All Saints Church Frindsbury faces out
over the eastern end of Church Lane in Frindsbury, but its southern
flank (shown here), close to the chalk cliffs which were created by
quarrying, commands an impressive view over the whole of Strood and
Rochester. At various times in its history Frindsbury has been
considered fully or partially part of the City of Rochester. Its
name comes from the Old English 'freodesburh', meaning a
stronghold held by a friend or ally.
The church was built in a mixture of Caen Stone and
flint, probably from 1074. It was rebuilt in the Early English style
in 1127. More work was carried out in the fourteenth century and again
in 1407. During the Reformation the decorations were removed or
whitewashed. The bells were rehung in 1672, and wall paintings of St
Lawrence, St Edmund of Canterbury, and St William of Perth were
discovered in 1883, during the start of extensive restoration work
in 1884.
Frindsbury Baptist Church is on the western
side of Cooling Road, one door north of the junction with Hilltop Road.
Baptists in Frindsbury began meeting at the windmill on Bill Street,
probably during the great expansion of the region in the late 1910s.
The church was founded in the 1920s, and the windmill, which stood
in the cleft formed by the junction of Bill Street and Powlett Road,
soon became derelict. It was demolished about 1930, although the
mill house survives.
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