Frindsbury
Encyclopedia
Frindsbury is part of the Medway Towns conurbation in Kent
, southern England
. It lies on the opposite side of the River Medway
to Rochester, and at various times in its history has been considered fully or partially part of the City of Rochester. Frindsbury refers to both a parish
and a manor
. Within the civil parish of Frindsbury Extra
are the villages of Frindsbury, Wainscott, and Upnor
. Frindsbury was also the name given to an electoral ward
in the City of Rochester that straddled the parishes of Frindsbury and Strood
.
Frindsbury started as a small agricultural community, grew into a significant industrial centre and declined into a dormitory suburb, each generation erasing the traces of the previous.
Frindsbury lies on the northwest bank of the Medway at its lowest bridging point. After a narrow but marshy coastal strip, the land rises steeply to plateau at about 100 ft (30.5 m). This was a sheet of chalk
covered by brickearth
covered with topsoil. Over the last two millennia, much of this was stripped away, or mined, so the contours have constantly changed. Through the centre of this ran a shallow valley carrying a stream draining the Hoo Peninsula
behind, through Islingham to Whitewall creek where it entered the Medway. This water flow formed a river meander upstream and a build up of alluvium
pushing 1,000 yds into the river. Though rarely more than 25 feet (7.6 m) in height, the Frindsbury peninsula became the centre of many industries. At the Strood end the coastal marsh became 600 yds wide. There is evidence of Roman piling so they could build a road, Watling Street
, from Strood Hill across the marsh to the Medway which they bridge. At that time Strood was part of Frindsbury. The impenetrable nature and the steepness of the topology
here influenced the route of the railways.
The word Frindsbury comes from Old English
, freodesburh, meaning a stronghold held by a friend or ally. Recorded documented names of the parish include Freondesbrei (764), Freondesberia (c975), Frandesberie (1086), Fryndesbury (1610).
In the Lathe
of Aylesford
, in the Hundred of Shamwell. The main parish church
, All Saints, was built on the hill. There was a chapel of ease
at Strood (St Nicholas'), where Watling Street left the firm ground to run over the marshes to the Medway bridge. Strood was promoted to a full parish
in 1193 by Gilbert Glanvill
, Bishop of Rochester
.
) were excavated in 1911 at Upnor
. In 1925, evidence of a palaeolithic flint
works in the quarry to the east of All Saints church was reported. The find included over 4000 stone tools dating from 100,000 BC, including hand axe
s, large flint flakes, core pieces, and quartzite hammer stones.
A Bronze Age
sword was discovered at Upnor.
Michael Nightingale in 1953 argued that there was a Roman Villa
at Frindsbury to produce food to supply the garrison at Durobrivæ, modern Rochester, Kent. The foundations of the road leading from this villa to the bridge were discovered in 1819 at the canal dock. Further excavation by Tingley in 1888 produced several artifacts
.
and Sigered
of half Kent granted 20 sulung
s of land at Aeslingham in Freodesbrei to Bishop Eardulf of Rochester. In 778, King Egbert gave more land to the Bishop. Following the Danish wars or the 9th and 10th century the area was wrested from the church and eventually came under the control of Harold Godwinson
. Following Harold's defeat at the Battle of Hastings
, William the Conqueror gave the lands to Odo, bishop of Bayeux, Earl of Kent, and William's half brother. Archbishop Lanfranc recovered them again at the Trial of Penenden Heath
(c.1072) and restored them to Bishop Gundulf of Rochester. Gundulf was responsible for commencing the rebuilding of Rochester Cathedral
and establishing the Benedictine
Priory
of St Andrew based upon it. He gave the land at Fridsbury to the new priory though insisting they paid an exenium to him or his successors on St Andrews day.
The Domesday book
records Frindsbury as having been taxed at 10 sulungs before 1066 and then at 7 in 1086. There were 15 carrucates of arable land, 5 held by the lord and 11 by the villagers [sic]. It supported 40 villagers, 28 smallholders and 9 slaves. There was a mill taxable at 12 shillings (60p), a church, 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) of meadow and woodland for 5 pigs. It was worth £8 before the conquest, but £25 by 1086 with another 10 shillings (50p) for the Bishop.
