving by water, and conducted them hence in state up the river. William III. embarked here for Holland in 1691, and George L landed here.

The town suffered much damage by fire in 1727, and again to the estimated amount of £100, 000 in 1850. But the rebuildings which followed, and especially extensions and ornamentations consequent on great influx of visitors and residents from London, have wonderfully improved its appearance. The aspect of it as seen from the river is varied and pleasing, and the aspect within, after the interior has been seen, is not disappointing. The lower part, indeed, consists chiefly of narrow streets, but the upper part, on Windmill Hill, has fine ranges of houses, and the exterior parts, especially in the direction of Milton, have handsome squares and terraces. Windmill Hill takes name from a pristine mill erected on it in the time of Edward IIL, and commands a magnificent and extensive view. The Terrace gardens, on the site of what was called the Blockhouse Fort, and formed at a cost of about £20, 000, comprise beautiful walks and shrubberies, and are a favourite promenade. The Rosherville gardens, on what was previously a barren tract of chalk pits, on the estate of an enterprising person of the name of Jeremiah Rosher, are highly picturesque grounds of about 18 acres, constantly open for a small admission fee, and possessing a rich combination of attractions, variously natural and artificial. Abundant lodging-houses, salubrious air, cheap living, good bathing appliances, the stir on the river, fine rambling grounds in the neighbourhood, and ready communication by steamer and by railway with London, also draw hither a great and constant concourse of visitors. Gravesend now possesses three lines of railway-viz., the South-Eastern, London and Tilbury, and London, Chatham and Dover, running together nearly 150 trains per day to and from London, at very cheap fares.

The town-hall in High Street was built in 1836, is a substantial Doric edifice, and was considerably enlarged and improved in 1882; it has a market-place beneath. The county court-house is a building of stone, erected in 1871. The assembly rooms, in Harmer Street, were built in 1842 at a cost of £3000, and have a fine Ionic portico. A Jubilee clock tower, 80 feet high, and costing over, £1000, was erected in 1887. The baths, a little W of the town, are an extensive range of building, and contain hot, cold, and vapour baths. Three piers are at Rosherville, the town, and the terrace, and they seem fully required to accommodate the crowded passenger traffic with the steamers. The town pier was formed in 1834, leads up to High Street, belongs to the corporation, consists of cast-iron, and was covered in and altered in 1854 for the uses of the Tilbury railway ferry. The terrace pier connects with Harmer Street and Windmill Hill, was erected in 1845 at a cost of £9200 by a joint-stock company, and projects on twenty-two cast-iron columns 250 feet into the river. The Thames and Medway Canal, or Gravesend and Rochester Canal, 7½ miles long, and completed in 1824, began in the Thames at Gravesend, and terminated in the Medway near Rochester Bridge; was designed to shorten the navigation to the Medway very greatly for small craft; but proved unsuccessful, was eventually purchased by the North Kent railway company, and was in part adopted for their line-of railway. A battery or fort is on the E side of the town. An addition to the Hut barracks, comprising officers' quarters, offices, an hospital, stores, and workshops, was erected near the end of 1861 at a cost of, £15, 000. The parish church was twice burnt down, and the present one was built in 1731 at a cost of £5000, and is a plain brick edifice with stone groins. St James' Church in London Road is a Gothic structure of 1851. Holy Trinity Church was built in 1845 at a cost of £4539; a fine organ was placed in it in 1885. Milton Parish Church is Late Decorated English, has a fine square tower, and contains well-designed sedilia, and interesting corbels of the original roof. Christ's Church, Milton,. is a Gothic edifice of 1854. The Congregational chapel in Prince's Street dates from 1717, but has been restored. The-Roman Catholic chapel in Milton Road was built in 1834 at a cost of £7000. There are also Baptist, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist chapels. A Jewish synagogue was erected in 1880, and a Presbyterian church in 1870. Var-chell's free school, founded previous to 1703 and endowed, was rebuilt in 1835, and then united to national schools. The ragged schools were built in 1864, and are a substantial brick structure of two storeys, 55 feet long and 23 wide. A branch of the Sailor's Home was opened in 1886, and is a fine brick edifice. The Children's Home, Parrock Hall, Milton, opened ill 1875, is a spacious building standing in 20 acres of land, and is capable of receiving 160 boys. There is a literary institute with a library. Pinnock's almsbouses were founded in 1624, and rebuilt in the Tudor style in 1836,. and have an endowed income. Tha new Thames Yacht Clubhouse is on the Clifton Marine Parade, and is a fine building. There is a Conservative club.

The town has a head post office, two banks, and a number ot hotels and inns; is a coastguard station and a sub-port to London, whose jurisdiction ends here; and publishes four newspapers. Markets are held on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and a fair on 24 Oct. The chief trade arises from intercourse with London by steamer and railway, but business is done also in shipbuilding, rope-making, iron-founding, soap-making, and brewing. Coal and timber are largely imported, and chalk lime from neighbouring quarries is exported. Fisheries also employ many men and vessels, and enormous quantities of shrimps are both consumed in the town and sent to London. Pilots are taken in here by vessels entering or leaving the Thames, and vessels which have to be examined by the custom-house officials wait here to undergo it. The Thames, therefore, while gay and bustling everywhere between London and the sea, is especially gay and bustling at Gravesend. The town was chartered by Elizabeth, is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors, and was empowered by the Reform Act of 1867 to send a member to Parliament. The borough boundaries include the parishes of Gravesend and Milton.

The rural part of the parish is fertile, and is partly disposed in market-gardens. The hop cultivation begins near here, and the market-gardens are celebrated for asparagus and fruit. The parochial living is a rectory, and St James' is a vicarage, in the diocese of Rochester; value of the former, £290 gross; of the latter, £260 grossr Patron of the former, the Lord Chancellor; of the latter, the Bishop of Rochester. Gravesend gave name to an ancient family, one of whom, Sir Stephen de Gravesend, accompanied Edward I. to Scotland. The celebrated French mathematician Gravesende is commonly supposed to have been a descendant of this family, but was of Gravensand in Holland. Bishop Rich was a native. It is known as having been a favourite resort of many celebrated authors, musicians, and actors. Charles Dickens lived and died close by and made its surroundings the scenes in his principal works. Napoleon III. passed some time of his exile in the town, and started from here on his famous expedition to Boulogne. General Gordon passed six years of his eventful life at Fort House, which is now an object of interest; and a recreation ground has been opened to his memory, in the centre of which stands his statue. Princess Poccahontas, whose romantic history so charms the Americans, died here and was buried under the chancel of the parish church.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Findmypast have the following online for Gravesend, Municipal Cemetery: burials 1821-2010

Findmypast have the following online for Gravesend, St Andrew's Waterside Mission: baptisms 1865-1970

Findmypast have the following online for Gravesend, St George: baptisms 1650-1915, marriages 1652-1935, burials 1547-1906

Findmypast have the following online for Gravesend, St James: baptisms 1852-1914, marriages 1775-1935

Findmypast have the following online for Gravesend, St Mary: baptisms 1904-1915, marriages 1913-1935

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Gravesend from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Gravesend (St. George))

Maps

Online maps of Gravesend are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Kent newspapers online:

• Kent & Sussex Courier
• Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald
• Dover Express
• Kentish Gazette
• Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald
• Kentish Chronicle
• Maidstone Telegraph

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitation of Kent, 1619 is available on the Heraldry page, as is also The Visitation of Kent, 1663-68.