Archbishop's Palace

The Archbishop’s Palace stands beside the River Medway in Maidstone, Kent. Built in the 14th and 16th centuries, the Grade I listed building began as a stopping place for archbishops travelling between London and Canterbury. It later passed through royal hands to Sir Thomas Wyatt, then to the Astley family who enlarged much of the existing structure. In the 17th century the palace became home to the Astley barons before being sold to the Marsham family in the 18th century. For a time it housed a Territorial Army medical school in the early 20th century. The palace’s long history is marked by figures such as Archbishop Ufford who demolished an earlier house in 1348 and Archbishop Morton who improved the building in 1486. Sir John Astley extended the palace in the 17th century and bequeathed it to his descendants. The Kent Garden’s Trust now tends the Apothecary’s Garden, open to visitors on Wednesday afternoons between May and August. The palace is only open to the public on regular Heritage Days. Inside, the E-shaped palace has a two-storey central section of ashlar stone with a projecting porch and timber-framed wings. The south-west façade shows varied stone windows including a large oriel window. Nearby stands a 14th-century dungeon with small windows and an early Norman undercroft. To the north-east is a 13th and 14th-century gatehouse of rubble and timber framing, with a projecting garderobe. The surrounding walls and outbuildings are Grade II listed, and the dungeon appears on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register.