Made in Maidstone
The County Town is known today mainly for Fremlin Walk shopping and traffic. But it was once a manufacturing hub. Alan Smith looks at the top 10 products for which the town was once famous
1 Custard Powder
Between 1910-1965, Foster Clark Ltd made groceries at its Hart Street factory. Best known for custard power, the firm’s founder George Foster Clark dreamed up the first recipes by experimenting in his mother’s kitchen. The trade name still exists, with Foster Clark Custard Powder now made in Malta.
2 Beer
Style and Winch, Fremlins, Masons and Isherwood, Foster & Stacey were some of the larger firms. Style and Winch brewed from a site near Maidstone Bridge from 1889-1960, though a bottling plant continued to operate until 1974. Tovil still hosts the Goachers brewery.
3 toffee
The “largest toffee factory in the world” was the Kreemy Works factory on the riverbank in the town centre, founded by Sir Edward Sharp in 1911. The company was later taken over by Trebor, which produced sweets there until 1991.
4 CoaChes
Tilling Stevens was the town’s biggest contribution to the motor industry. Established in 1897, its range included coaches, Vulcan lorries and military vehicles. Its factory in St Peter’s Street, now the Powerhub, was built to the same style as Henry Ford’s Highland Park car plant in Michigan. Bought out by Rootes in the 1950s, production stopped in 1975.
5 the uneCar
Walter Bannister invented the Unecar in 1911. A curi- ous cross between a tricycle and a carriage but driven by a 3.5horsepower petrol engine, the two-speed vehicle was seen as particularly suited to women drivers. It was made in Bannister’s workshop in King Street between 1909 and 1912.
6 PaPer
The town’s biggest and oldest industry. The Loose Stream had a number of mills – the most famous was Hayle Mill, whose hand-made Bockingford Paper had an international reputation for quality. Built in 1808, the mill made paper by hand until 1987. Albert Reeds was the biggest firm, with mills in Tovil from 1894 and Aylesford from 1954. Turkey Mill was founded in 1740 and Whatman’s Springfield Mill in 1807; this has only recently closed.
7 furniture
The Len Cabinet Works at Water Lane, which has since disappeared under The Mall shopping centre, used to employ 320 people. In the 1950s, one in every 20 chairs bought in the UK was made in Maidstone. The firm closed in 1976. Nestledown Beds was in Lower Boxley Road from 1886 to the 1980s.
8 traCtors
W.Weeks and Son made agricultural vehicles from its Perseverance Iron Works in Fairmeadow. Established in 1872, it ran until 1971, making tractors and all kinds of agricultural and construction machinery, including stationary engines.
9 steam engines
In the 1890s, haulier and roads contractor Jessie Ellis built the embankment along the Thames in London. In 1897 he began making his own steam wagons from his Invicta Works at Sufferance Wharf, St Peter’s Street. The high- quality machines were sold globally but later lost out to more competitively priced Foden and Sentinel models.
10 Cherry Brandy
Grant’s Morella Cherry Brandy was originally distilled in Dover in 1774 and moved to Hart Street, Maidstone, in 1853. A favourite of Queen Victoria, production stopped in the 1960s when the great- greatgrandson of the company’s founder died. It is now on sale again, made by Shepherd Neame.