A226

A226

View gallery (4)

From:

Dartford (TQ522744)

To:

Strood (TQ729693)

Length:

12.2 miles (19.6 km)

Meets:

A207, B2174, A2018, A2026, A225, A296, B2500, B2228, B2174, A206, B255, B2175, A2260, B262, B261, B256, A227, A289, B2108, A2

Highways Authorities

Kent • Medway

Traditional Counties

Kent

Route outline (key)

A226

Dartford - Strood

Route

Once an important through route, especially in pre-numbering days the 'A226 is nowadays a local road connecting Thames-side towns.

Dartford - Strood

The A226 in Gravesend, just by the Clocktower

The route begins in Dartford, with one or two funny little spurs extending beyond the town centre that suddenly change number. Odd, this. Anyway, east of Dartford we bear slightly north to Greenhithe, whence there are good views of the QE Bridge. The A206 joins here, and is a useful back way to the crossing if the A2 is overflowing. To the south is the holy sepulchre of Bluewater, shopping's temple to Mammon. From Greenhithe an industrial and considerably ugly route leads via Swanscombe to Gravesend, now a "historic" waterside town. In truth they have tidied it up a bit, so it doesn't entirely resemble its name. Emerging from the one-way system one passes the village of Chalk, and then it's the most attractive section of the road, if one ignores the refineries by the Thames on the left-hand side. This stretch used to be a fast, four-laned affair, but there's 50mph limit all the way to Strood, and the inside lanes have given way to cycle lanes.

At Higham is the Sir John Falstaff Inn, for this is Gads Hill, haunt of highwaymen and Shakespeare's fictional layabouts in Henry the Fourth (Part One).

History
Lesson

Charles Dickens also lived here, across the road from the inn at Gads Hill Place, and he used to walk along our road from here into Rochester.

There's a gentle slope down into the Medway valley, during the course of which we cross the Medway northern bypass (A289) and pass close to the strawberry farms that caters for Wimbledon. Once past the fire station it's not long to the junction with the A2 on Strood Hill, which swallows up the A226 as it covers the last mile or so into Strood itself and over the ancient river-crossing into Rochester.

History

Early drafts of the MOT route list showed the A226 as part of the A2, which was shown on contemporary maps at the time. However, the final list showed the A226 in its current position.

Original Author(s): Simon Mold

A226

Roads

NCN1 • Watling Street •

Related Pictures
View gallery (4)