Following Torr's opinion on the historical place called Maidstone, that had some fallacious facts added for good measure, I will now entice you (well, maybe) to the place with some very basic low down facts! (I have paragraphed it with headings to make skimming easier!)
I chose to move to Maidstone in 1978 when I purchased my first house with my then fiancé having scouted around the outer London area, from Basildon, Crawley and Canvey Island. We decided on Maidstone because it has excellent rail and road links into central London which was of major importance in those days as we both worked up there. Maidstone still has excellent links with London and the rest of the country's motorway network, although it has missed out on the High Speed Rail Link to Europe - this can be accessed via Ashford, twenty miles further down the county.
Maidstone Itself
Maidstone is the county town and the administrative centre of Kent. Tourists visit Canterbury, the former county town, but for business it is Maidstone that provides the jobs. Kent County Council offices are in the town and it is the biggest local authority outside of Greater London, or so I have been told.
There is a largish open space with a large pub called Penenden Heath. Play area for kids, football and cricket pitches, tennis courts and mini golf are also here. The Bull pub is on the site of a former court house, and out the front there is a patch of mud (where the grass doesn't grow). This is the site of the scaffold where the last public hanging in the country took place. Cheery little fact!
There was also a thriving football team in Maidstone, but the local council chose to sell the site and build MFI and Wickes on it instead. The promise of a better pitch has never come forth. However, a massive drive to get the funds to buy a new pitch with a target of £10,000 p.a. has just been completed for this year so the Stones are a step closer to a local pitch. Having originally moved up to the Dartford ground, the Stones then moved onto Central Park, Sittingbourne after Dartford went bankrupt (thanks SohoBlack for that info). The Stones still have a healthy following, so it shouldn't be long before they are back in the town. (www.maidstoneunited.co.uk for details)
Beer! / The Surrounding Countryside / Darling Buds of May
There is some lovely countryside around the Maidstone area. It is not breathtaking as in some parts of the country but it is very hilly and wooded. We are nestled by the North Downs which is home to the Pilgrims Way, and the River Medway forms the valley in which Maidstone is built.
The televising of The Pop Larkin Chronicles was made in Staplehurst, a village to the south of Maidstone, and the old bangers were oft to be seen driving past my old front door en-route to the Maidstone TV Studios for some of the shots. There is a Museum of Kent Rural Life which houses the 'kitchen' of the Darling Buds of May programme with the old cooker etc, just on the outskirts of Maidstone at Allington (just off Junction 6 of the M20).
With the countryside, there are villages, and in villages are old freehouse pubs selling Shepheard Neame beer - a local brewery at Faversham. We used to have Whitbread, but I think they have stopped in this part of Kent now. Also, Fremlins used to be in the centre of Maidstone (the new shopping centre is being built on the site, surprisingly it will be called the Fremlins Walk). There is also an independent brewer in Tovil (an area of Maidstone) called Mr Goacher, and he brews a decent ale called 'Goachers' beer, mainly served in his pub, the Paper Makers Arms.
We also have a strong history of paper making, and I used to work in a paper mill which made paper for newsprint. Also, paper was made for the Bank of England notes in Turkey Mill, at Maidstone too.
Nowadays, Maidstone is more involved in paper recycling, and Aylesford Newsprint collect waste paper from around the country, mash it all down and reform it for new products. The profits were being donated to Great Ormond Street Children's hospital in London but I can't promise that they still are as the posters have been removed.
Schools etc
Maidstone has, not excellent, but good schools and there are ample opportunities for the offspring of the town to go onto further education through the various colleges. A down point is that Maidstone still has an 11+ policy, so parents can choose whether to put their kids through the exam or not. There are Comprehensive schools in the town, but they do not necessarily offer the children the same choice of subjects as the Grammars at the younger end. There is an excellent Catholic school for anyone able to get in.
At 16+, they can apply again to any of the schools that offer the courses that they want to study, including the Grammar schools (excluding the Catholic school), or go on to college or Art college to continue their education. My two eldest have gone through the system using school, then college and then managed to go to Canterbury University (real gypsies!) to get degrees - their only problem has been their accents as they do have very local accents which are similar to Eastenders and they were judged as bimbo's on the strength of this and their blonde locks.
Nightlife
We have a thriving night life for younger Maidstonians and Kent folk. On the average Friday and Saturday night, 10,000 extra people cram into Maidstone and most of these are below the age of 25. This is because Maidstone is veritable Mecca for young people, and they are drawn out of their villages and from the Medway towns as we have nightclubs for everyone. Maidstone always had a good selection of pubs and clubs for younger residents, but in the past five years a new development has been built called the Lockmeadow Centre. This includes a Jumping Jaks, Ikon, Atomics ( well, nearby)(Boy George was DJ'ing for years, not sure if he still does), Strawberry Moons (Gabriels Hill) and Yates and Chicago Rock Café are nearby in the High Street.
Lockmeadow also hosts a pub Old Orleans, restaurants Frankie and Bennies; Azzuro's and a large new Chinese restaurant; a bowling alley for the over 18's 'Hotshots' and an Odeon cinema with 8 screens. Films come to Maidstone as soon as the premier in London has shown first, and they are removed quickly to allow more newly released films to show so we never have to wait for them to come round to us. The difficulty is booking the tickets quickly enough to ensure you get to watch them before they move on.