Bishop Gilbert de Glanvill
claimed Frinsdsbury back from the monks "as belonging to the maintenance of his table" in 1185. According to Hasted the bishop succeeded in obtaining the church, but the manor remained in the possession of the monks until the Dissolution of the Monasteries
under Henry VIII in 1523. Barnard however records that in 1256, the church of Frindsbury (and thus the income) was returned to the Bishop. In 1279 and again in 1293, 1314 and 1357 the bishop of Rochester claimed liberties in the lands of the priory of Frindsbury as well as all lands belonging to the church. In 1348 the manor was confirmed as being in the possession of the prior of Rochester, reconfirmed in 1295. In 1287 the manor, along with its appendages of Chattenden, Strood and Rede, were taxed at £24-6-8 (£24.33).
Frindsbury Clubs. In 1291, there was an altercation between the Monks of Rochester and Newark Priory in Strood as a result of a communication difficulty. The good folk of Frindsbury soundly beat up the monks who were trespassing. However the church sided with the monks, and on Whit Monday the Frindsbury lads had to do penance by walking to abbey and craving forgiveness carrying their clubs. This continued till none of the participants was alive. In the 18th century the boys of Frindsbury and Strood met up each May Day to have a faction fight, though it is unclear whether it was between themselves or against the boys from Rochester.
, and Frindsbury civil parish was divided into Frindsbury Intra, and Frindsbury Extra
. Intra joined the municipal borough of Rochester, while part of Frindsbury Extra
joined Strood Rural District
. The remaining part of Frindsbury Extra
joined Rochester in 1934.
is a tall late Georgian
building, but a survey of 1623 showed substantial buildings on that site. This is also referred to as Court Lodge Farm.
The late thirteenth tithe barn
was 210 feet (64 m) in length until a fire of 2006 and was described as the 'undoubted queen of country barns'.
in 1884. The church has recently been fitted with disabled access, a WC and a kitchenette to the rear of the nave.
residence, which became a fashionable place for a visit, to observe the prospect. It was demolished in 1897 so that the chalk on which it stood could be extracted. Drawings of it were made before its destruction.
was on a map of 1596. It was called the Quarry Mill, was 100 yds southeast of the church and was destroyed in 1850. It was a post mill
.
The next four Frindsbury mills were all owned by Mr Kimmins (c1845 et seq.).
On Prospect Hill there were two mills. The first was called Manwaring's Mill, or Little Mill. It was a black tarred smock mill
that drove four pairs of millstone
s. Next to it was the Great Mill or Rose's Mill. It was the highest in Kent with forty foot by nine foot sails. Together the two mills produced 400 sacks of flour a week. Little Mill was struck by lightning and demolished in 1886. Great Mill was demolished in 1890.
Kimmin's Mill (1819–1843), was a smock mill with no base. The land became a brick field. A man was killed by its sails.
House Mill, also known as Kimmin's Mill or Frindsbury Mill, stood on Frindsbury Hill and was a black smock mill. It was demolished in 1931.
Close by in Strood on Broom Hill were two more mills, Field Mill and Killick's Mill.
parish church
was used to make metal castings. It was of such a high quality that it was exported.
was removed and the topsoil replaced and farming continued or orchards were planted. Ten Gun Field was in operation in 1800 and produced around 2.5 million bricks annually over the period. Production peaked in 1844 when it produced 14 million, 1% of the national output.
The bricks were Yellow Stock bricks, the colour produced by adding up to 17% chalk to the clay. The brick were graded as Firsts, Seconds (used for facings), Thirds (used for internals), Roughs (used for hardcore) and Chuffs that were unusable.
Other later brickfields were at Barn Meadow (today's Sholden Road) which produced reds, Wickenden Brickyard by Cooling Road, and Frindsbury Brickyard owned by the West family (closed in 1931).
