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The Local Historian
Vol. 29 no. 1, February 1999, pp. 55--6
FELIX HULL [former County Archivist of Kent]
This is a splendid book and a real tribute to the author, who has devoted so much of his life to the study of his birthplace. Often, when many years have been spent gathering evidence, the tasks of asimilation and production have resulted in an indigestible hotch-potch of information, but in this case, Mr. Baldwin has written a book which is factual, lucid and flowing.
The early part, dependent upon limited knowledge and the research of others, is somewhat less satisfactory than the later history,but from the end of the Middle Ages the account is full and is an admirable example of what the amateur historian can do with dedication and Roin Baldwin is to be congratulated on his presentation of the story of Gillingham. To have produced a coherent account of the early history of Gillingham was, itself, a difficult enough task, but the author has made good use of existing resources and gives a clear portrait of this one time small village, now the largest of the Medway Towns. The peculiarities of the field system and the descent and nature of the manors of Gillingham, partly built up from the papers of a former steward which, fortunately, have survived, are well covered. Nevertheless it is a pity that the valuable description of the manor of Grange, as a limb of the Cinque Ports Confederation, omits a note of the final Brotherhood and Guestling of 1937, when the principle was enunciated upon which the refusal of Gillingham's plea was based. In the later history, the emphasis upon the relationship of Gillingham with the navy; the growth of nonconformity in the town (a special interest of the author); and the study of education as part of the social history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are particularly to be welcomed.
The text is well supported with appendices of which those dealing with surnames, place-names, public houses and notable people deserve special mention. In addition there is a full bibliography, an appropriate set of illustrations and an appendix. At the same time the author has avoided giving detailed references to sources during the narrative. This is unfortunate, for while one can understand his reluctance and fear of overburdening his work with footnotes, there are still occasions when a doubt remains as to where a particular fact was found or whence an idea arose. It would have been most helpful if a digest of significant primary sources could have been appended to each chapter. So, too, the maps on the end pages are useful, but of far greater value would have been a large scale map of the town, especially for the non-resident of the Medway Towns or, indeed, of Kent. In the same way captions to the illustrations would have been welcome and would have saved the labour of frequent referral to the Table of Contents.
Finally, there are a few errors: in the Bibliography the heading 'Kent Record Office' is inaccurate (although understood), for until the mid-1980s it was known as The Kent Archives Office and subsequently as The Centre for Kentish Studies; on p. 136 appears: 'Charles II, King and Martyr'!; and on p. 283, Cuffley, Hertfordshire is transferred to Essex. These are but infortunate blemishes in a book of outstanding merit and one which will remain a standard for many years on the study of Gillingham, the Medway Towns and Kent.
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