Maidstone, proud home of Kentish Men, or is it Men of Kent? Something to do with where you are in relation to the River Medway or something like that. Anyway, it is the proud home of the people of Kent, being the county town of said administrative area. Perhaps I should go back to the backlog. No, push on.
Clock number one is this unusual tower on Broadway, where the road crosses the Medway.
It is somewhat marooned on what is in effect a large traffic island, made worse by the current road works which prevent a close-up inspection.
You can get a completely different angle of view by walking along the river:
By the way, does this upturned chair effect of the top of the tower have any local significance? The motif is repeated in an artwork by County Hall.
The clock was made by Gillett & Johnston in 1899.
It was built on the site of a 7th century church, but the current building dates from 1398.
As well as its clock, All Saints also boasts a sundial. Old technology, hah!
I probably should say more about the church, but I am actually more interested in this fabulous building nearby. Originally a Rootes garage, it is still today selling Peugeot cars.
A walk up the High Street brings us to the Town Hall, which dates from 1763.
Before reaching the Town Hall, turn left into Pudding Lane, At the end of the road you can see the clock under the sign of Fremlin Walk.
Fremlin Walk is a shopping centre, albeit quite nice as it is open-air. It was built on the site of the Fremlin brewery, whose emblem was an elephant. This gateway and its clock are all that remain of the brewery, which was once the largest in Kent.
If you walk under the arch and into the shopping centre you can see the other side of the wall - the clock is less impressive from this side, but I assume that it did not originally have a face as it had a rather useful brewery building all around it.
As I have said many times before, when ever you are drawing blanks in the great clock hunt, you can often rely on Marks and Spencer to come to your rescue.
This is the Maidstone store on Week Street (the home of 7 day shopping!). Week Street, so the leaflet "A Walking Tour of Historic Maidstone" informs me, lies along the line of a Roman road to Rochester. Which is somewhat ironic as none of the three clocks on the street has Roman numerals.
Just along Week Street is this clock on the branch of the Halifax.
I am indebted to Sarah P in the Ashford branch of H Samuel for pointing me in the direction of this one - it is on a busy street and is quite easy to miss (as I had done several times already).
The third clock on Week Street is on the corner of St Faiths Street.
It looks like it was originally illuminated, but at the moment is permanently stuck at 2.23.
Turning down St Faiths Street we see the church of the same name.
Next up is County Hall, and wow what a dartboard of a clock.
The building originally dates from 1910 - 13, with later extensions, and has a fine clock tower.
Finally, the large wall gives a clue that this next clock can be found within the grounds of the prison, which dares from 1812 - 1819.
Part 2 will look at the clocks outside of the town centre.
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