The business declined when the Fletton
clay at Peterborough
began to be exploited. This clay contained 5% tar oil, so required less fuel to fire. The Frindsbury brickyards reverted to agriculture or were used for new housing.
was first manufactured in 1825. It is a mixture of chalk and clay containing alumina and silica. It was manufactured in Swanscombe
in 1845, and then in Frindsbury 1 May 1851, at the Frindsbury Linseed Oil Factory which became the Crown Cement Company. William Tingley opened the Frindsbury Cement Works in 1851; it was renamed the Quarry Works. He bought out the Crown Cement works in 1867 and his family effectively had control of all the local works. In 1901, the companies merged to form the APCM (Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers). By 1907 only the Crown and the Beaver were still operating. The Crown works, then called the Crown and Quarry, was the last to close in the 1960s.
There is a rich seam of chalk beneath Frindsbury Church. Blue clay came from the Hoo marshes. For forty years, over 1000 yards alongside Limehouse Reach on the Medway, there were 7 cement works with 152 kilns and 30 chimneys. They produced 4000 tons of cement a week employing 800 men. They were:
The Formby Works (after 1858) at Whitewall Creek did not join the APCM. This produced 60 tons a week. As the chalk from Tower Hill declined, it was brought by barge from Halling. The Formby Works closed in 1911. There was another called The Frindsbury Lime Works, at Upnor run by Cole and Young.
, without losing headway, barges would approach at speed and drop their mast, using the winch at the bow, and when safely under, raise it again. To do this required extra crew, so called 'Hufflers', who were taken on at Whitewall creek. They waited offshore in their skiffs which were then tethered to the barge. They helped lower and raise the mast so the barge could shoot the bridge. They were let off at Janes Creek or Temple Creek in Strood.
. The other half was within the city so was referred to as Frindsbury Intra, a name that has long disappeared, being called Frindsbury.
This distinction is significant, Frindsbury was a ward in the City of Rochester, and in the City of Rochester-upon-Medway. Frindsbury Extra was a ward of Strood Rural District Council which was abolished in 1974. Eleven of the 16 Strood Rural parishes, joined Rochester City Council and Chatham Borough Council to become the Rochester-upon-Medway Borough Council which in 1978 became Rochester-upon-Medway City Council. The eleven parishes remained parished i.e. have an elected parish council, while former Rochester wards were not. This distinction means that the Electoral Commission will not allow any boundary change to the wards, whereby an elector loses or gains the right to vote in a parish election.
Medway Council is a unitary authority established in 1998. Frindsbury remain split in two local government level wards; Strood North and Strood Rural and are represented by the below,
The latest political composition can be found on the Medway Local Election 2007 website
with Samuel Scott visited Rochester in May 1732. Ebenezer Forest wrote a journal of the five day trip containing the lines "we all proceeded merrily to Frendsbury". They examined the Frindsbury Church then walked to Upnor where Hogarth made a drawing of the beautiful and ancient Upnor Castle. They then examined the Ten Gun Battery and the Birds Nest Battery before walking to Hoo.
In 1783, engravers Samuel and Nathaniel Buck
drew their prospect of Rochester from the top of All Saints Church Tower.
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, southern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It lies on the opposite side of the River Medway
River Medway
The River Medway, which is almost entirely in Kent, England, flows for from just inside the West Sussex border to the point where it enters the Thames Estuary....
to Rochester, and at various times in its history has been considered fully or partially part of the City of Rochester. Frindsbury refers to both a parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
and a manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
. Within the civil parish of Frindsbury Extra
Frindsbury Extra
Frindsbury Extra is a civil parish on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent, England. It is conjoined to Strood to the south west, is bounded by Cliffe and Cliffe Woods to the north, Hoo to the east, and the River Medway to the south....
are the villages of Frindsbury, Wainscott, and Upnor
Upnor
Lower Upnor and Upper Upnor are two small villages in Medway, Kent, England. They are in the parish of Frindsbury Extra on the western bank of the River Medway...
. Frindsbury was also the name given to an electoral ward
Wards of the United Kingdom
A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...
in the City of Rochester that straddled the parishes of Frindsbury and Strood
Strood
Strood is a town in the unitary authority of Medway in South East England. It is part of the ceremonial county of Kent. It lies on the north west bank of the River Medway at its lowest bridging point, and is part of the Rochester post town....
