Frindsbury
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 today is part of the town of Strood and covers the most northern part of the town. 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.
Topology
Frindsbury lies on the northwest bank of the Medway at its lowest bridging point. After a narrow but marshy coastal strip, the landmass rises steeply to plateau at about. 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 River Medway. This water flow formed a riverine meander upstream and a build up of alluvium pushing 1,000 yds into the River Medway. Though rarely more than in height, the Frindsbury Peninsula became the centre of many industries. At the Strood end the coastal salt marsh became 600 yds wide. There is evidence of Roman piling so they could build a roadway, Watling Street, from Strood Hill across the salt marsh to the Medway which they bridged. At that time Strood was part of Frindsbury. The impenetrable nature and the steepness of the topography here influenced the route of the East Kent Railway, which became the London, Chatham and Dover Railway on 1 August 1859.History
The word Frindsbury comes from Old English, freondesburh, meaning a stronghold held by a friend or ally. Recorded documented names of the parish include Freondesbrei, Freondesberia, Frandesberie, Fryndesbury. The main parish church, All Saints, was built on the hill. There was a chapel of ease at Strood, 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.Prehistory
The remains of a large elephant skeleton 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 300,000 BP, including hand axes, large flint flakes, core pieces, and quartzite hammer stones.Excavations in 2021 at the site of the new Maritime Academy school produced Palaeolithic remains, including several handaxes, two of which could be classed as 'giant handaxes'. The artefacts were recovered from fluvial deposits in the Medway Valley and are thought to date from the Marine Isotope Stage 9 interglacial. The larger flint handaxe at 29.6 cm long makes it the third largest known to be found in Britain. The size of the handaxe and its distinctive symmetrical elongated tapering tip is typical of a type of handaxe known as a ficron.
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 Tingey in 1888 produced several artefacts, including a bronze statue of Cupid 5.25" high.
Middle Ages
Bishop Eardulf of Rochester obtained Freandisbery and Wicham in 747. Notwithstanding this in 764, King Offa of Mercia and Sigered granted 20 sulungs 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 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 Andrew's Day.The Domesday Book of 1086 records Frindsbury as in the Lathe of Aylesford, in the Hundred of Shamwell. It had been taxed at 10 sulungs before 1066 and then at 7 in 1086. There were 15 carucates of arable land, 5 held by the lord and 11 by the villagers. It supported 40 villagers, 28 smallholders and 9 slaves. There was a mill taxable at 12 shillings, a church, of meadow and woodland for 5 pigs. It was worth £8 before the conquest, but £25 by 1086 with another 10 shillings 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 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.
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
In 1891 the civil parish had a population of 5060. On 30 September 1894, the Local Government Board confirmed an order of Kent County Council, and Frindsbury 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. It is now in the unparished area of Rochester.Modern day Frindsbury is often referred to as North Strood as it lies within the borders of the very northern part of the town, contiguous to the village of Wainscott. Its population is included in Strood's approximate 40,000 residents. Although Frindsbury is considered part of Strood, the parish of Frindsbury Extra lies outside the borders of Strood and comes under Rochester. The parish includes Upnor, Wainscott, Chattenden and various other small hamlets which are situated north of the main town Strood.
Buildings
The Manor of Frindsbury
The Manor House is a grade II listed farmhouse dating from the late 16th century. In 1753 a new front was added to the existing building in the late Georgian style. The house consists of a central 3-storey block flanked by 2-storey wings. A 20th-century porch has been added. This is also referred to as Court Lodge Farm. The building was proposed for demolition during March 1958.Adjacent to the Manor House is an early fifteenth-century tithe barn. The barn is a grade I listed building at UK grid reference. In early 2003 the barn of the Manor House suffered a serious fire which destroyed four of its thirteen bays. The damaged and fallen timbers were salvaged during the following summer and are stored in the undamaged part of the barn. The barn is owned by the Church Commissioners who, prior to the fire, leased it to the farmer as an equipment store.
Medieval structure
The official listing description is drawn from and ascribes a date of 1300. challenges this date on the basis of dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating performed in 2002. The former gives a felling date of 1403, the latter 1400 ± 60 years.The barn is of aisled construction and until the fire was by. The barn is notable for the quality of its construction: "the undoubted queen of the Kentish barns", "Its carpentry is peerless" or Austin's view "exemplary and executed to a high standard".
The footings are of mortared flint and stone rising to at the northward end of the barn. They may originally have been lime rendered internally. The heart of the structure is a series of rectangular frames rising approximately above the dwarf walls. The frames are transversely braced. Linking the tops of the frames longitudinally is the arcade plate which is jointed and braced to each upright. outside the arcade are the aisle posts supporting an aisle tie to the main arcade posts. The aisle posts are linked by the eaves plate, though not braced to it. Resting on and braced to the collar beams are crown posts supporting a collar plate. The rafters are supported by the eaves plates, arcade plates and collar plates forming a single unbroken slope. To complete the exterior of the building, weatherboards run from under the eaves vertically down to the ground plates. The weatherboards are thought to be a rare survival of the original boards. A dendrochronological of one board gave 1357, but this was not the outermost ring of the tree.
The roof may have been originally thatched but is now covered with peg tiles. The entire roof has been retiled on new battens during August 1975 though earlier hand-made tiles have been reused alongside machine made tiles.
Although the structure shows little sign of decay and replacement, the rafters above the aisles of bays 7 and 11 are of machine-sawn softwood. In same bays, and also the lost bay 3, the medieval footings are also absent. Austin argues that this suggests the location of tall entrances at these points.