Maidstone branch serving the paper mills at Tovil. The Medway Valley Walk between Tonbridge and Gillingham passes through the town, following the banks of the river. Between 1928 and 1967, Maidstone had a small trolleybus network. The system had two main routes from the High Street, one along Tonbridge Road to a terminus near the "Bull Inn" at Barming and the other along Loose Road and Sutton Road to Park Wood, with a spur along to Loose village. The town is served by 15 secondary schools, 23 primary schools, and two special schools. Non-selective secondary schools include Cornwallis Academy, Maplesden Noakes,
Maidstone the Hermitage Millennium Amphitheatre. Maidstone is mentioned several times in Ian Fleming's 1955 James Bond novel, "Moonraker". Villain Hugo Drax passes through King Street and Gabriels Hill and later stops at the Thomas Wyatt Hotel. Writer Jack London recounts his visit to Maidstone in his 1903 book "The People of the Abyss". Whilst living in the slums of London in the summer of 1902, he heads to Maidstone in search of hop-picking work up the London Road. He finds lodgings with a "Sea Wife" living in the poor quarter of Maidstone, and persuades her and her husband to let him