the Hoo Peninsula from the Medway to the Thames which ran through Cliffe Woods. Being on the flight path to London many bombs fell and their craters are still evident in the landscape. On 11 November 1944 at 3.40 pm a V2 rocket fell in Ratly Hill Wood and wiped out trees in a 17-metre radius. In the 1950s local children attended school at Cliffe or walked to Cooling Street where the school was in an old Methodist Chapel built in 1899. It was known as the chapel in the orchard. The Alpha cement factory owned by APCM provided local employment until it closed in 1970. Cement making had begun at Cliffe in 1854 in a bottle kiln. Women worked seasonally picking fruit, local growers used the railway to transport their goods to market. The Maidstone & District bus service (service number 17) provided transport from Cliffe Woods into Cliffe and the Medway towns for provisions. Cliffe station on the Hundred of Hoo railway line (1 April 1882 to 4 December 1961) lay less than a mile north of the village. It transported passengers to Gravesend and to the seaside at Allhallows. On 10 February 1967 Strood Rural District Council made a compulsory purchase order to buy 86 acres of land to the east of Town Road. The purpose was to provide a comprehensive development by the erection of shops, community centre and dwelling houses. The building of the new community commenced in the 1970s and the park and garden suburb envisaged in the naming of the old plotland site became a reality. Today over 90% of residents own their houses. The population of Cliffe Woods at the 2011 census was 2662. in 1801 only 525 people lived in the entire parish. Education Cliffe Woods Primary School is a 3-11 primary school, using the buildings built for the Cliffe Woods Middle School. Local government Cliffe Woods is governed by the unitary Medway Council. Its direct, day-to-day representation at the Council is through three councillors, as part of the Strood Rural ward. Elections occur every four years. As at 2018 the three elected stood as Conservatives who form a majority on the Council since 2003 - they sit in the current local policies governing group. A lower level operates, mainly as consultees in some policy areas and for minor precept expenditure, Cliffe and Cliffe Woods Civil Parish Council. References External links