.
Frindsbury started as a small agricultural community, grew into a significant industrial centre and declined into a dormitory suburb, each generation erasing the traces of the previous.
Topology
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
covered by brickearth
Brickearth
Brickearth is a term used in southeast England for loess, a wind-blown dust deposited under extremely cold, dry, peri- or postglacial conditions. The name arises from its use in making house bricks. The Brickearth is normally represented on 1:50,000 solid and drift edition geological maps...
covered with topsoil. Over the last two millennia, much of this was stripped away, or mined, so the contours have constantly changed. Through the centre of this ran a shallow valley carrying a stream draining the Hoo Peninsula
Hoo Peninsula
The Hoo Peninsula is a peninsula in England separating the estuaries of the rivers Thames and Medway. It is dominated by a line of sand and clay hills, surrounded by an extensive area of marshland composed of alluvial silt. The name Hoo is the Old English word for spur of land.-History:The Romans...
behind, through Islingham to Whitewall creek where it entered the Medway. This water flow formed a river meander upstream and a build up of alluvium
Alluvium
Alluvium is loose, unconsolidated soil or sediments, eroded, deposited, and reshaped by water in some form in a non-marine setting. Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of materials, including fine particles of silt and clay and larger particles of sand and gravel...
pushing 1,000 yds into the river. Though rarely more than 25 feet (7.6 m) in height, the Frindsbury peninsula became the centre of many industries. At the Strood end the coastal marsh became 600 yds wide. There is evidence of Roman piling so they could build a road, Watling Street
Watling Street
Watling Street is the name given to an ancient trackway in England and Wales that was first used by the Britons mainly between the modern cities of Canterbury and St Albans. The Romans later paved the route, part of which is identified on the Antonine Itinerary as Iter III: "Item a Londinio ad...
, from Strood Hill across the marsh to the Medway which they bridge. At that time Strood was part of Frindsbury. The impenetrable nature and the steepness of the topology
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
here influenced the route of the railways.
History
Old English language
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
, freodesburh, meaning a stronghold held by a friend or ally. Recorded documented names of the parish include Freondesbrei (764), Freondesberia (c975), Frandesberie (1086), Fryndesbury (1610).
In the Lathe
Lathe
A lathe is a machine tool which rotates the workpiece on its axis to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation.Lathes are used in woodturning,...
of Aylesford
Aylesford
Aylesford is a village and civil parish on the River Medway in Kent, 4 miles NW of Maidstone in England.Originally a small riverside settlement, the old village comprises around 60 houses, many of which were formerly shops. One pub, a Post Office and four small independent shops remain...
, in the Hundred of Shamwell. The main parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
, All Saints, was built on the hill. There was a chapel of ease
Chapel of ease
A chapel of ease is a church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently....
at Strood (St Nicholas'), where Watling Street left the firm ground to run over the marshes to the Medway bridge. Strood was promoted to a full parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
in 1193 by Gilbert Glanvill
Gilbert Glanvill
-Life:Glanvill was a clerk of Baldwin of Forde, the Archbishop of Canterbury and also archdeacon of the diocese of Lisieux.Glanvill was elected to the see of Rochester on 16 July 1185 and ordained a priest on 21 September 1185. He was consecrated on 29 September 1185. He died on 24 June...
, Bishop of Rochester
Bishop of Rochester
The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the west of the county of Kent and is centred in the city of Rochester where the bishop's seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin...
.
Prehistory
The remains of a large elephant skeleton (palaeoloxodon antiquusStraight-tusked Elephant
The Straight-tusked Elephant is an extinct species of elephant closely related to the living Asian Elephant. It inhabited Europe during the Middle and Late Pleistocene . Some experts regard the smaller Asian species E...
) were excavated in 1911 at Upnor
Upnor
Lower Upnor and Upper Upnor are two small villages in Medway, Kent, England. They are in the parish of Frindsbury Extra on the western bank of the River Medway...
