Maidstone, Kent, England, UK 作者： 来源： 发布时间：2021-07-26
I. Population and Area
Continent: Europe
Country: The U.K
State/Province: England
City/Town: Norwich, Norfolk
Total Area: 9.83 (sq mi)
Population in 2018: 113.1 (thousand）
II. Natural Geography (environment and resources)
Environment
The town is six miles downstream from where the River Medway, having flowed in a generally west–east direction, is joined by the Rivers Teise and Beult at Yalding and changes its course to a northerly one. It cuts through the ridge formed by the greensand, so that the town occupies a site on two opposite hills, the easterly one containing the town centre. Beyond that, and higher, is Penenden Heath.
River
The River Len joins the Medway at Maidstone. Though a short river, it provided the water to drive numerous watermills. The Loose Stream, which rises at Langley and joins at Tovil, once powered over 30 mills. Mill ponds on these rivers are a prominent feature of the landscape.
Roads
One of the first roads in Kent to be turnpiked was from Rochester to Maidstone, in 1728. The A20 runs through the town and the M20 motorway runs to the north. Opened in 1960 as the Maidstone Bypass A20(M), this was the first motorway south of London. Maidstone is a hub for major roads: the M20 motorway, the A229, A249, A20 and A26. The M2 motorway is a short distance to the north. The historic centre of the town is largely pedestrianised or with restricted access for private vehicles, which are diverted around a one way system.
Buses
Bus services centre on High Street, King Street and the Chequers Bus Station adjacent to the Mall shopping centre and serve nearby towns including Chatham, Faversham, Sittingbourne, Tonbridge, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Ashford and Tenterden. Most services are operated by Arriva and some operated by Nu-Venture. Stagecoach also operates route 10X in the town to Ashford via Lenham, with most buses continuing onto Hythe and Folkestone.
Railways
Two years later, a branch line was built to Maidstone. In 1846, the Medway Valley Line connected Strood with the town. It was not until 1874 that the line from London arrived and another ten 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.
III.Economy
GVA in 2019: 24,456 £
Maidstone scores above the national median in all indicators with the exception of NVQ4+, 5 year employee change and proportion of employees in the Knowledge Economy.
Over recent years Maidstone’s ranking has improved significantly compared to other authorities in unemployment, resident and workplace earnings. While its ranking has significantly improved for 5 year employee change, Maidstone still remains below the national median.
Reference Website:
https://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/8187/Kent-economic-indicators-report.pdf
IV. Industrial Characterisitics
Major industries:
By the 18th century, Maidstone was the official and legal centre of Kent. It was also a successful industrial town with major brewing and papermaking industries. In the 21st century, Maidstone is still expanding as a retail and entertainment centre.
The local history and social history collections at Maidstone Museum document the history and people of the area at the centre of the Garden of England, and include local industries, photography, printed ephemera and numismatics.
Written records do not exist much before the Medieval period when the Archbishop’s Palace overlooking the Medway became the focus of a small settlement. But in 1549, Maidstone was recognised as a town when it was granted a royal charter. Famous incidents in its history include the Wyatt Rebellion and Battle of Maidstone in the English Civil War (1648). By the 18th century, Maidstone was the official and legal centre of Kent. It was also a successful industrial town with major brewing and papermaking industries. In the 21st century, Maidstone is still expanding as a retail and entertainment centre.
Major projects and related introductions:
D & T Carpentry and Construction Ltd
Balcony Design & Construction, Basement Conversion, Basement Waterproofing, Brick Cladding, Brickwork, Building Conservation, Cedar Cladding, Conservatory Design & Installation, Custom Build Home, Decking Installation, Eco Homes, Excavation, Fibre Cement Cladding, Floor Plans, Foundations Construction, Garage Building, Home Renovation, House Extensions, House Plans, House Restoration, Kitchen Fitting, Loft Conversion, New Home Build, Passive Houses, Pergola Construction, Porch Design & Construction, Prefab Home Extensions, Prefab Homes, Project M
MCCH
Re-development of the former Archbishop Courtenay School in Maidstone, creating 7 residential units and a training flat to provide transitional living and training for young adults with learning difficulties.
Reference Website:
https://museum.maidstone.gov.uk/explore/collections/local-history/
http://www.dcbkent.co.uk/projects/completed-projects/
V. Attractions
1. Maidstone Museum and Art Gallery：
An exciting jumble with a first-rate setting, the Maidstone Museum is in the former Chillington Manor, an Elizabethan house completed in 1577. There’s older and newer architecture here, from earlier in the Tudor period and a large western extension from the start of the 18th century.
