June 2025

Sir Hugh Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake, 12 times Mayor of Maidstone, has secured his place in local history with two major achievements. He founded a zoo that attracted thousands, including the young Princess Elizabeth – later Her Majesty the Queen – for nearly 20 years. The zoo closed in 1959. But his second huge achievement is still giving pleasure to visitors, an outstanding legacy to the County Town. His Carriage Museum opened in 1946 and nearly 80 years later, is free to visit every Saturday in summer for all to enjoy.

As Samantha Harris, Maidstone Museums’ Collections Manager explained in her talk in the Friends Shop, Fremlin Walk, on June 12, 2025, it is a British and European treasure, containing rare vehicles from the late 1700s. This unique collection would have been lost but for Sir Hugh’s foresight and tenacity. Carriages had fallen out of fashion. Many were broken up with only their lanterns retained for antique shops to sell. One ended up as a chicken coop. Sir Hugh thought this a sacrilege and wrote to The Times, appealing for carriages to be saved. He was inundated with offers from far and wide, so many that he needed suitable premises. He found the stables opposite the Archbishop’s Palace and set up a public subscription fund to buy the stables. As Sam said, the building was “saved by the people of Maidstone.” Maidstone Museum’s job is to conserve, not restore. So all bar one of the carriages are in a fragile state and cannot be used. The only one in regular use conveys the new Mayor in his or her annual parade to All Saints Church. Regarded as “the best original condition carriage museum in Europe,” it houses 60 carriages, some on loan from the Royal Collection and the Victoria & Albert Museum. 

One, never used since it was bought by a Scottish earl in 1825, takes its place alongside Queen Victoria’s Fifth State Landau, her Phaeton that transported her in the grounds of Osborne House (Isle of Wight), the Duke of Montrose’s State Chariot (1790), an Irish Jaunting Cart and many others. As Sam said, Sir Hugh’s legacy has left Maidstone with “the finest collection of carriages in Britain” that is “internationally significant.” Well worth a visit.