Position

A Borough covers an vicinity usually to the east & south of the town of Maidstone: when far northerly as a M2 motorway; east down the M20 to Lenham; south to a line including Staplehurst and Headcorn; and west towards Tonbridge. Usually speaking, it lies between a North Downs and the Weald, and covers a central a portion of the county. A M20 throughway crosses it from either west to east, when does a Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Geologically, a Greensand ridge lies to the south of the town. A super ticket sand will bring a good source for glass-making. A clay valley beyond, across which flow a iii lakes which meet at Yalding; a chalk - the Medway, the Beult and the Teise; and a chalk N Downs everthing provide raw materials for paper- and cement-making; which are likewise local industries.

Borough divisions

A borough is divided into wards: a bit of wards come in a town of Maidstone populated area; a remainder handle rural dominion.

Town wards

A Maidstone town wards come: Allington; Bridge; Downswood & Otham (1); East; Fant; Heath; High Street; North; Park Wood; Shepway North; Shepway South; and South.

Rural wards

A village wards come: Barming (1) Boughton Monchelsea & Chart Sutton Broomfield & Kingswood Coxheath (1) & Hunton Detling parish Downswood & Otham (1) Headcorn (1) Harrietsham (1) & Lenham (1) Loose Marden & Yalding North Downs Staplehurst (1) Sutton Valence & Langley Thurnham parish (1)

(I) Villages getting the parish council (PC). In wards above Bredhurst; East Farleigh; Stockbury; and West Farleigh also have a.PC. More villages in the dominion, like Bearstead; Boxley; Broomfield; Collier Street; East Sutton; Hollingbourne; Hunton; Linton; Nettlestead; Sutton Valence; and Ulcombe have no parish council.

Communications

Water

A Flow of any stream Medway was a earliest form of transportation through the vicinity. It wwhen navigable for cargo-carrying craft when far upriver as Tonbridge, and it was lone in a 19th century that the railways brought any vary. Extra recently, various works own been carried dead set control a frequent flooding in the clay valley upriver of Maidstone.

Roads

Maidstone, when its importance warranted, has been a hub of roads for several centuries. It lies super around a Pilgrims' Way; and 2 Roman roads met south of the town: one from either Rochester to Hastings the other branching off to the East Kent coast & Dover.

In a 18th Century come the turnpiked roads. One of a earliest in the county - that to Rochester and Chatham - was opened in 1728.

Inside modern days, 2 motorways - a M2 & a M20 - pass to the far northerly of the borough & good n of the town centre of Maidstone severally.

Railways

A earliest line across Kent was built per South Eastern Railway. It was does'nt, notwithstanding, built to pass across Maidstone: instead, the station was built at Paddock Wood, then known as Maidstone Road, occasionally sestet miles away. It was merely in the period between 1844 (after that main line was attached by the spur to Maidstone) & 1884 that Maidstone became the hub once again, although by owning local trains single, to Strood, Ashford and (via Swanley Junction to London.