. In 1925, evidence of a palaeolithic flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
works in the quarry to the east of All Saints church was reported. The find included over 4000 stone tools dating from 100,000 BC, including hand axe
Hand axe
A hand axe is a bifacial Stone tool typical of the lower and middle Palaeolithic , and is the longest-used tool of human history.-Distribution:...
s, large flint flakes, core pieces, and quartzite hammer stones.
A Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
sword was discovered at Upnor.
Michael Nightingale in 1953 argued that there was a Roman Villa
Roman villa
A Roman villa is a villa that was built or lived in during the Roman republic and the Roman Empire. A villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class...
at Frindsbury to produce food to supply the garrison at Durobrivæ, modern Rochester, Kent. The foundations of the road leading from this villa to the bridge were discovered in 1819 at the canal dock. Further excavation by Tingley in 1888 produced several artifacts
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
.
Middle Ages
In 764, King Offa of MerciaMercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
and Sigered
Sigered of Kent
Sigered, King of Kent, jointly with Eadberht II.Sigered is known just from his charters , one of which is dated 762 and witnessed by Eadberht II....
of half Kent granted 20 sulung
Hide (unit)
The hide was originally an amount of land sufficient to support a household, but later in Anglo-Saxon England became a unit used in assessing land for liability to "geld", or land tax. The geld would be collected at a stated rate per hide...
s of land at Aeslingham in Freodesbrei to Bishop Eardulf of Rochester. In 778, King Egbert gave more land to the Bishop. Following the Danish wars or the 9th and 10th century the area was wrested from the church and eventually came under the control of Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England.It could be argued that Edgar the Atheling, who was proclaimed as king by the witan but never crowned, was really the last Anglo-Saxon king...
. Following Harold's defeat at the Battle of Hastings
Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 during the Norman conquest of England, between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and the English army under King Harold II...
, William the Conqueror gave the lands to Odo, bishop of Bayeux, Earl of Kent, and William's half brother. Archbishop Lanfranc recovered them again at the Trial of Penenden Heath
Trial of Penenden Heath
The Trial of Penenden Heath occurred in the decade after Norman Conquest of England in 1066, probably in 1072, and involved a dispute between Odo Bishop of Bayeux, half-brother of William the Conqueror and Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury and others....
(c.1072) and restored them to Bishop Gundulf of Rochester. Gundulf was responsible for commencing the rebuilding of Rochester Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral
Rochester Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Norman church in Rochester, Kent. The bishopric is second oldest in England after Canterbury...
and establishing the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
Priory
Priory
A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...
of St Andrew based upon it. He gave the land at Fridsbury to the new priory though insisting they paid an exenium to him or his successors on St Andrews day.
The Domesday book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
records Frindsbury as having been taxed at 10 sulungs before 1066 and then at 7 in 1086. There were 15 carrucates of arable land, 5 held by the lord and 11 by the villagers [sic]. It supported 40 villagers, 28 smallholders and 9 slaves. There was a mill taxable at 12 shillings (60p), a church, 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) of meadow and woodland for 5 pigs. It was worth £8 before the conquest, but £25 by 1086 with another 10 shillings (50p) for the Bishop.
Bishop Gilbert de Glanvill
Gilbert Glanvill
-Life:Glanvill was a clerk of Baldwin of Forde, the Archbishop of Canterbury and also archdeacon of the diocese of Lisieux.Glanvill was elected to the see of Rochester on 16 July 1185 and ordained a priest on 21 September 1185. He was consecrated on 29 September 1185. He died on 24 June...
claimed Frinsdsbury back from the monks "as belonging to the maintenance of his table" in 1185. According to Hasted the bishop succeeded in obtaining the church, but the manor remained in the possession of the monks until the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
under Henry VIII in 1523. Barnard however records that in 1256, the church of Frindsbury (and thus the income) was returned to the Bishop. In 1279 and again in 1293, 1314 and 1357 the bishop of Rochester claimed liberties in the lands of the priory of Frindsbury as well as all lands belonging to the church. In 1348 the manor was confirmed as being in the possession of the prior of Rochester, reconfirmed in 1295. In 1287 the manor, along with its appendages of Chattenden, Strood and Rede, were taxed at £24-6-8 (£24.33).
