Edward Apartment,
Centre, Maidstone

Edward Apartment provides modern, three bedroom accommodation just ten minutes walk from the River Medway, Lockmeadow leisure complex and the town centre.

This fully furnished, self-catering apartment includes one double bedroom with a double bed and en suite toilet and shower room, a second double bedroom with two single beds and a third bedroom with two single beds and an en suite toilet/shower room.

There is also a separate living area, a dining room with seating for six, a master bathroom with a spa bath and separate shower, full kitchen and a large rear garden.

The apartment is serviced weekly or as required (chargeable), and complimentary high-speed internet access is available throughout. A permit is also provided for on-street parking.

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Maidstone is the county town of Kent, England, 32 miles (51 km) south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural county of Kent, known as the Garden of England. There is evidence of a settlement in the area dating back to beyond the Stone Age.

The town is within the borough of Maidstone, and in 2001, the town had a population of 75,000. Maidstone's economy has changed over the years from being involved in much heavy industry: now light industry predominates; and to more service industries.

Neolithic finds have revealed the earliest occupation of the area; and the Romans have left their mark also: the road through the town and evidence of villas. The Normans set up a shiremoot, and religious organisations established an abbey at Boxley as well as hospitals and a college for priests. Today's suburb of Penenden Heath became a place of execution in medieval times.

Maidstone's charter as a town was first confirmed in 1549; although briefly revoked, a new charter in 1551 created the town as a borough. The town's charter was ratified in 1619 under James I, and the coat of arms, bearing a golden lion and a representation of the river, was designed. Recently these arms were added to by the head of a white horse (representing Invicta, the motto of the county of Kent), a golden lion and an iguanodon. The iguanodon relates to the local discovery in the 19th century of the fossilised remains of such a dinosaur which are now displayed in the Natural History Museum in London.

During the Civil War a battle took place here in 1648, resulting in victory for the Parliamentarian forces. Andrew Broughton, who was Mayor of Maidstone in 1649 (and also Clerk to the High Court of Justice) was responsible for declaring the death sentence on Charles I, and today a plaque in Maidstone Town Centre memorialises Andrew as 'Mayor and Regicide' (a killer of kings).

Maidstone has had the right to a town gaol since 1604; the present prison lies north of the town centre and was completed in 1819. Army barracks have been a feature of the town since 1797, when the first was built. The present Invicta Barracks is home to the Royal Engineers 36 Engineer Regiment, which includes two Gurkha field squadrons. From an economic point of view, Maidstone's history has developed around the river, and also the surrounding countryside. Paper mills, stone quarrying, brewing and the cloth industry have all flourished here.

Today Aylesford (on the northwest side of Maidstone) has the largest paper recycling factory in Europe, manufacturing newsprint for the newspaper industry. Until 1998, the Sharps toffee factory of (later part of Cadbury Trebor Basset), makers of liquorice allsorts, was in central Maidstone and provided a significant source of employment. Loudspeaker manufacturer KEF was founded in 1961 in Maidstone on the premises of a metal working operation called Kent Engineering & Foundry (hence KEF). Today, KEF still occupies the same river-bank site. In the late 1990s KEF manufactured a loudspeaker called 'the Maidstone'. The town centre has the largest office centre in the county and the area is a base for the paper and packaging industry. Many high-technology firms have set up on surrounding business parks.

Maidstone is ranked in the top five shopping centres in the south east of England for shopping yields and has more than one million square feet of retail floor space, including the new Fremlin Walk. That shopping arcade opened, on the site of a former brewery, in the centre of the town. It has an area of 32,500 square metres (350,000 sq ft). Other recent developments include the riverside Lockmeadow Centre, which includes a multiplex cinema, restaurants, nightclub, bowling alley, and market square.