Maidstone

Ours is a town around 40 miles south east of London.  Formerly a small market town built around the banks of the river Medway (hence Maidstone = Medways town) today it supports a community of around 86000 people.

Maidstone is the county town and administrative centre of Kent, a large county in the south-east of the British Isles. Situated in the centre of the county, Maidstone should be the major industrial, economic and population centre of Kent.  Archaeological evidence suggests that the Maidstone area was first settled in the Mesolithic era (which ended at around 4000 BC), and was first cultivated for agriculture during the Neolithic era. Prominent evidence for inhabitation during this period comes from the Medway Megaliths and the Kit's Coty standing stones to the north.  The Doomsday Book of 1086, records Maidstone as a centre for crafts and part of the manorial estate of the Archbishop of Canterbury (whose official residence at the time was not in Canterbury or the current residence of Lambeth Palace in London, but the Archbishop's Palace in Maidstone). This small manorial town was destined to grow into a market town and borough by the 16th century; the first grammar school was founded in 1549, and by the early 17th century, with expansion in the number of schools, literacy was markedly improving. During the English Civil War, Maidstone was an important base of operations for the Royalist army, and one of the bloodiest battles of the war was fought for the strategically important East Farleigh Bridge, to the southeast and  the "Grand old Duke of York" nursery rhyme depicts and actual event, that of a parade of troops by the Duke of York at Loose Hill to the south of Maidstone during the war.  It's a steep hill, no wonder there is the Kings Arms pub at the top of the hill and the Chequers pub at the bottom.  Both must have done good business keeping the troops throats wet.

Famous dead people who came from Maidstone

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Famous people who live, have lived or regularly visit Maidstone

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Industries of Maidstone

Maidstone sits in the heart of Hop Country, and it is no surprise that brewing was a key industry until it was decimated by the conglomerations of major international concerns in the 1950's and 1960's.   Until that time, Maidstone supported no less than 6 breweries.  Today there is just one small 4 man band that produces finest Goachers ales.  If anyone was going to brew a beer this would be the one.

Another by-product of the riverside location were paper mills.  Some of the worlds finest papers were produced at locations like Hayle Mill, and the giant Reed group had several paper and cardboard milling plants in Maidstone and nearby Aylesford.

The Motor Car baron Lord Rootes started building his vehicle empire in the town in 1913, having previously run a bicycle shop in nearby Hawkhurst.  Ultimately the group, which sold brands such as Hillman, Singer, Sunbeam, Karrier and Commer and which also encompassed the former Steam Engine and Charabanc builders Tilling Stevens was swallowed up by Chrysler Inc of the USA before Lee Iacoca sold the business off to Peugeot of France as part of his bid to save Chrysler.

A certain Sir Edward Sharp, a confectioner and philanthropist of note, built the Sharps Kreemy Toffee works in St Peters Street in the town.  This family business grew into one of the more famous products of the town.  The company was purchased by Trebor Ltd and ultimately was subsumed into the massive Cadbury Schweppes empire and the factory shut down in 1999.   The site is likely to become a McDonalds restaurant.

Maidstone today

Nowadays the town is renowned for its wide collection of building society offices, pound shops, cheap jewellery purveyors, mobile phone outlets, tattoo and piercing specialists and pubs.  The town centre is almost devoid of reasonable quality shops and those that remain are frequented by those people who can't get to the out of town Malls at Lakeside and Bluewater.

Industry too has taken a severe battering.  There are no major employers in the town.  Manufacturing has declined to near zero and what remains is limited to entrepreneurs in small industrial estates and specialising serving niche markets. 

The weekly market remains as a testament to the towns' former importance.

The local Football Team - Maidstone United FC- for the period 1989 - 1992 played in the Football League, are since 1999 experiencing a revival.  They never played a game at the highest level in the town  - their ground was sold to a DIY chain in 1986.  Things are now looking up again.  Although the town still has no senior standard football stadium the town council seem to have been embarrassed enough to give the go-ahead for a new ground which should be ready for use in 2005.   The club went out of business in the summer of 1992 as debts mounted in a frustrated attempt to keep the team afloat in the Football League. If the stories are to be believed, the town council planning department implied to the football club that they were likely to be able to construct a new ground a few miles out of town.  However, our town councillors were having none of that and voted against the plan and effectively voted the football club out of existence.  A long period of re-building from the bottom up has now started to bear fruit and the club is conceivably only 6 or 7 seasons away from returning to the ranks of the Football League once more.

What is in Maidstone ?

Frankly not a lot. 

A river festival has been run by a private committee since 1980 and is held on the last Saturday of July.  Basically lots of boat owners turn up and moor their vessels in the town centre.  There are the usual Raft Races, people falling into the river, a fun fair is held nearby and a firework display at dusk.

Prior to that, in early July the Kent County Cricket team turn up and play a couple of games in Mote Park.  On the Saturday of Cricket week, they hold the Kent County Show at the nearby Detling showground, thus diluting the attendance at both events.  Detling was a former World War II airfield.

The town museum is highly regarded and contains many local artefacts and some important national relics. There is also an Art Gallery on the same campus.

The Carriage Museum in the town centre contains a collection of mainly Horse Drawn carriages, many of which were from the estate of Sir Hugh Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake, who was a remarkable man by any standard: zoologist, writer, artist, businessman. This man and his zoo gave pleasure to hundreds of thousands of people over twenty six years.  A former Mayor and Alderman of the Borough, he entrusted his family estate of Mote Park to the council for the benefit of the towns people.

At Cobtree, 1 mile North of the town is the Museum of Kent Life.  This award winning "living" museum is well worth a visit and has plenty of hands on activies for children.

You can play golf at the nearby Cobtree Golf Course - a municiple course,  whilst not stretching to the low handicap player seems a magnet to those who do not consider playing 18 holes a good walk spoilt.

Parking - Definitely not.   If you intend to visit Maidstone it is strongly suggested that you park outside the town centre and use one of the park and ride buses.  Town Centre car parking is the rarest of commodities.  Where there are car parks, the bays are generally marked up for the smallest of vehicle, charges for utilising the space are high, and most car parks have a 4 hour time limit.  So if you intend to come to the town, see the museum, the art gallery and do a little shopping, you'll have to leave and drive elsewhere to buy a lunch or risk a hefty overstay charge.

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