Maidstone in the context of "Light industry"

Kent is a ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Greater London to the north-west.

The county has an area of 3,544 square kilometres (1,368 sq mi) and had population of 1,931,684 in 2024. The north-west of Kent is densely populated, with Dartford and Gravesend belonging to the Greater London conurbation and Chatham, Gillingham and Rochester forming a second conurbation around the River Medway; the town of Maidstone is located to their south. The remainder of the county is more rural, and its principal settlements include the city of Canterbury in the north-east, the seaside resort of Margate on the north-east coast, and the ports of Dover and Folkestone on the east coast. For local government purposes Kent consists of a non-metropolitan county, with twelve districts, and the unitary authority area of Medway. The county historically included south-east Greater London, and is one of the home counties.

The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a total distance of 70 miles (113 km). About 13 miles (21 km) of the river lies in East Sussex, with the remainder being in Kent.

The Medway has a catchment area of 930 square miles (2,409 km), the second largest in southern England after the Thames. The map opposite shows only the major tributaries: a more detailed map shows the extensive network of smaller streams feeding into the main river. Those tributaries rise from points along the North Downs, the Weald and Ashdown Forest.

Dover (/ˈdoʊvər/ DOH-vər) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at 33 kilometres (21 mi) from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. The town is the administrative centre of the Dover District and home of the Port of Dover.

Archaeological finds have revealed that the area has always been a focus for peoples entering and leaving Britain. The name derives from the River Dour that flows through it.

KEF is a British company that produces high-end audio products, including HiFi speakers, subwoofers, architecture speakers, wireless speakers, and headphones. It was founded in Maidstone, Kent, in 1961 by a BBC engineer Raymond Cooke (1925–1995). In 1992, the Hong Kong–based Gold Peak Group acquired KEF; and GP Acoustics, a member of Gold Peak, became the owner of the company. KEF continues to develop and manufacture its products in Maidstone.

KEF is named after its original site, Kent Engineering and Foundry. Product development, acoustical technology research and the manufacture of signature products still occurs at the original Maidstone site in England. KEF was the first loudspeaker manufacturer in the world to employ computers in loudspeaker design and measurement. KEF introduced the world's first coincident-source speaker driver, called Uni-Q, in 1988, which is now in its 12th generation; and it is still featured in almost all its speakers today. KEF is the first company in the HiFi industry to use metamaterial to absorb the unwanted sound from the rear of a speaker driver; the technology is called Metamaterial Absorption Technology (MAT).

Tonbridge (/ˈtʌnbrɪdʒ/ TUN-brij) (historic spelling Tunbridge) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, 4 miles (6 km) north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles (19 km) south west of Maidstone and 29 miles (47 km) south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population of 41,293 in 2019.

The Borough of Maidstone is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England. It is named after its largest settlement of Maidstone, the county town of Kent, which is also where the council is based. The borough also includes surrounding rural areas.

The borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the municipal borough of Maidstone with the rural districts of Maidstone and Hollingbourne, under the Local Government Act 1972.

Kent County Council is a county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Kent in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes the unitary authority of Medway. Kent County Council is the upper tier of elected local government, below which are 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council has 81 elected councillors. It is one of the largest local authorities in England in terms of population served and the largest local authority of its type. The council is based at County Hall in Maidstone. It had been under Conservative majority control from 1997 to 2025 when Reform UK took control.

MidKent College (formerly Mid-Kent College of Higher and Further Education) is a further education college in Kent, England. It runs courses from two separate campuses in Maidstone and Medway, including a number of higher education courses. There are approximately 8,500 students aged 16 years and upwards enrolled at the college. Courses offered range from pre-entry level to degree level and cover a wide range of vocational and academic subject areas.