Snodland
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Snodland is a large village in the county of Kent, England, located on the River Medway between Rochester and Maidstone. It has a population of about 12,000 people.
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History
Snodland as a village betrays its comparatively recent history of industrialisation, with long terraces of utilitarian homes, factories and a landscape scarred by chalk extraction. It would probably be as picturesque as neighbouring Birling if it had not been pressed into industrial service in the 19th century.
The first Roman advance in the conquest of Britain is popularly thought to have crossed the Medway at Snodland. The crossing is marked by a memorial on the other side of the river from Snodland, near Burham. Near this spot, a ferry later carried pilgrims bound for Canterbury along the Pilgrims Way.
By the Domesday survey, Snodland and adjoining Halling were owned by the Bishop of Rochester. Bishop Gundulph, at the end of the 11th Century, built a palace at Halling that was used by his successors until the 1500s.
Lime working had been carried out at Snodland for centuries, but expanded dramatically in the 19th Century, as building boomed. The firm of Poynder and Medlicott began quarrying on the Snodland-Halling border in the early 1800s and the company was taken over by William Lee in 1846. Others followed and the last one was built in 1923 by W L H Roberts at Holborough. Lime for building the Waterloo and new London bridges came from the area.
The paper-making industry came to Snodland about 1740, when the May family built a mill; the Hook family took over in 1854. New manufacturing techniques and the coming of the railway in the 1850s improved paper production from five to 70 tons a week. Snodland's population doubled between 1840 and 1857. After the Maidstone-Rochester railway was opened on June 18 1856, the village trebled in size between 1861 and 1881.
On of Snodland's most famous residents was Thomas Fletcher Waghorn (1800-50), a postal pioneer who shortened the overland route between England and India from three months to between 35 and 45 days.
Judge Dread
The white reggae star Judge Dread (real name Alex Hughes, 1945-98) lived in Snodland. Eleven of Hughes's songs were banned by the BBC, starting with Big Six in 1972.
Hughes had worked as a club bouncer in Brixton, a wrestler (called the Masked Executioner), a bodyguard for Prince Buster and a DJ before his career in "rude reggae".
He died from a heart attack on March 13, 1998, shortly after finishing a set at the Penny Theatre, Canterbury, Kent. A road in Snodland is now named after him.
Geography
Snodland is located at Template:Coor dms (51.3333,0.4500)1.
Communications: Snodland is on the main road that connects the Medway Towns with the main London - Channel Ports (the A20). Heavy commercial traffic through the village centre eventually resulted in the building of the Snodland by-pass. There is a railway station here on the branch line between Strood and Maidstone
Sources
A village sacrificed to industry, by Stephen Rayner, Memories page, Medway News, August, 2003. Reproduced with permission.
External links
Snodland history (http://www.snodlandhistory.org.uk/)