insideKENT Magazine Issue 64 - July 2017 | Page 43

TOWNSPOTLIGHT
Spotlight on
SITTINGBOURNE
LOCATED 45 MILES FROM LONDON AND FOUND BY THE EDGE OF THE OLD ROMAN
ROAD, WATLING STREET, SITTINGBOURNE IS REALLY A TOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE
COUNTRYSIDE, ALTHOUGH IT NEVER FEELS ISOLATED. INSTEAD, SITTINGBOURNE HAS
ITS OWN PERSONALITY AND ITS OWN STYLE. WITH ACTIVITIES THAT SUIT ALL AGES AND
BACKGROUNDS, ENOUGH SHOPS AND FACILITIES TO ENABLE EVERYONE TO HAVE A
HAPPY, HEALTHY AND ENRICHED LIFESTYLE, AND AN ENVIABLE TRANSPORT SYSTEM THAT
LINKS THE TOWN TO BOTH THE CAPITAL AND THE REST OF KENT AND BEYOND,
Sittingbourne is a burgeoning and exciting place to be.
HISTORY IN BRIEF
The suffix ‘bourne’ means small stream, and
although the stream in question here (or
Sedingbourne as the Saxons would have it,
meaning ‘the hamlet by the small stream’) is
now far underground, the name has stayed.
The first settlers appear to have chosen the
area around Sittingbourne in about 2000 BC
– farming tribes lived there rather than on the
coast as it meant they could create
communities without the constant fear of
attack. It was still close to the sea, however
(at Milton Creek), meaning traders could
easily visit.
When the Romans invaded in AD 43, they
immediately got to work on Watling Street in
order to create a straight route from London
to Dover. The road passed right through
Sittingbourne, essentially taking a tiny farming
hamlet and catapulting it to stardom – at least
in terms of trading and commerce. Despite
this, there was no entry for Sittingbourne in
the 1086 Domesday Book, as it was still
considered to be just an annexe of Milton
Regis at that time. It was of course much more
than that, especially after the murder of
Thomas Becket in 1170, when it became an
important stop for pilgrims on the route to
Canterbury. The town is even mentioned in
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales during the Wife
of Bath’s prologue.
There was nothing but growth for
Sittingbourne from then on, and with the
arrival of the railway in 1858, the town was on
its way to becoming one of Kent’s booming
success stories.
43