Maidstone High Street

A Memory of Maidstone.

My first job was at G H Laveys 65 High Street (corner of Mill Street). The store sold clothing for men, women, children's school wear, also an equestrian dept. It covered four floors and even had a lift.

I was 15 years old. My job was to polish the brass counter edges, clean mirrors, sweep the pavement around the shop, and stoke the boiler during the winter months! I was not allowed to speak to customers, my only contact with them was wrapping their purchases in brown paper (no bags) even shirts were wrapped as parcels. My wages were £4 10 shillings a week.

Some time during the 1960s (about 1968) I rember the High Street flooding and the water came up through the drains and flooded the basement to ceiling level.

Next door was the Queens Head public house, opposite was Stuffings the pork butchers, further along was Chiesmans Department Store where at Christmas you went downstairs to see Father Christmas. I've still got the original photos.

The cannon pictured above was actually a traffic roundabout, on Tuesdays it was gridlocked with market day traffic, the market was so important to the town then, people flocked there from the surrounding villages.