News Labour bid
for town seat A FORMER Maidstone gram- mar schoolboy is to challenge Helen Grant for her seat as MP for Maidstone and theWeald. Labour can-
didate Allen Simpson (31) was brought up in East Malling and went to Maid- stone Gram- mar School in
Barton Road, before going to York University to read politics. He graduated in 2005 and
began work in the House of Commons with MP Keith Vaz and later in the House of Lords with Lord Tarsem King. He joined the Stock Exchange
as a political adviser in 2008 and now heads up the business lend- ing public policy team at Bar- clays Bank. He is married to Katy, a for-
mer pupil of MGGS, who is a nurse at the Royal Marsden Hos- pital. They live in Dulwich, south London. Mr Simpson’s parents still live
in Maidstone, which he says he regards as his home town.
downsmail.co.uk
Memorial could mark town’s civilwar bale
MAIDSTONE is to get a new me- morial to mark the last stand of its royalist defenders, subject to plan- ning permission. Cllr Tony Harwood was instru- mental in obtaining grant funding for the £7,000 memorial, dedicated to thosewhodied in this pivotal bat- tle of the second English CivilWar. The memorial would be sited in
the old St Faith’s churchyard (now part of Brenchley Gardens), to which the Royalists retreated in 1648, before surrendering to the Parliamentarians. It is being created by The Stone Shop in East Farleigh, owned by fellow councillor Gordon Newton, and will be a black granite plaque on Kentish ragstone. The plaque will incorporate a few
lines from Richard Lovelace, the Kentish cavalier poet, who fa- mously tore up the petition in favour of Parliament at Maidstone in 1641 – on the eve of the outbreak of civilwar. The decision to erect the memo-
rial came after members of the Sealed Knot re-enacted the Battle of Maidstone – which took place on
June 1, 1648 – in the town centre in 2008 to mark its 360th anniversary. A project team has been estab-
lished to ensure that the Battle of Maidstone memorial is ready for an unveiling by the mayor as close to the anniversary as is possible. Cllr Harwood said: “The Battle of Maidstone and wider Kentish re- bellionwas a contributory factor in the killing of a King, yet many resi- dents have not even heard of the Battle of Maidstone. “Hopefully, this memorial will re- connect local people with their his- tory and ensure that the terrible cost in lives of the civil war is remem- bered.” Cllr Harwood was closely in-
volved with the design and delivery of the Captain Nolan statue at the former Ophthalmic Hospital in Church Street and he hopes this memorial will be just as well re- ceived. Cllr Harwood said: “The planned
civil war memorial and Captain Louis Nolan statue in Church Street mean the county town is acknowl- edging its long and rich history.”
The inscription
“This stone marks the last stand of the Royalist defenders of Maidstone on the storm-lashed night of the 1st June 1648, and serves as amemorial to all those who lost their lives on that long and blood-soaked day.
Battle of Maidstone 1st June 1648 The Great Rebellion - Second English CivilWar (1648 - 1652)
Thus richer than untempted kings arewe, That, asking nothing, nothing need: Though lords of all what seas embrace, yet he Thatwants himself is poor indeed.
Excerpt from'The Grasshopper' by Kentish cavalier poet Richard Lovelace (1618 - c.1658), who tore- up the petition in favour of Parlia- ment at Maidstone in 1641." After the battle, Maidstone lost
one of its then twoMPs as punish- ment for its rebellious act against the puritanical rule of Parliament.
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