•  Gads Hill, Kent

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In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Gads Hill like this:

GAD'S-HILL, an eminence 1 mile NW of Strood, in Kent. An obelisk is on it, to the memory of a local celebrity of the name of Larkins; an inn is on it, called the Sir John Falstaff Inn; and a red brick house is on it, inhabited by the novelist, Charles Dickens, Esq. The hill got its name from b ...

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eing a resort of "gads, " or high-way robbers; it formerly had thick woods, which gave them shelter; it possessed such bad reputation in the time of Elizabeth as to be appropriately selected by Shakespeare for the scene of the robbery of Falstaff; and it continued to have that reputation till the time of John Clavell, who speaks of

Gad's Hill, and those
Red tops of mountains where good people lose
Their ill-kept purses.

Additional information about this locality is available for Higham

Gads Hill through time

Gads Hill is now part of Gravesham district. Click here for graphs and data of how Gravesham has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Gads Hill itself, go to Units and Statistics.

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