Daytime/Educational - yawn
We have a Carriage Museum - you never knew that did you? A fourteenth century stable which houses a wonderful collection of carriages in mint condition including the Royal carriages, but the museum itself is tucked away on the one way system making it very difficult to negotiate. But it is worth it if you like that kind of thing!
We have a museum! Oh yes, I can tell you are palpitating with anticipation now, aren't you? We have a mummy in our museum and a bee hive! There is also a section with a Japanese garden and also, my personal favourite, a section with clothes through the 20th century. Now how can that be missed?
Outside of Maidstone, at a village called Leeds, there is a castle! It is professed to be the Loveliest Castle in the World. I cannot comment as I have not seen every castle in the world yet, but it is fairly striking. There is a moat and hot air balloons take off at dawn on two days of the year at a festival. There is also a maze, duckery, plants, gift shop, golf and a gift shop.
The River Medway
Now this is more of a treat. The river runs right through the town centre and is fairly wide with walks alongside and under the bridges. There are ducks and swans, and youngsters still fish in the river (the odd drunk has also fallen in on occasion) The River Medway has a river festival on the last Saturday of July when decorated yachts start to moor in the centre of the town and we have live bands playing, hospital radio, stalls, a fun fair and, the grand finale - a firework display at 10.30pm. This is normally very well attended.
We have a newly built riverside park (Whatman Park) with a nature walk and also a skateboard park and a new 'Millennium Walk'. The parking is rather limited, but they are working on it. You can actually take a good walk of 2 miles from the town centre to Allington Lock, have a drink outside The Malta (Beefeater Pub/Restaurant) and walk back along the tow path which is really pleasant on a sunny evening. The river also has a Park and Sail as opposed to Park and Ride so that shoppers don't clog up the car parks too much. There are park and ride alternatives from every direction into Maidstone, but parking is still rather limited.
Festivals / Shopping Our latest shopping extravaganza is called Fremlin Walk. This is named after the old Kent Brewery called Fremlins which was knocked down to accommodate this centre. It is open air, but there is a canopy running down each side of the pedestrianised 'road' (it never was a road!) which keeps the shopper dry. It is disabled accessible, although wheelchairs can veer slightly into the middle due to the canver towards drains.
There are loads of shops catering for young people, and a huge House of Fraser store. Also coffee shops and book shops. Well worth a visit.
There is also The Chequers Centre, which is on a par with most other town malls; and The Royal Star (very close to Muggletons which has specialist smaller shops.
We have a large open space of 450 acres called Mote Park where the Kent County Cricket club play regularly. There is a large 30 acre lake, children's play area, long walks, cycle paths and also within the park is a huge leisure centre. The leisure centre also doubles up as a concert hall and we do attract some bands there on occasion. On Whit Sunday, a green fair is held in Mote Park where New Age bands play, local crafts people sell their wares and charities make some money. Everyone gets very drunk but can usually stagger home if they live in Maidstone itself.
There is also a Beer Festival each summer with many opportunities to get bladdered. CAMRA are always in attendence, and again, local bands play to keep the event running smoothly. This is held at the Museum of Kent Rural Life just off Junction 6 of M20 as previously mentioned.
We have a theatre which is run by the local council, but which does put on some interesting shows and also holds a 'film club' for those inclined. This is in a olde worlde building, one of the few remaining, in Earl Street.
General Info
Maidstone in the past has been quite distinctive as it was built using the local stone 'Rag Stone' which is grey. The stones were large and my first terrace house was built with it in Victorian times. Although it would not be very environmentally friendly to continue using this to build within the town, it is still evident in some of the older buildings that have been allowed to remain by the gaggle of planners, and does make it look pretty.
The biggest Rag Stone attraction in the town is actually the prison! This is a large prison which houses some real baddies, murderers and the like, and was used by the Birds of a Feather prog.
When I first moved to Maidstone, it was much smaller, but it has now spread to include large executive housing estates. We also have a diverse community with people of differing ethnicities, albeit lower than the 6% national average at 3% in Maidstone. The people of Maidstone generally don't have an issue with people of other cultures moving into the town (there are always a few who do, of course) and I really hope it remains that way.
I have read up in the past year or so about Maidstone on the Knowhere site. Naturally, people will knock where-ever they are living, but this town is really quite good. Having chosen it over various other towns initially, I'm pleased to have settled here and it has always had plenty of activities to entertain my brood.
Maidstone has its fair share of a wide range of social difficulties, and also has a high percentage of people suffering from Mental Illness - not something to be proud of necessarily, but due to the fact that there was a large 'Mental Asylum' on the outskirts of the town (now converted into luxury apartments!) and also a high security home for severely challenging and learning disabled people. With the Care in the Community and Mental Health Act of the 1980's, many institutionalised people who were able to be, were weaned off residential care and now successfully live a more productive life in the local area with support. Maidstone also sports the largest Social Housing estate in the world. I have been told this fact by my son who learnt it at school. This seems an amazing fact, but apparently, after WW2 the homeless of London converged on Maidstone among other home county towns and they needed to be housed, so the estate was built for them.
Maidstone is not somewhere where anyone would choose to come for a holiday, unless you are a train spotter. It is worth a visit if you are passing through from France to London though, and particularly if you are not driving as there are ample opportunities to have a pub crawl and not get round them all before closing time! (I know, I have tried!!)
It IS worth coming for the mini-meet next week though - see you there!
Orlando x
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