The Glories of Gillingham

Discover this town’s historic cottages and imposing houses built with local sandstone and red bricks, as well as the beautiful surrounding countryside

- Edward Griffihs

After a destructive fire in 1694, the compact settlement of Gillingham took a long time to rebuild. As a result, this attractive Blackmore Vale town is probably the most late-Georgian and Victorian town in Dorset.

There is evidence of Neolithic and Roman settlement here. Then the Saxons arrived, it’s believed that the settlement may have taken its name from a Saxon chief called Gylla. Then, after the Normans built the first hunting lodge, King John constructed King’s Court in 1199 and hunted in the Royal Forest between 1205 and 1214. His son Henry III turned it into a ‘palace’. Salisbury and Yeovil Railway’s first train arrived in May 1859 where, standing on 90ft deep Kimmeridge Clay, Gillingham was ideally placed for manufacturing building bricks. Gillingham Pottery, Brick & Tile Company operated from 1866 until 1968.

This walk offers both a longer route taking in the countryside and a shorter town only route.

THE WALK