Maidstone Cold Brilliant

Riding the route taken from Simon Weir’s Britain for Bikers and exploring some of the local history

[Music] a hi guys and welcome to a another motorcycle Adventure from Kent Outdoors um today we are doing the Britain for bikers Maidstone called brilliant route because I live just outside Maidstone um it’s a 51 mile route and starts in the suburb of Cox Heath so um let’s take a look look at the route and then uh we’ll come back and uh I’ll tell you a little about mid Stone so from Cox Heath we’re heading west straight over Linton Crossroads through Borton Chelsea and turning right on the a274 through Sut Valance to headcorn uh continue on the main road south and eventually we will run through tenton we’ll pick up the a28 um heading then Southwest to neendon where we are going to turn right on the a264 to hawkhurst and then picking up the a229 up towards Cranbrook but before to Cranbrook we’re going to head off left through the lanes cut the corner uh pick up the a262 going through gurst and before we hit the a21 you might have to go around the roundabout here to turn right uh we’re going to head up north through horsemandon up to Ying and then sort of do a little pokery Around The Farley area to get back to Cox Heath so a little bit about Maidstone well stone tools and other evidence tell us that our ancestors were living in the Maidstone area over 400,000 years ago significant finds from the Bronze Age Iron Age and later Roman and Saxon periods provide tantalizing glimpses of what life must have been like for local [Music] people written records do not exist much before the medieval period when the archbishop’s palace overlooking the Midway became the focus of a small settlement but in 1549 Maidstone was recognized as a town when it was granted a royal Charter f 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 Center of Kent it was also a successful industrial town with major brewing and paper making Industries in the 21st century Maidstone is still expanding as a retail and entertainment center [Music] [Music] [Music] so um the first stop on our little route is a little known Castle ruin uh by Sutton Valance and I’m going to read a bit of text from the English Heritage website Sutton Valance Castle was owned by by a succession of important medieval lords the castle was located in a strong position overlooking the road from Maidstone to wind Chelsea and dominating the world of Kent the Norman count of omali Baldwin dethun probably built the castle in the middle of the 12th century it was used as a residence for over 150 years by a succession of important Lords and LS having passed down through various marriages in 1238 the castle was owned by Simon De monford sixth Earl of leester as leader of the baronial Rebellion against Henry III he was killed at the Battle of eam in 1265 and his Estates were confiscated by the crown Henry III then conferred the castle on his half brother William Dev valence as a reward for his support during the Rebellion the village of Sutton or Southtown became known as Sutton Valance William’s son a murder Valance inherited the castle in 1307 and stayed here in June 1315 remarkably three of the valent household accounts have survived these show that the family spent their time constantly traveling between their many Estates in the period between May 1296 and September 1297 Joan deance Williams spent time at eight different residences including a month here at Sut [Music] Valance [Music] oh [Music] hey [Music] he [Music] la [Music] so this is tenton and um in Roman times the world of Kent and much of these Sussex were covered by a huge expanse of forest a Roman from thanet passed through the district but it wasn’t until Saxon times that a settlement was recorded in Old English tenet waren described a den or clearing in the forest belonging to the men of thanet and the town’s name is derived from this ancient identification tenton first rose to affluence as a center for the wall trade in the 13th century in 133 31 Edward III prohibited the export of raw wall and brought Weavers and ders from Flanders to teach the English to manufacture a Finnish cloth and in the subsequent decades Tan’s Prosperity grew despite this relative affluence a number of towns folks supported the peasants revolt and joined wat Tyler’s march on Canterbury and London in 1381 the town unlike other wall centers in the world has the advantage of access to the Sea much of what is now Romney Marsh was under water and ships docked at small height wood from the Wilden forest was used to construct ships and in 1449 tendam was incorporated into the confederation of sink ports as a limb of Rye ships built in the town were then used to help RI fill its quota for the crown as a sink Port tented and enjoyed virtual self-government was exempt from National Taxation and was represented at the coronation of the Monarch the latter privilege is still jealously guarded and the town still retains a mayor but sadly exemption from taxes no longer applies in the 15th and 16th centuries changes in the coastline meant that the sink po s lost much of their influence indeed tenton lost dou access to the Sea and today is some 10 mi from the [Music] coast [Music] a small cach of Bronze Age palstaves found in a ditch close to the Cranbrook Road in 185 5 is the earliest indication of Life at gurst although gurst is not mentioned in the Doomsday Book its Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin is referred to in the Doomsday monachorum of a similar date indicating that there was a settlement here from at least Saxon times the place named gurst is derived from a location of a top of a hill in the former Forest of andr wield the Hurst element referring to the the wooded hill on which it [Music] stands as regards commercial activity in 1309 Edward II granted a license for a weekly market and two annual fairs to be held by the late 16th century there were at least two iron furnaces in gurst and the one situated at bedbury is said to have supplied some of the cannons used to defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588 in 1747 the notorious group of local Smugglers known as the hawkhurst gang were firmly beaten in a battle between them and a group of local inhabitants led by William stur who later became Master of the gurst workhouse overall however gur remained an agriculture natural parish and as the cloth and iron Industries declined and the 19th century dawned hops apples plums and pears joined to the more traditionally grown cereal crops until more recent times galur would have been entirely self-sufficient with its own mix of Trades and Craftsmen from blacksmiths to wheel RS and Bakers to butchers even today the village still has a good selection of shops [Music] and there we go guys we’re back to Cox Heath from where we started so um time to go home and get some tea I guess um stay safe out there but most of all be happy