Archbishop's Palace, Maidstone Archbishop's Palace, Maidstone The Archbishop's Palace is an historic 14th-century and 16th-century building on the east bank of the River Medway in Maidstone, Kent. Originally a home from home for travelling archbishops from Canterbury, the building is today principally used as a venue for wedding services. The former tithe barn for the palace (today severed from the palace by the A229), now serves as the Tyrwhitt-Drake Museum of Carriages. The Manor of Maidstone was probably given to the Archbishops of Canterbury as a royal gift during the 7th or 8th centuries. A house on the site of the palace was
Borough of Maidstone for cargo-carrying craft as far upstream as Tonbridge, and it was only in the 19th century that the railways brought any change. More recently, various works have been carried out to control the frequent flooding in the clay vale upstream of Maidstone. Maidstone, as its importance warranted, has been the hub of roads for many centuries. It lies very close to the Pilgrims' Way; and two Roman roads met south of the town: one from Rochester to Hastings the other branching off to the East Kent coast and Dover. In the 18th century came the turnpiked roads. One of the