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Sittingbourne is an industrial town about eight miles (12.9 km) east of Gillingham in England, beside the Roman Watling Street off a creek in the Swale, a channel separating the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent. The town is growing rapidly due to a number of large residential developments, and its train line links to central London in around an hour from Sittingbourne railway station.

Origins of the Name

The town's name came from the fact that there is a small stream or "bourne" running underground in part of the town. As such it came to be known as the town that was "Sitting-on-the-Bourne."

Sittingbourne Heritage Museum says on its website:

"Hasted writing in the 1790s in his History of Kent states that "Sittingbourne was anciently written Sedingbourne, in Saxon, Saedingburga, i.e. the hamlet by the bourne or small stream." The Oxford Dictionary of English Place names quotes Sittingbourne as written Sidingeburn in the year 1200. It goes on to say that this probably means "Stream of the dwellers on the slope" derived from the Old English side+inga+burna. Side meaning hillside; inga meaning belonging to or associated with, and burna meaning stream. Canon Scott Robertson in his paper written in 1878 entitled "On the Names of Lands and Houses in and around Sittingbourne, their antiquity and origin" says that "Sittingbourne was commonly written as Sedyngburne in the middle ages." He argues that the first part of the name refers to the name of the clan or tribe of Soedingas who settled here. The second part simply means a brook. It has to be said, however, that the evidence for a Belgic tribe named Soedingas in this area is very slim. In the "Old Dover Road", it is suggested that Sittingbourne simply means Seething burn or brook. One thing is certain. There was a stream which flowed across the High St. close to the junction with Bell Road. Dr. Scott Robertson says "Persons now living still remember the stream at the east end of the street, through which the Dover and Canterbury coaches used to splash and many still recollect stepping stones just east of the churchyard." Crown Quay Lane was in those days known as The Water Lane. The stream is still there but now underground. There was another stream at the west end of the town which flowed into Milton Creek and if pilgrims did sit down on the higher ground it seems most likely it was to dry their feet."

History

In the Middle Ages, Sittingbourne was a popular place for pilgrims to Canterbury and offered a thriving market. A settlement existed in the area as far back as 1086 when Norman records a village pond.

Sittingbourne became a popular resting place for distinguished travellers as well as pilgrims, especially those visiting mainland Europe via the port of Dover. King Henry V of England stopped at the Red Lion Inn, formerly The Lyon, on his way back from the Battle of Agincourt, and Henry VIII visited Sittingbourne in 1522 and 1532, and reportedly ate at the Red Lion as well. It is also reported that Queen Victoria stayed at the Rose Inn, which is now the town's high street Woolworths store, but a Red Rose engraved above the store front reminds visitors of its history.

Sittingbourne has, over its long history, developed significant links with the history of the river barge, still evident today. At the centre of the town's paved high street is the sculpture of a bronze bargeman. The Dolphin shipyard was formerly the barge yard of cement works and brickmakers C Burley, and is on a tidal inlet running from Sittingbourne to the Swale.

Today, paper manufacture at Kemsley Paper Mill and fruit preserving and packing are the main industries. During the 20th century, Sittingbourne Paper Mill was the largest producer of newsprint in the world, supplying the demands of Fleet Street. Sittingbourne Paper Mill closed in 2007.

The current MP, Derek Wyatt was elected to the newly created constituency of Sittingbourne and Sheppey in 1997 and re-elected in 2001 and 2005.

Geography

North Kent is geologically rich in chalk, which is not found in many other places in Europe in such abundance. This naturally led cement manufacturers to settle in the area, and the modern industry still flourishes locally today. Barges were needed to move many other raw materials and finished goods into the Thames and to London and beyond; Sittingbourne was ideally suited for this purpose and a flourishing barge-building industry developed at Milton Creek and elsewhere along the coast. The earliest known barge was built in the area by John Huggens in 1803.

These industries flourished during the 19th century when, as a result of the industrial revolution, Sittingbourne developed into a port from which Kent produce was transported to the London markets. Paper mills and brickfields were fed by barges that brought in sand, mud and household waste such as cinders for brick making, and took away the bricks once made.

During this era over 500 types of barges are believed to have been built, but after World War II, these activities began to fall into a decline, so that only the Burley yard continued with the repair of barges until about 1965. This lack of activity led the creek to become silted and derelict, but the 200-year-old wooden sail loft and forge was later converted to the Dolphin Sailing Barge Museum by a local enthusiast.

