Sittingbourne

Sittingbourne is an industrial town about eight miles (12.9 km) east of Gillingham, beside the Roman Watling Street off a creek in the Swale, a channel separating the Isle of Sheppey from mainland Kent.

Related Topics:
Gillingham - Roman - Watling Street - Isle of Sheppey - Kent

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In the Middle Ages, Sittingbourne was a stopping place for Christian pilgrims to Canterbury and offered a thriving market. Today, paper manufacture and fruit preserving and packing are the main industries. A settlement existed in the area as far back as 1086 when Norman records cite a village pond. Sittingbourne has over its long history developed significant links with the history of the river barge, still in evidence today. At the centre of the towns paved high street is the sculpture of a bronze bargeman.

Related Topics:
Christian - Canterbury

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The Dolphin shipyard was formerly the barge yard of cement works and brickmakers C Burley, and is located on a tidal inlet running from Sittingbourne to the Swale.

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North Kent is geologically rich in chalk, which is not found in many other places in Europe in such abundance. This naturally led cement manufactures 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.

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These industries flourished during the C19th 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 cinder for brick making, and taking away the bricks once made.

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During this era over 500 various 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.

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