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
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