History Of Maidstone, Kent

Early history

Although Stone Age finds have been made locally, it is the Romans who first gave Maidstone some importance. Their road from Watling Street at Rochester to Hastings across the Weald passed through the site, and two villas have been discovered. They were also among the first to extract stone (the sandstone known as Kentish Rag) from the area.

This part of the Medway Valley was important too, by the time of the Domesday Book. In the Middle Ages there were two hospitals here built for the care of wayfarers, especially those on pilgrimage; and a “college” of secular priests.

Status

Arms of Maidstone Borough Council

Maidstone’s town status was confirmed when, in 1549, it was incorporated. It had originally been governed by a portreeve, 12 brethren and 24 commoners under the direction of the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, when the people of Maidstone rebelled against the crown in support of Thomas Wyatt in 1554, this charter was revoked, although a new charter was established five years later, when Maidstone was created a borough.

The town's charter was finally ratified in 1619 under James I, and the coat of arms, bearing a golden lion and a representation of the river, was designed. Recently these arms were added to by the head of a white horse (representing Invicta, the motto of the county of Kent), a golden lion and an iguanodon. The iguanodon relates to the discovery in the 19th century of the fossilised remains of such a dinosaur locally. These remains are now displayed in the Natural History Museum in London.

Industries

The quarrying of good building stone around Maidstone has always been important and continues even today. Some of the sandstone is also used in the glass industry.

In the 17th century the Wealden cloth industry reached as far north as the town; for here were deposits of Fuller's earth used for degreasing the wool and, perhaps more importantly, the means of transporting the finished products—the river.

In Maidstone there were many little breweries at the end of the 19th century. the river being useful for transport and water for the beer production. As a result one of the biggest, the Style & Winch brewery, was situated on the river bank in the centre of the town. The brewery shut in 1965 and the building demolished in 1976. There were five other breweries; today only a very small one (Goachers) remains.

Another by-product of the riverside location was paper mills, known locally as "the treacle mines". Paper was produced at places such as Turkey Mill and Hayle Mill, and what was to become the Reed group had several paper and cardboard milling plants in Maidstone. Today Aylesford (on the north west side of Maidstone) now has the largest paper recycling factory in Europe, manufacturing paper to be used in the newspaper industry.

Until 1998 the sweet factory of Trebor Basset, makers of liquorice allsorts, was located in central Maidstone and provided a significant source of employment.

The global loudspeaker manufacturer KEF began in Maidstone in a Nissen hut on the premises of a metal working operation called Kent Engineering & Foundry (hence KEF.) The company is now based in Tovil, a few miles from the town centre. In the late 1990s KEF manufactured a loadspeaker called "The Maidstone."

River Medway

Improvements had been made about 1730 to the River Medway, so that barges of 40 tons could get upriver to East Farleigh, Yalding and even Tonbridge. This meant that a good deal of trade, including corn, fodder, fruit, stone and timber passed through the town, where there were several wharfs.

The medieval stone bridge was replaced in 1879 to give better clearance: it was designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette. There are now two bridges, a modern one having been built in 1977.

Today the river is of importance only to pleasure-boat owners and the considerable number of people living on houseboats. For many years there has been an annual river festival during the last weekend in July, and a millennium project inaugurated the Medway River Walk, the Medway Park and a new footbridge linking the former cattle market (which is now a multiplex cinema and nightclub) west of the river to the shopping area to the east.

Roads

One of the first roads in Kent to be turnpiked was that from Rochester to Maidstone, in 1728, giving some indication of the town’s importance. Today the town is served by the M20 motorway, although it is the hub of the pre-motorway network in this part of Kent. Major roads link it to the Medway Towns, the Isle of Sheppey, Ashford and Folkestone, Hastings, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and London.

Railways

Maidstone was not well served when railways were first being built in the 1840s. It was reported at the time that inhabitants were bitterly opposed to the railway: the mayor suggesting that “Maidstone will be ruined as a commercial town”. It was said that wharfingers and corn and coal merchants would be hard hit.

In the event, in 1842, the South Eastern Railway, in its haste to reach the Channel ports of Folkestone and Dover, put its main line through Tonbridge and Ashford, some six miles to the south. A station named Maidstone Road was built in an isolated spot called Paddock Wood, from where coaches were run to the county town.

Two years later a branch line was built to Maidstone. In 1846 another branch line (the Medway Valley Line) connected Strood with the town. It was not until 1874 that the line from London arrived; and another 10 years before Ashford was connected by rail. There are three stations: Maidstone West and Maidstone Barracks on the Medway Valley Line (whose platforms are visible one from the other); and Maidstone East on the Ashford line.