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Snodland is a small town in the county of Kent, England, located on the River Medway between Rochester and Maidstone. It has a population of about 12,000 people. The town is situated on the A228 road connecting the Medway Towns with Tonbridge. The M20 motorway junction 4 is 2 miles south of the town allowing good access to London and the Channel Ports. The Snodland by-pass takes heavy commercial traffic away from the town centre (an area commonly referred to as "the village" by residents). The Medway Valley Line between Strood and Maidstone passes through Snodland. There is a station; for London passengers change at Strood or Maidstone Barracks/Maidstone East. == History == The first Roman advance in the conquest of Britain may have crossed the River Medway near Snodland, although there are contending locations. The supposed crossing place is marked by a memorial on the opposite side of the river from Snodland, close to Burham. Near this spot, a ferry later carried pilgrims bound for Canterbury along the Pilgrims' Way. By the Domesday survey, Snodland and adjoining Halling were owned by the Bishop of Rochester. Bishop Gundulph, at the end of the 11th Century, built a palace at Halling that was used by his successors until the 16th century. Snodland shows much evidence of industrialisation, particularly chalk extraction. There are long terraces of 19th and 20th century houses. Lime working had been carried out at Snodland for centuries, but expanded dramatically in the 19th Century, as building boomed. The firm of Poynder and Medlicott began quarrying on the Snodland-Halling border in the early 19th century and the company was taken over by William Lee in 1846. Others followed and the last one was built in 1923 by W L H Roberts at Holborough. Lime for building the Waterloo and new London bridges came from the area. The paper-making industry came to Snodland around 1740, when the May family built a mill which the Hook family took over in 1854. New manufacturing techniques and the coming of the railway in the 1850s improved paper production from five to 70 tons a week. Snodland's population doubled between 1840 and 1857. After the Medway Valley railway was opened on 18 June 1856, the village trebled in size between 1861 and 1881. The parish boundary was re-aligned in 1898 and again in 1988 to reflect the growth of Snodland, both changes absorbed areas of Birling Parish, known locally as "Lower Birling". Since 1903, Snodland has been the home of the Mid Kent Water Company. MKW merged in 2007 with South East Water, adopting the name South East Water, whilst retaining the headquarters facilities in Rocfort Road. The company supplies 2.1 million customers in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire - over 565 million litres of drinking water per day. Since 1986, Snodland has been twinned with Moyeuvre-Grande, a town of similar size, located near Metz in North East France. The most recent twinning visit took place in Moyeuvre during May 2010. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Snodland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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