Above sign 1980.

With thanks from Roger Pester www.innsignsociety.com.

Above sign left, November 1986, sign right, June 1993.

With thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

From the "History of Strood" by Henry Smetham, published 1899.

Some years ago a wood tablet stood in Strood Churchyard, marking the grave of “An Unknown Thief.” The circumstances surrounding this case were peculiar and sensational.

About three o’clock on Thursday, 7th October, 1869, three men went into the bar of the “Cricketers Inn,” which faces the Creek and wharfs in Commercial Road. Calling for drink, two of the men engaged the occupants’ attention, whilst the third man stole upstairs to rob the premises. The thief succeeded in breaking open a locked drawer, and also forced others. Those below were startled on hearing the thud of a heavy fall, and the servant of the house immediately ran upstairs, and there discovered a man lying at full length on the floor, apparently dead. A doctor and the police were sent for, and the medical man (Dr. A. H. Suiinyland, locum tenens to Dr. Langston) on his arrival, pronounced life to be extinct. In the thief's pockets were found:— In copper, £2 7s. 2 1/2d.; in gold, £1; in silver, £2 2s. 6d.; two silver watches, valued at £8; one silver chain, valued at 10s.; one gold chain, valued at £4; and eight skeleton keys and a jemmy. The said tools were subsequently described by the police as being of beautiful workmanship. The two companions had bolted, but one, named Hall, was arrested at the “Coach and Horses” public house, Strood Hill, and, after several remands, was sentenced, at the January sessions, 1870, to five years’ penal servitude. The identity of the dead man was afterwards established. His name was George Derrick, a native of Bristol; he had previously served a term of penal servitude. The money and valuables found in the thief’s pockets had been stolen from the landlady of the “Cricketers’ Arms.”