The Battle of Maidstone
You could if you want follow the route of the parliamentarian forces under Fairfax as they made their way to Maidstone. You could start at Blackheath or Rochester but if you only had a day why not start at Aylesford (go to the Little Gem pub it is great. It is also in a 12th century building.
Then you follow signs to Barming via Hermitage lane going down the hill just as the roundheads did. Then you reach East Farleigh and can storm the bridge, which is narrow and often has cars on. Then up the hill. The next bit is tricky as if you turn left and follow the road to Maidstone you will run out of footpath. Eventually however you will reach Tovil and then onto the county town and head towards the Archbishops Palace. It is around here that the real fighting started which lasted five to six hours. You can then walk up Gabriels Hill marvelling at what a slog that must have been under cannon fire and pouring rain.
The final spot is at St Faith’s Church where you can see the last spot of resistance the royalists put up. If you are thirsty in Maidstone then you can go the Thirsty Pig which apparently has a cavalier ghost roaming it’s rooms or just go to the Cellars which is unconnected to the Battle but is great and I do the quiz there. If you are hungry you can eat at Andrew Broughton the regicides old house. Or at least you could when it was an Ask they are refurbishing it at the moment not sure what it is going to be.
If you wanted to learn more then you can have a look at:
Alan Bignell Tales of Old Kent has a short section on it but watch out for some of the numbers of troops he uses because they are a bit off
JM Russell’s The History of Maidstone which has some good first hand accounts.
Diane Purkiss The English Civil War which is great on the social aspect of the Civil War even if there is not much on the Kentish aspect.
Of course if you are baffled by the whole reason why this section of the Civil War occurred you can always watch my video on the Plum Pudding Riots.