Maidstone, Kent

Maidstone Zoo

I remember going to Maidstone Zoo, I believe it's location was Detling Hill, the old road going downhill from what is now the Kent showground. If I remember rightly there was a lift system in which was pulled up and down by elephants, I think I must have been 7 or 8 at the time. I lived on the Isle of... [more]

Thomson Darge, Nurseryman, Seedsman & Florist

From around 1906 to 1969 my grandfather - Thomson Darge - ran his business at Borough Nurseries, 8 Tonbridge Road (opposite the Council offices) with my late father George(Cecil) Thomson Darge - I carry my Grandfathers only christian name(Scottish origin) Thomson as my middle name - anyone with any similar memories??

Maidstone Zoo

I remember as a child going to Maidstone Zoo on the bus from Sittingbourne with my parents. We did this about once a year - I think it was always on a Sunday. I was born in 1951 so don't remember the early 1950s. What I'm having trouble with is trying to locate where it was, and also what is there... [more]

BUTTERFLIES

I believe my great uncle Edward Goodwin of Canon Court, Wateringbury, donated his Butterfly and Moth Collection to the Maidstone Museum on his death in 1934. Since that time I think the museum was burnt down, and of course, the butterfly collection too.

Ashby's

I remember there being an Ashby's in Tonbridge Road down the road from the old trolley bus depot. My grandfather worked there as a cashier.

Notes from the Frith files.

Ashby's was a grocery business started by Stephen Ashby in the 1920s. It was then run by his son Aubrey Ashby until the late 1950s when it was sold.

Great Great Grandfather

Actually previous to 1860's. My Great Grandfather was born Under-the-Cliffe, Maidstone in 1845. His name was Thomas Ackworth Parker and his parents were Thomas Edward Parker and Susanna Elizabeth Parker, formally Ackworth. I assume this is what is now known as the Undercliffe.

Mote Park. Our Backyard.

From the age of seven Mote Park was almost our backyard.  We lived in Plains Avenue, just a few houses from the park keeper's lodge. We could also get to Mote Park by climbing over the fence at the bottom of our garden which led across allotments to Mote Park. I spent weeks wandering there and playing by the lake and... [more]

Kent Photographic Memories

The county town of Kent stands on the banks of the River Medway. The oldest building, the Bishop's Palace, fronts the river beside the great medieval church of All Saints. Maidstone has been an important market town since the Middle Ages, although today it is also an important industrial centre. Much of its medieval heart survives, including buildings such as the museum.

Kent Photographic Memories

This photograph shows the drinking fountain and the statue of Queen Victoria, which dates from 1862. To the left is Bank Street, separated from the High Street by a block of buildings - these have infilled the formerly very wide High Street.

Maidstone Photographic Memories

in this book show a vanished Medway, with timber rafts towed by barges outside the Archbishop's palace, a once-familiar scene of the river as an industrial highway that is no more. Maidstone was the head of navigation of the Medway for centuries. This was because the river's upper reaches were crowded with fisheries and mills that impeded navigation. None the less, by the 1580s the river could be navigated as far... [more]