Maidstone Museum

Maidstone Museum occupies Chillington Manor, a handsome Elizabethan house on St Faith's Street in the centre of Kent's county town. The original 16th-century building was extended in Victorian times and again in the 21st century to accommodate a wide-ranging collection that has grown since the museum opened in 1858 with a bequest from local antiquarian Thomas Charles.

The galleries cover an unusually broad span for a regional museum. Highlights include an Ancient Egyptian section centred on Ta-Kesh, a mummy whose coffin and cartonnage have been studied with modern imaging techniques, alongside a Japanese collection considered one of the most significant in the UK outside London. Visitors will also find fine and decorative art, costume, archaeology drawn from Kent sites, and natural history displays featuring taxidermy and geological specimens.

The museum is also home to the regimental collection of the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, telling stories of local service from the Napoleonic era onward. With timber-framed galleries, a café and a programme of temporary exhibitions and family events, Maidstone Museum makes an easy stop while exploring the town, just a short walk from the High Street, the River Medway and Maidstone East railway station.