Hempstead is a village near

Gillingham, Kent Gillingham ( ) is a town in Kent, England, which forms a conurbation with neighbouring Chatham, Kent, Chatham, Rochester, Kent, Rochester, Strood and Rainham, Kent, Rainham. It is the largest town in the borough of Medway and in 2020 had a populat ...

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...

. Historically a small hamlet, Hempstead grew throughout the 20th century to become part of the

urban area An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

of the

Medway Towns Medway is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Kent in South East England. It was formed in 1998 by merging the boroughs of City of Roche ...

. Hempstead is located on the southern edge of the

Unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

Medway Medway is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Kent in South East England. It was formed in 1998 by merging the boroughs of City of Roche ...

, surrounded by Wigmore and the A278 trunk road (Hoath Way) to the east,

Capstone __NOTOC__ Capstone may refer to: Architecture * Keystone (architecture), also known as a capstone Brands and enterprises * Capstone Investment Advisors, a US investment management firm * Capstone Partners, an investment banking firm * Capstone P ...

valley to the west and the M2 motorway and the village of Bredhurst to the south. Most of Hempstead is in a valley, with Hempstead Valley Drive running along its length with housing on both sides.

History

The settlement of Hempstead dates back to at least the mid-1600s. Within the records of the

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

of Chatham & Gillingham, a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

then known as "Hemsted" denoted a few houses along the still-extant Hempstead Road. The hamlet's earliest 16th century farmhouse still stands and is Grade II listed by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

; lands owned by this farm bequeathed to regional administration became Hempstead Playing Fields. The playing field is currently home to Hempstead Valley Football Club and previously fielded a successful cricket team, since disbanded. During the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...

in October 1940, a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

flown by Flight Lieutenant Ian James Muirhead DFC crashed at Spekes Bottom, near Hempstead. A memorial to Fl. Lt. Muirhead marks the site of the crash. By the early 1980s, significant areas of legacy woodland and orchard ranging from Gillingham Link Road (A289) to the Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre, across to Capstone Road and back to the border of Wigmore Business Park were developed by Wards Construction and Wimpey Homes. More recent planning applications made to Medway Council for the development of areas west of Hempstead, around Capstone and towards Princes Park, have at present been staved off.

All Saints Church

All Saints Church was built in 1911 as a mission chapel and was originally part of the Parish of Luton. Today, the church is one of the four churches which comprise the Parish of South Gillingham in the

Diocese of Rochester The Diocese of Rochester is a Church of England diocese in the English county of Kent and the Province of Canterbury. The cathedral church of the diocese is Rochester Cathedral in the former city of Rochester. The bishop's Latin episcopal si ...

together with St Matthew's Wigmore, St Paul's Parkwood and St Peter's Bredhurst.

Hempstead School

Hempstead School was founded in 1907 in the building that is now Hempstead Library. In the 1980s, the school split to form an Infant school and a Junior school. There are approximately 90 children in each year group (3 classes of thirty per year group). There are 3 years in the Infant school (Year R, Year 1 and Year 2) and four years in the Junior school (Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6). The schools occupy two sides of the same site, with playing fields in between. The school often competes in the 'Medway Mini Youth Games' in sports such as hockey, table tennis, cricket and athletics. They have recently provided the children with new amenities, such as a new climbing wall, a gazebo (officially opened by local comedian Joe Pasquale) and various other playground decorations and playthings.

Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre

The area is host to a large shopping complex called Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre. It was one of the first out-of-town shopping centres in Kent. The centre includes the county's largest branch of

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...

(formerly a

Savacentre SavaCentre was a chain of 13 hypermarkets and later a further seven discount supermarkets owned and operated jointly by Sainsbury's and BHS, beginning in 1977. Sainsbury's later took full control of the stores alone in 1989, rebranding them as S ...

) and Medway's largest

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...

. The centre also once housed the world's largest branch of NSS, situated at the main entrance to the centre. This newsagents later became a 'Forbuoys' (now part of the RS McColl group). Development of the centre commenced in 1974, creating of retail space. In the early 1990s an extension was built which is now home to an M&S. The original Picnic Parlour at Hempstead Valley was the UK's second

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food Vendor, vendors and provides a common area for self-serve di ...

(the first opening at

Brent Cross Shopping Centre Brent Cross Shopping Centre is a large shopping centre in Hendon, North London, owned by Hammerson and Abrdn. Located by the Brent Cross interchange, it opened in 1976 as the UK's first Out-of-town shopping centres in the United Kingdom, out-of-t ...

in 1976) and the centre was modelled on successful complexes in North America. It was originally planned to be an open-air shopping centre but the concept was changed to a covered shopping complex. The centre opened on 17 October 1978. Medway Council granted permission for a further extension in 2011. This extension has converted the empty units outside the main centre into a new food court with more outdoor seating, with the old food court converted into more retail units within the centre.

References

External links

Hempstead Valley Shopping CentreHempstead Valley Shopping Centre construction PhotosOld map showing The Hundreds of Hoo and Chatham and Gillingham ('Hemsted' – north of "Eyehorne Hundred" )
{{Medway Places in Medway