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 river to allow clothes to be rinsed in the cleaner water away from the banks. Neolithic finds have revealed the earliest occupation of the area, and the Romans have left their mark in the road through the town and evidence of villas. The Normans set up a shire moot, and religious organisations established an abbey at Boxley, hospitals and a college for priests. Today’s suburb of Penenden Heath was a place of execution in medieval times. Maidstone played a key role during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The rebel priest John Ball had been imprisoned there and was freed