Frindsbury Clubs. In 1291, there was an altercation between the Monks of Rochester and Newark Priory in Strood as a result of a communication difficulty. The good folk of Frindsbury soundly beat up the monks who were trespassing. However the church sided with the monks, and on Whit Monday the Frindsbury lads had to do penance by walking to abbey and craving forgiveness carrying their clubs. This continued till none of the participants was alive. In the 18th century the boys of Frindsbury and Strood met up each May Day to have a faction fight, though it is unclear whether it was between themselves or against the boys from Rochester.
Modern
On 30 September 1894, the Local Government Board confirmed an order of Kent County CouncilKent County Council
Kent County Council is the county council that governs the majority of the county of Kent in England. It provides the upper tier of local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council has 84 elected councillors...
, and Frindsbury civil parish was divided into Frindsbury Intra, and Frindsbury Extra
Frindsbury Extra
Frindsbury Extra is a civil parish on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent, England. It is conjoined to Strood to the south west, is bounded by Cliffe and Cliffe Woods to the north, Hoo to the east, and the River Medway to the south....
. Intra joined the municipal borough of Rochester, while part of Frindsbury Extra
Frindsbury Extra
Frindsbury Extra is a civil parish on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent, England. It is conjoined to Strood to the south west, is bounded by Cliffe and Cliffe Woods to the north, Hoo to the east, and the River Medway to the south....
joined Strood Rural District
Strood Rural District
Strood Rural District was a rural district in the county of Kent, England.It was subject to boundary reforms in 1934 and 1935.It consisted of the following civil parishes:*Allhallows...
. The remaining part of Frindsbury Extra
Frindsbury Extra
Frindsbury Extra is a civil parish on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent, England. It is conjoined to Strood to the south west, is bounded by Cliffe and Cliffe Woods to the north, Hoo to the east, and the River Medway to the south....
joined Rochester in 1934.
The manor of Frindsbury
The current Manor HouseManor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
is a tall late Georgian
Georgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
building, but a survey of 1623 showed substantial buildings on that site. This is also referred to as Court Lodge Farm.
The late thirteenth tithe barn
Tithe barn
A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing the tithes - a tenth of the farm's produce which had to be given to the church....
was 210 feet (64 m) in length until a fire of 2006 and was described as the 'undoubted queen of country barns'.
The Church of All Saints
The original church was started around 1075 by Paulinus, sacrist of Rchester who gave books and vestments to it.. It was rebuilt in 1127. There was more building in the 14th century and around 1407. The church was extensively restoredVictorian restoration
Victorian restoration is the term commonly used to refer to the widespread and extensive refurbishment and rebuilding of Church of England churches and cathedrals that took place in England and Wales during the 19th-century reign of Queen Victoria...
in 1884. The church has recently been fitted with disabled access, a WC and a kitchenette to the rear of the nave.
Quarry House
Quarry House is first mentioned in 1575. Then there was an early 17th century brickBrick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
residence, which became a fashionable place for a visit, to observe the prospect. It was demolished in 1897 so that the chalk on which it stood could be extracted. Drawings of it were made before its destruction.
The Parsonage
The purpose of a mediaeval church was to raise revenue for the Bishop (the same man being the Rector of Frindsbury), and the lands needed to be managed. The Bishop knowing the income would appoint a clerk in Holy Orders say mass and minister to the congregation- he would become the vicar. The rector would have a Parsonage, which could be rented out if he didn't use it. There was a parsonage in Bill Street, and by 1591 it was occupied by the Watson Family. It was demolished at an unknown date.Industrial history
Frindsbury today is principally a dormitory suburb of Rochester with significant commercial activity on the Frindsbury Peninsula. The housing merges Frindsbury and Strood. The availability of such housing is to the part caused by the previous land usage. Until 1811, most inhabitants worked in agriculture, but by 1831, 90% worked in quarrying or manufacturing making this an industrial hot spot, well in advance of the rest of Kent. Wealth and poverty was thus dependent on the generosity of a handful of employers and the state of the national economy, boom and recession. As one industry abandoned the land it had despoiled, newer ones moved in and used the space, and finally this was turned over to housing. The streets bear the names of the previous elite.Frindsbury Mills
The first recorded windmillWindmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
was on a map of 1596. It was called the Quarry Mill, was 100 yds southeast of the church and was destroyed in 1850. It was a post mill
Post mill
The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. The defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. The earliest post mills in England are thought to have...
