Strood is a town in the unitary authority of Medway in Kent, South East England. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rochester, Gillingham and Rainham. It lies on the northwest bank of the River Medway at its lowest bridging point. Strood began as a manor then chapelry of Frindsbury until gaining its own parish status in 1193. Today Frindsbury is effectively, in all but a few associations such as in the Church of England, the northern part of Strood. Strood's history has been dominated by the river and facing port-associated towns, particularly its road and rail bridges since the Roman era to Rochester and the two other Medway Towns immediately adjoining and beyond from the north-east quarter of Kent to London and the rest of Britain. It has a mixed retail and leisure area at its heart. Most of its sources of employment are the other Medway towns, their associated commercial, industrial and logistics parks. Among its broadest named neighbourhoods are the "Earl estate" and Marlowe Park, one named after a house builder, the other after the grounds of a former mansion house. History Pre-conquest Strood was part of Frindsbury until 1193. It was named Strodes in the Textus Roffensis, now kept in Strood in the Medway Archives Centre, though most early records use the spelling Stroud. The Old English name Strōd refers to a "marshy land overgrown with brushwood". The Gloucestershire town of Stroud has the same etymology. The Romans built a stone bridge and laid a road on a causeway across the marshy ground. The foundations were about 8 ft below the level of the 1856 road. The road went up Strood Hill, and was called Watling Street, as it still is today. This is the A2 road. There is further evidence of a causewayed road leading along the bank towards the Frindsbury Peninsula leading to a villa, was found in 1819. The present road and field pattern suggest that there was a substantial Roman agricultural settlement centred near Frindsbury. In 764 AD Offa King of Mercia and Sigered King of Kent granted to Eardulph lands in Easlingham (Frindsbury). In 840, 994, and 998 AD Strood was pillaged by the Danes. In 960 AD a wooden bridge was built across the Medway. Medieval A small wooden church was erected at Strood in 1122, as a chapel of ease in the parish of Frindsbury. Land was