Rochester Bridge a few thousand pounds to more significant grants. In particular, contributions have been made to the restoration of many important historic buildings in Kent. The most recent of the larger grants have been for the restoration of the South Transept of Rochester Cathedral, and to appoint a Professor of Bridge and Tunnel Engineering at the University of Greenwich (Medway Campus). In the 1880s, the Trust founded Rochester and Maidstone Girls Grammar schools and made large endowments to the Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School in Rochester and the Maidstone Boys Grammar School. The Bridge Chapel was built in 1383. It stopped
Maidstone was reported at the time that inhabitants were bitterly opposed to the railway, the mayor suggesting that "Maidstone will be ruined as a commercial town". It was said that wharfingers and corn and coal merchants would be hardest hit. In 1842, the South Eastern Railway, to reach the Channel ports of Folkestone and Dover, put its main line through Tonbridge and Ashford, some to the south. A station named Maidstone Road was built in an isolated spot called Paddock Wood, from where coaches were run to the county town. Two years later a branch line was built to Maidstone. In