.
The next four Frindsbury mills were all owned by Mr Kimmins (c1845 et seq.).
On Prospect Hill there were two mills. The first was called Manwaring's Mill, or Little Mill. It was a black tarred smock mill
Smock mill
The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind...
that drove four pairs of millstone
Millstone
Millstones or mill stones are used in windmills and watermills, including tide mills, for grinding wheat or other grains.The type of stone most suitable for making millstones is a siliceous rock called burrstone , an open-textured, porous but tough, fine-grained sandstone, or a silicified,...
s. Next to it was the Great Mill or Rose's Mill. It was the highest in Kent with forty foot by nine foot sails. Together the two mills produced 400 sacks of flour a week. Little Mill was struck by lightning and demolished in 1886. Great Mill was demolished in 1890.
Kimmin's Mill (1819–1843), was a smock mill with no base. The land became a brick field. A man was killed by its sails.
House Mill, also known as Kimmin's Mill or Frindsbury Mill, stood on Frindsbury Hill and was a black smock mill. It was demolished in 1931.
Close by in Strood on Broom Hill were two more mills, Field Mill and Killick's Mill.
Ship and barge building
- See main article Shipbuilding in Frindsbury, KentShipbuilding in Frindsbury, KentFrindsbury TQ744697 is a parish on the River Medway, on the opposite bank to Chatham Dockyard in Kent, England. It was a centre of ship building before 1820, building at least six 74 gun third rate, ships of the line and many smaller vessels. From 1820, until recent times, the ship yards built...
for details of ships and barges built in the Frindsbury area
Sand
The moulding sand from below UpnorUpnor
Lower Upnor and Upper Upnor are two small villages in Medway, Kent, England. They are in the parish of Frindsbury Extra on the western bank of the River Medway...
parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
was used to make metal castings. It was of such a high quality that it was exported.
Brickfields
In 1847, there were 6 brickfields in Frindsbury. Three were at Manor Farm, two were at Whitewall Creek and one at Ten Gun Field Upnor. Top soil would be removed, the brickearthBrickearth
Brickearth is a term used in southeast England for loess, a wind-blown dust deposited under extremely cold, dry, peri- or postglacial conditions. The name arises from its use in making house bricks. The Brickearth is normally represented on 1:50,000 solid and drift edition geological maps...
was removed and the topsoil replaced and farming continued or orchards were planted. Ten Gun Field was in operation in 1800 and produced around 2.5 million bricks annually over the period. Production peaked in 1844 when it produced 14 million, 1% of the national output.
The bricks were Yellow Stock bricks, the colour produced by adding up to 17% chalk to the clay. The brick were graded as Firsts, Seconds (used for facings), Thirds (used for internals), Roughs (used for hardcore) and Chuffs that were unusable.
Other later brickfields were at Barn Meadow (today's Sholden Road) which produced reds, Wickenden Brickyard by Cooling Road, and Frindsbury Brickyard owned by the West family (closed in 1931).
The business declined when the Fletton
Fletton
Fletton is a residential area and electoral ward of the city of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire in the United Kingdom. For parliamentary purposes it falls within North West Cambridgeshire constituency...
clay at Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
began to be exploited. This clay contained 5% tar oil, so required less fuel to fire. The Frindsbury brickyards reverted to agriculture or were used for new housing.