Shipbuilding

One prominent local shipwright was the son of Alfred White who owned a yard at Sittingbourne, and had a barge yard at Blackwall in London during the 1880s where he built Swimhead barges for Goldsmith of Grays in Essex. Alfred Marconi White took over the Conyer yard from John Bird in 1890 after serving his apprenticeship at the Blackwall yard. Conyer, a hamlet of the village of Teynham, once inhabited by the Romans, is found at the head of a small creek between Sittingbourne and Faversham.

The shipwright John Bird (born 1832) is reputed to be the first of the barge builders to settle at Conyer and records exist for a sailing barge built there in 1866, the year he began his work at the yard. The White family prided themselves in the construction of the fastest barges available locally. Alfred Marconi at his Conyer yard, near brickfields, built many different types of barge. Some continued to exist as house barges well into the 1960s. The last of the many sailing barges was built at the Conyer yard in 1914, but repair works continued well into the 1930s, with several barge yachts built in the 1920s.

Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway

To the west of the Dolphin yard is the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway, which served as transport for the paper making industry.

A mill was opened in 1877 by the News Chronicle owner Edward Lloyd, between Sittingbourne and the Milton creek, where the raw materials such as china clay, coal and pulping timber for the paper were easily imported by barges that also took away the finished product. A wharf was built and a narrow gauge horse-drawn tramway added to carry these materials to and from the creek.

In 1906 the first steam locomotive, Premier, came into service, followed by Leader the same year and in 1908 a third loco, Excelsior. All were Brazil-class 0-4-2 tank locomotives.

The waters below the wharves at Sittingbourne were prone to rapid silting, and with the expansion of the paper mill a new dock was developed four miles from Sittingbourne at Ridham, taking advantage of the Swale's deep waters.

Kemsley Mill led to the foundation of a company village which was built about 1924, and by the 1960s 13 locomotives were in regular use on the line, one diesel and one battery electric and 400 wagons, with about 14 miles of track. The railway was after the Second World War used to carry passengers to and from the docks and mill, with carriages provided for the mill workers of Kemsley.

In 1965 it was decided that the railway was uneconomic, with the significant progress made in the use of the car, and so lorries were more commonly used for transporting produce. Consequently by 1969 the Bowater Light Railway, much loved as it was by the firm (and with assistance of Capt Peter Manisty) handed it over to the Locomotive Club of Great Britain to be preserved and operated as the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway. It has since become a significant feature in the town's tourist industry. The railway also provides the only method of transport to the annual Sittingbourne Beer Festival.

Air raids during the First World War

The area around Sittingbourne was subject to constant air raids by Zeppelins and aeroplanes during the First World War. The Germans used the town as a reference point for bearings on the way to London.

The first visit by a German aeroplane happened on Christmas Day 1914. Guns at Sheerness fired at the lone invader but still one shell dropped into a field at Iwade. The next event was to occur on 16 January 1915 when another solitary pilot from a German aerodrome in Belgium bombed Sittingbourne. This aircraft, a Taube, was pursued by two local airmen, but managed to escape after dropping a couple of bombs.

About 100 air raid warnings were sounded in Sittingbourne during the First World War and anti-aircraft batteries were strengthened in 1917. The last big raid to pass over the town on Whit Sunday (19 May 1918), carried out by a number of Gothas, eliciting perhaps the most ferocious barrage from the ground defences the town had ever seen.

The local newspaper, the East Kent Gazette, reported:

"The first of these duels occurred about an hour after the raid had been in progress, and probably this machine was caught while on its way to London. It was engaged by a daring aviation officer while at a great height. The British airman attacked his opponent so fiercely that the German was forced down to a lower height, and ultimately, to the joy of the onlookers, the Gotha burst into flames, seemed to break in two and came down piecemeal, all aflame. The wrecked machine and the three occupants fell by a farm. Two of the Germans fell into marshy ground and their bodies were deeply embedded in the mud. The third man's head struck a wall and was shattered like an eggshell. All three bodies were removed to a local aviation establishment. The fall of the burning Gotha was seen for miles around."

The second Gotha was surrounded by British fighters shortly after, returning from a successful raid on London.

Sport

The town's football team Sittingbourne F.C. currently play their games at Bourne Park, which is a former training pitch behind the main Central Park Stadium, which is used for greyhound racing. The club play in the Ryman League Division One South.

Motorcycle speedway racing has been staged near Sittingbourne for a number of years. The track was originally used for training alone but since 1994 the Crusaders have taken part in the Conference League and other competitions.

Twin towns

• Belgium Ypres (Since 1964)

Sources

• D. L. Sattin: Barge building and barge builders of the Swale, 1990.
• Alan Major: Hidden Kent, 1994.
• East Kent Gazette.