The Hogarth Inn in Grain got its name after a visit from the English artist William Hogarth in 1732. It stands on the Hoo Peninsula, once a haven for the illicit trafficking by smugglers on the surrounding waterways. A network of tunnels, including one reportedly underneath the Grade II-listed pub in the High Street, is dotted around the marshy and – what was then – isolated area.

The hostelry was initially a private residence and then a post office before being converted into a pub which was then called the "Cock Inn."

The Norman church was extended and partially rebuilt in the late 12th. century by the adition of the north and south aisles. The aisles were edemolished in tehe early 19th. Century, but their blocked arcades are still visible.

OPEN TO VIEW

Every Monday at 11 a.m. for 2 hours

Grain: St James

Address: High Street Grain Rochester, ME3 0BS, United Kingdom

We are open on Mondays and supply refreshments for local walkers group and any and all who want to visit this lovely building

Grain Tower is a mid-19th-century gun tower situated offshore just east of Grain standing in the mouth of the River Medway.

Grain Tower and causeway seen at low tide 2008

It was built in the early 19th century and is the last example of a gun tower of this type. It was constructed to protect the important dockyards at Sheerness and Chatham from a perceived French naval threat during a period of tension in the 1850s.

Grain Dummy Battery, originally known as Grain Battery, was built shortly before Grain Fort, completed in 1865 to support two nearby forts; Grain Fort and Grain Wing Battery. It consisted of several gun emplacements with magazines below.

Both the dummy battery and Grain Fort were built to improve costal defences following the threat of invasion from the French. The dummy battery is around half a mile south of Grain Fort and was connected by a military road which no longer exists. The battery was initially armed with four or five heavy rifled muzzle loaders for use against large warships, but they were replaced in 1895 by more powerful 6-inch rifled breech loaders.

In 1879, the South Eastern obtained an act for a branch leaving their North Kent line at a point about (3.5 miles) from Gravesend to Stoke. In the following year, powers were obtained for an extension, (3.5 miles) long, to what was then St James, in the Isle of Grain, where a deep-water pier was to be built on the Medway. A ferry was to connect the new pier with Sheerness.

The railway was opened throughout on 11 September 1882. The pier was built for passenger traffic and Queen Victoria was a passenger. Bignell records that she "... took a rather curious fancy to Grain as a chosen departure point for trips to Germany" and there are claims that Port Victoria "was built essentially as a railway station at the end of a line from Windsor"

The single road to the Isle of Grain takes you to the final end of the Hoo Peninsula. Its northern coast borders the River Thames, and its southern coast the River Medway. Drive down the High Street and past the Church to the car park to the foreshore.

Here our new Coastal Park, just past the Church, has the unique ability to offer visitors a choice.

Walk along the two miles of shoreline of cockleshells and sandy beaches. Pass by the ancient Forts still standing, all used and active during both world wars, and if the tide is low use the causeway to see the Tower close up, still encircled with giant chains to anchor the nets which were raised to stop invasion of the Medway by submarines at war.