Gravesham ( ) is a

local government district The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...

with borough status in north-west

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Its administrative centre and largest town is Gravesend, which was known as ''Gravesham'' in ancient times. Gravesham was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Gravesend with Northfleet Urban District and part of Strood Rural District, under the Local Government Act 1972. It borders the Borough of Dartford and

Sevenoaks District Sevenoaks is a local government district in west Kent, England. Its council is based in the town of Sevenoaks. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Sevenoaks Urban District, Sevenoaks Rural District and part of Dartford Ru ...

to the west, the Borough of Tonbridge and Malling to the south, the Medway unitary authority to the east and the

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authority area with borough status and unparished area in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The ...

unitary authority of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

to the north, via the River Thames. Gravesham is twinned with Cambrai in Hauts-de-France,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. The present borders of Gravesham parliamentary constituency are almost the same as those of the borough.

History

Robert Heath Hiscock LL.B., F.S.A., Chairman of the Gravesend Historical Society, in the foreword to his book, 'A History of Gravesend' (Phillimore, 1976) wrote: :"The name Gravesham appears only in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

, 1086, and was probably the error of a Norman scribe. It was 'Gravesend' in the Domesday Monarchorum c.1100, and 'Gravesende' in the

Textus Roffensis __NOTOC__ The ''Textus Roffensis'' (Latin for "The Tome of Rochester"), fully titled the ''Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi per Ernulphum episcopum'' ("The Tome of the Church of Rochester up to Bishop Ernulf") and sometimes also known as the Anna ...

c. 1100. It is strange that this "clerical error" should now have been adopted as the name of the new Council".

Housing and architecture

Housing varies from mid rise to low rise, particularly in the villages. The district has 12 buildings

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

in the highest category of the national grading system, Grade I, three of which are private residences: *Gadshill Place in Higham *Luddesdown Court in Luddesdown *Nurstead Court in Meopham Cobham Hall, also in the highest architectural category, is a stately home which was formerly the seat of the Earls of Darnley: since 1965 it has been an independent girls' school. Cobham Park is Grade II*-listed which is listed separately in the gardens and parklands category of classification approved by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport; and includes the remains of a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...

. The other Grade I-listed buildings in the borough comprise its ancient

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

es. Gravesham is home to the largest Sikh Gurdwara in Europe, Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara.https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/9426209.kent-county-councils-cabinet-members-visit-europes-largest-sikh-temple-in-gravesend/

Governance

Wards

There are eighteen wards represented on the borough council: *Those serving Gravesend town: ** Central ** Pelham ** Riverside ** Singlewell ** Whitehill ** Woodlands * Other urban areas: ** Northfleet (2 wards - North & South) ** Coldharbour ** Istead Rise ** Painters Ash ** Riverview ** Westcourt *Outlying villages: **

Chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

** Higham ** Meopham North ** Meopham South which includes Vigo ** Nurstead **

Shorne Shorne is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the borough of Gravesham in Kent, England. The parish lies east of Gravesend. Most of the land is well-drained but its marshes, the Shorne Marshes reach down to the Thames Estuar ...

, Cobham & Luddesdown

Elections

Gravesham Borough Council is elected every four years, with currently 44 Councillors being elected at each election. From the first election in 1973 the council has alternated between Labour and

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

control. Since 1995 Labour has controlled the council apart from 4 years between the 2007 and

2011 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2011. * Local electoral calendar 2011 * National electoral calendar 2011 * 2011 United Nations Security Council election Africa * 2011 Beninese presidential election * 2011 Beninese parliamentary ...

. As of the 2019 election the council is composed as follows:

References

External links

Gravesham Borough Council YouTube channel''About Gravesend'' website
{{coord, 51.409, 0.399, display=title, region:GB_scale:50000 Thames Gateway Local authorities adjoining the River Thames Non-metropolitan districts of Kent Boroughs in England