2. Leeds Castle：
Stranded on two islands, Leeds Castle is like something from a fantasy movie. As we see it today, the building is a stately home with a Romantic Tudor Revival style from 1823, incorporating older elements like a Medieval keep and great hall. In the 16th century Henry VIII reconstructed the castle as a home for his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. She is one of six queens to have lived at Leeds Castle, while Elizabeth I was imprisoned here for a time before her coronation.
3. Mote Park：
Up there with England’s most prized urban parks, the Green Flag-winning Mote Park is 440 acres of woodland and lawns around a lake, right next-door to the town centre. From Medieval times this space was a manor with a deer park, and the lakeside mansion, Mote House, is now used as a retirement home.
Reference Website:
https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-to-do-in-maidstone-kent-england/
VI. History
Neolithic finds have revealed the earliest occupation of the area, and the Romans have left their mark in the road through the town and evidence of villas. The Normans set up a shire moot, and religious organisations established an abbey at Boxley, hospitals and a college for priests. Today's suburb of Penenden Heath was a place of execution in medieval times.
Maidstone played a key role during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The rebel priest John Ball had been imprisoned there and was freed by Kentish rebels under the command of Wat Tyler, who is reputed to have been a resident of the town.
Modern Maidstone incorporates a number of outlying villages and settlements (see Geography below).
The county council offices to the north of the town centre were built of Portland stone between 1910 and 1913. On 29 September 1975 a local pub serving Invicta Park Barracks, The Hare and Hounds, was damaged by a bomb during an IRA campaign in England.
Maidstone General Hospital opened on the outskirts of the town in 1983, replacing West Kent General Hospital, which opened 150 years earlier in Marsham Street. It is just to the north of Oakwood Hospital (originally the Kent County Asylum), which closed in the mid-1990s.
Residents are employed in the retail, administrative or service sectors; there are industrial estates around the town providing employment. Some of the workforce commute to other towns, including to London.
VII. Culture
Radio and television
There are several radio stations based in the town, or which broadcast to it. KMFM Maidstone, formerly CTR 105.6, is the local commercial station. It used to broadcast from studios on mill street, however now broadcasts from the studios of sister station KMFM Medway in Strood. Hospital Radio Maidstone, which broadcasts from Maidstone Hospital, is one of the longest serving hospital radio stations in the UK. Maidstone Radio, which broadcast from the Maidstone Community Support Centre, has recently started to broadcast in Maidstone and is listed as a community radio station. It launched on 7th December 2019 and currently airs online only.
Theatre
Theatres include the Hazlitt Theatre; RiverStage; The Exchange Studio (previously the ‘‘Corn Exchange’’); and the Hermitage Millennium Amphitheatre.
Literature
Maidstone is mentioned several times in Ian Fleming's 1955 James Bond novel, Moonraker. Villain Hugo Drax passes through King Street and Gabriels Hill and later stops at the Thomas Wyatt Hotel. Writer Jack London recounts his visit to Maidstone in his 1903 book The People of the Abyss. Whilst living in the slums of London in the summer of 1902, he heads to Maidstone in search of hop-picking work up the London Road. He finds lodgings with a "Sea Wife" living in the poor quarter of Maidstone, and persuades her and her husband to let him stay in their front room.
Museums
Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery is located in the town centre, near to the Fremlin Walk shopping centre. Operated by Maidstone Borough Council, the museum is open seven days a week, with free admission. The Museum & Art Gallery has a large collection of over 600,000 objects, including collections about ancient Egyptians; archaeology; costume; ethnography; biology; fine and decorative art; geology; Japanese decorative arts and prints; and local history.[35] It also hosts temporary exhibitions.
VIII. Other information
All Saints' Church in the town centre was the collegiate church of the College of All Saints built in 1395 next to the Archbishop's Palace. It is a landmark building[clarification needed] and is one of the largest and widest parish churches in England. It contains a monument to Sir Jacob Astley, the Royalist Civil War soldier and a memorial to Lawrence Washington, great-uncle of George Washington's great-great-grandfather, that includes the stars and stripes in the family coat of arms The college, the church, the palace and the palace's tithe barn are all Grade I listed buildings.
Jubilee Church is an independent Maidstone-based Christian church which forms partnerships not only in Kent, but in Canada and the Ukraine. In the Ukraine it has events with Ockert Potgieter of the Light of the World Church.
IX. Contact information
Mayor/Officer: Cllr Marion Ring.
Tel: 01622 692383
Mail: @maidstonemator(twiiter)
Reference Website:
http://www.maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-services/council-and-democracy/primary-areas/the-mayor/tier-3-primary-areas/about-the-mayor