Hempstead, Kent

Hempstead
A view from the west-facing slope of the Hempstead Valley
Hempstead  Hempstead shown within Kent
Population	5,000
OS grid reference	TQ775675
District	Medway
Shire county	Kent
Region	South East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	GILLINGHAM
Postcode district	ME7 3XX
Dialling code	01634
Police	Kent
Fire	Kent
Ambulance	South East Coast
EU Parliament	South East England
UK Parliament	Gillingham and Rainham
List of places: UK • England • Kent

Hempstead is a settlement near Gillingham, Kent, part of the urban area of the Medway Towns.

Location and geography

It is located on the southern edge of the borough of Medway adjacent to Wigmore and Lordswood and linked to Gillingham and the M2 by the A278 trunk road.

Most of Hempstead is in a valley, with Hempstead Valley Drive running along the length of the bottom of it, with housing on both sides.

History

Settlement of Hempstead dates back to at least mid-1600. Within the records of the Hundred of Chatham & Gillingham a hamlet then known as "Hemsted" denoted a few houses along today's still-extant Hempstead Road. The hamlet's original farmhouse still stands; Lands owned by this farm bequeathed to regional administration have become todays' "Hempstead Playing Fields". The Hempstead Field currently supports football; once it fielded a winning cricket team, since disbanded.

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. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Facilities

Hempstead has a church, a library, a Scout group, two doctors' surgeries and an infant and junior school.

The Church

All Saints Church was built in 1911 as a mission chapel and was a part of the Parish of Luton.

The 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 thriry 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.

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 (formerly a Savacentre) and Medway's largest Marks & Spencer. The centre also once housed the world's largest branch of NSS.^{[citation needed]}

Development of the centre commenced in 1974, creating 250,000-square-foot (23,000 m²) of retail space. In the early 1990s an extension was built which is now home to a 80,000 sq ft (7,400 m²) M&S.

The original Picnic Parlour at Hempstead Valley was the UK's first food court 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.

Pubs

There are two public houses in the village, the Hungry Fox and the Flying Saucer.

External links

• Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre
• Hempstead Infant School
• Hempstead junior School
• Hempstead Scout Group
• Medway Council
• Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre construction Photos
• Old map showing The Hundreds of Hoo and Chatham and Gillingham ('Hemsted' - north of "Eyehorne Hundred" )