Strood refers to 'a marshy land overgrown with brushwood'.
A small wooden church was erected at Strood in 1122, as a chapel of ease in the parish of Frindsbury. In 1193, Strood became a parish, and the church, with its own burial grounds, was dedicated to St Nicholas of Myra, and run by the monks of Newark Hospital. Corruption in the finances of the Newark Hospital set in and worsened until reforms were put in place, formally in 1330, by the Bishop of Rochester Hamo de Hethe.
The church was spacious, with a nave, two isles, a great chancel, and a tower steeple at the west end. In 1818, this and the uppermost tier of the tower were entirely rebuilt. In 1846-1850, parts of the church clock were stolen and a replacement purchased. In 1898, the tower was gutted by fire, destroying the three surviving bells. These were replaced by ten tubular bells.
Land was granted in 1160, to the Knights Templar by King Henry II. The Manor House was used as lodgings.
In 1778, it was suggested that a canal could be excavated from the Gravesend Marshes, through to Strood, providing the Thames and Medway Rivers with a far more direct link from the London direction. It was not until 1800 that excavation had actually begun, the canal reaching Higham in the following year. However, a chalk cliff stood between Higham and Strood, some two and a quarter miles in thickness, it would be another eighteen years before engineers were able to overcome the obstacle. The 1819 plan was to bore a 35 foot wide tunnel through the chalk face, which would become Englands longest. Construction took five more years with the opening in October 1824.
Unfortunately, the canal was little used, and did not provide the financial return originally envisaged. The same company had formed a subsidiary known as the 'Gravesend & Rochester Railway' in 1844 and on 10th February of that year, began running trains through the tunnel, going as far as Denton in the west, and Strood in the east, although Parliament did not give approval until 31st July 1845. Meanwhile, the tunnel had since been separated into two sections in 1830, to accommodate a passing place for barges: Higham Tunnel was now 1531 yards in length and Strood Tunnel 2329 yards long.
The South Eastern Railway purchased the Thames & Medway Canal Company, at the end of 1845, when it had received the green light for the construction of the North Kent Line. The canal was drained within the tunnel the eight foot deep bed filled in with soil, and double-track laid. The existing terminus at Denton was demolished, although the original station at Strood remained, since it was the end of the line and no major works were required.