Cement Works
Portland CementPortland cement
Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world because it is a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco and most non-specialty grout...
was first manufactured in 1825. It is a mixture of chalk and clay containing alumina and silica. It was manufactured in Swanscombe
Swanscombe
Swanscombe is a small town, part of the Borough of Dartford on the north Kent coast in England. It is part of the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe.-Prehistory:...
in 1845, and then in Frindsbury 1 May 1851, at the Frindsbury Linseed Oil Factory which became the Crown Cement Company. William Tingley opened the Frindsbury Cement Works in 1851; it was renamed the Quarry Works. He bought out the Crown Cement works in 1867 and his family effectively had control of all the local works. In 1901, the companies merged to form the APCM (Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers). By 1907 only the Crown and the Beaver were still operating. The Crown works, then called the Crown and Quarry, was the last to close in the 1960s.
There is a rich seam of chalk beneath Frindsbury Church. Blue clay came from the Hoo marshes. For forty years, over 1000 yards alongside Limehouse Reach on the Medway, there were 7 cement works with 152 kilns and 30 chimneys. They produced 4000 tons of cement a week employing 800 men. They were:
- Phoenix
- Globe
- Bridge
- Crown
- Quarry
- Beehive
- Beaver
The Formby Works (after 1858) at Whitewall Creek did not join the APCM. This produced 60 tons a week. As the chalk from Tower Hill declined, it was brought by barge from Halling. The Formby Works closed in 1911. There was another called The Frindsbury Lime Works, at Upnor run by Cole and Young.
Shooting the Bridge
To get under the Rochester BridgeRochester Bridge
Rochester Bridge was for centuries the lowest fixed crossing of the River Medway in Kent, southern England. There have been several generations of bridge at this spot, and the current "bridge" is in fact four separate bridges: two carrying the A2 road, one carrying the railway and one carrying all...
, without losing headway, barges would approach at speed and drop their mast, using the winch at the bow, and when safely under, raise it again. To do this required extra crew, so called 'Hufflers', who were taken on at Whitewall creek. They waited offshore in their skiffs which were then tethered to the barge. They helped lower and raise the mast so the barge could shoot the bridge. They were let off at Janes Creek or Temple Creek in Strood.
Holes in the ground
The Hill on which Frindsbury stands is riddled with holes. These are possibly from ancient mining or could be natural caves caused by water erosion. At various points these have opened up killing at least one woman as well as causing subsidance .Local government
Half of Frindsbury was outside the borders of the City of Rochester hence the name Frindsbury ExtraFrindsbury Extra
Frindsbury Extra is a civil parish on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent, England. It is conjoined to Strood to the south west, is bounded by Cliffe and Cliffe Woods to the north, Hoo to the east, and the River Medway to the south....
. The other half was within the city so was referred to as Frindsbury Intra, a name that has long disappeared, being called Frindsbury.
This distinction is significant, Frindsbury was a ward in the City of Rochester, and in the City of Rochester-upon-Medway. Frindsbury Extra was a ward of Strood Rural District Council which was abolished in 1974. Eleven of the 16 Strood Rural parishes, joined Rochester City Council and Chatham Borough Council to become the Rochester-upon-Medway Borough Council which in 1978 became Rochester-upon-Medway City Council. The eleven parishes remained parished i.e. have an elected parish council, while former Rochester wards were not. This distinction means that the Electoral Commission will not allow any boundary change to the wards, whereby an elector loses or gains the right to vote in a parish election.
Medway Council is a unitary authority established in 1998. Frindsbury remain split in two local government level wards; Strood North and Strood Rural and are represented by the below,
The latest political composition can be found on the Medway Local Election 2007 website
Visitors
William HogarthWilliam Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
with Samuel Scott visited Rochester in May 1732. Ebenezer Forest wrote a journal of the five day trip containing the lines "we all proceeded merrily to Frendsbury". They examined the Frindsbury Church then walked to Upnor where Hogarth made a drawing of the beautiful and ancient Upnor Castle. They then examined the Ten Gun Battery and the Birds Nest Battery before walking to Hoo.
In 1783, engravers Samuel and Nathaniel Buck
Samuel and Nathaniel Buck
Samuel and Nathaniel Buck were brothers who lived in England in the 18th century and were engravers and printmakers. Samuel did much work on his own but, when the brothers worked together, they were usually known as the Buck Brothers. More is known about Samuel than about Nathaniel.Samuel Buck...
drew their prospect of Rochester from the top of All Saints Church Tower.