page_title: Gillingham, Kent
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Gillingham, Kent / Religion
caption_attribution_description: English: I, John Allison, took this photo in Our Lady of Gillingham Catholic Church with the permission of the Parish Priest. Camera location51°&#160;23′&#160;20.76″&#160;N, 0°&#160;33′&#160;35.28″&#160;E&#160;View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap - Google Earth
context_page_description: Gillingham is a town in the county of Kent in South East England. For local government purposes it is also in the unitary authority of Medway. The town includes the settlements of Brompton, Hempstead, Wigmore, Parkwood, Rainham which has its own significant retail and leisure hub, Rainham Mark and Twydall.
  Gillingham means a "homestead of Gylla's family", from Old English ham and ingas, and was first recorded in the 10th century as Gyllingeham. The town's name is pronounced with a soft 'g', compared to the hard 'g' used for Gillingham, Dorset.
context_section_description: Within Gillingham there are many churches from different denominations of Christianity. There are three Church of England churches: the historic parish church of St. Mary Magdalene; the evangelical St. Mark's; and St. Augustine's. There are also Baptist, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches.
  The Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene ("The Church on the Green",) is the oldest building in Gillingham and Grade II* Listed.
  The Normans built the church in the early 13th century, then in the 15th century a tower was added. More extensions were added during the 14th century. In 1700, Philip Wightman was commissioned to cast and hang a ring of five bells, to the tower. Then in 1737, Richard Phelps added another bell to complete a ring of six. Edward Hasted refers to it in 1798, ‘three isles and three chancels, with a handsome tower steeple at the west end’'. In 1811, Thomas Mears added two treble bells to make eight. In 1868, architect Sir Arthur Blomfield restored the church and tower and to mark the completion of the restoration, the firm of Heaton, Butler and Bayne replaced the stained glass in the east window. Based on a design by Henry Holiday.
  In 1896, Our Lady of Gillingham Roman Catholic Church was built close to Saint Mary Magdalene Church, and overlooks the River Medway.
  It followed after other Roman Catholic churches in the area, the closest, St Michael's in Chatham (built 1863). Our Lady of Gillingham was built on the town of New Brompton, as Gillingham was then called, to mainly cater for the new workforce – those employed at Chatham Dockyard. The church itself was started in 1890, and was completed by 1896, being opened on 12 May 1896.
  A local Roman Catholic school was established on the site of the church in 1894. The schoolrooms were used until 1972, when the infant section of the school relocated to nearby Greenfield Road. in 1988, after more building work on the new site, the whole school was reunited on its new site at Greenfield Road. The Church (Our Lady of Gillingham) celebrated its centenary in May 1996, two years after the local school.
  Gillingham also has the Jāmi’ah mosque and a Hindu Sabha Mandir.
  James Jershom Jezreel, founder of the Jezreelite sect which flourished in the area during the 19th century, began the building of Jezreel's Tower on Chatham Hill.  The tower was never completed but stood until its demolition in 1961.  There is still a Jezreels Road off Watling Street.  The tower was painted by Tristram Hillier in 1937 as part of a series of posters for Royal Dutch Shell. A copy is held in Tate Britain.
caption: A view of Our Lady of Gillingham Catholic Church.
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