100 British Bus Routes: Route 71
Maidstone to Snodland
22 March 2025
ABOVE: Arriva Kent & Surrey 6522 (YX17 NEU, left), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, passes fellow 6535 (YX16 OJF), outside "The Pippin" Public House on London Road in Allington. Both are working route 71 - 6522 is on a short-working journey from Maidstone to Larkfield, whilst 6535 has covered a full trip back from Snodland.
Runs: Daily (no late evening service on Sundays)
Operator: Arriva Kent & Surrey
Weekday daytime frequency:
Every 20 minutes (Maidstone to Larkfield Tesco); every 40 minutes (Larkfield Tesco to Snodland)
Weekday Vehicle Requirement: Five buses
Off-peak journey time (weekdays): 51-55 minutes
Estimated route length: 11-12 miles
Operator: Arriva Kent & Surrey
Weekday daytime frequency:
Every 20 minutes (Maidstone to Larkfield Tesco); every 40 minutes (Larkfield Tesco to Snodland)
Weekday Vehicle Requirement: Five buses
Off-peak journey time (weekdays): 51-55 minutes
Estimated route length: 11-12 miles
Some bus stations play classical music over the tannoy, in order to try to create a calm atmosphere and to push away the hooligans.
The music playing at Maidstone's Chequers Bus Station is not classical. It's modern. And loud. Added to the general gloom of the waiting area, it's far from being a nice place to hang around in.
The Bus Station is basically a two-way bus-only road, Pad's Hill, covered over by the large Shopping Centre, The Mall, that sits adjacent (I think that's where the music is coming from). You'll keep dry when it's raining, but I reckon it's a pretty effective wind tunnel on a stormy day!
And it looks as though my stay here is going to be longer than planned. I've come to catch the 1210 departure on Arriva Kent and Surrey route 71 to Snodland; but it's now 1220 and there's still no sign of it...
ABOVE: Chequers Bus Station in Maidstone sees Arriva Kent & Surrey 6503 (SN66 WHW, left), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, and a fellow Arriva ADL Enviro400 in the general gloom. The crash barriers are used by passengers as impromptu seats.
The largest town in Kent, with a population of almost 110,000, Maidstone's charter as a town was granted in 1549, although there is evidence of settlement here from neolithic times. Maidstone was at one time a centre of industry, with brewing and paper making being among the most important products of the town. Since World War II, the town's economy has shifted towards light industry and services.
But where's my service 71? Although buses run every 20 minutes at this end, the full route only runs every 40 minutes, so it could be a long wait if the 1210 has been cancelled. I almost decide to defer my trip as there's a very tempting service 5, to Hawkhurst, loading up on the other side. But then the 71 appears and parks at the far end of the Bus Station.
It's clear that a driver change is taking place. But, despite the lateness, the changeover is being done properly, as I spot the driver walking right around both decks of the vehicle, and walking around the outside, to check for defects. It is finally brought forward to the stop at 1230, 20 minutes late.
There is not only a driver, but also a chaperone / mentor on board - the driver is obviously new. The 1230 short-working to Larkfield overtakes while we are loading up, and we'll be running in convoy for several miles.
But at least the journey can finally get underway. It's now 1232 as we turn out of the Bus Station.
ABOVE: Arriva Kent & Surrey 6520 (YX17 NEN), an ADL Enviro400 MMC, pulls into the Bus Station, from King Street in Maidstone, working local route 85 from Senacre Wood
Most of the buses on this route are ADL Enviro400 MMCs, but mine is a slightly-older VDL DB300 Wright Gemini 2, new to Arriva Merseyside, and perhaps once used on the Cross-River services through the tunnels to Birkenhead...
It's a beautiful, sunny spring-like day now, and I am definitely over-dressed in my raincoat! We pass along Maidstone's High Street and cross the River Medway. The road to the left, immediately before the river bridge, is Bishops Way, which leads to the Archbishops Palace, a Medieval Palace with roots traced back to before the Domesday Book of 1086. Beyond that is a circa-1395 church, All Saints, with perpendicular Gothic architecture & an historic cemetery.
ABOVE: A glance to the south along the River Medway. The building in the centre foreground is the Archbishops Palace, now a wedding venue. The spire of All Saints Church can just be picked out behind the trees on the left.
After passing Maidstone West station, we turn onto on a broadly northerly trajectory out of town. Traffic is quite slow here, and it's no surprise to find the almost-obligatory temporary traffic lights near "The Pippin" public house. But it gives me an extra moment to appreciate the fine views behind...
We head along the A20 London Road and pass through Allington, a "modern village" that forms part of the built-up area of Maidstone. There's a Castle about a mile from the main road with origins in the 12th Century, but it doesn't appear to be particularly easy to get to, or even to see.
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542), a 16th-century politician, ambassador and lyric poet, was born at Allington Castle. He is credited with introducing the sonnet to English literature, and a bus stop on the main road carries his name.
ABOVE: Arriva Kent & Surrey 6509 (SN66 WJE) is an ADL Enviro400 MMC. It carries a special "Arriva Pride" livery that reminds me of an earlier Arriva livery. The bus is serving the Sir Thomas Wyatt stop in Allington. It also has one of those hideous giant screens restricting the view from the front seats upstairs
A moment later, we pass under the main railway line from Maidstone East towards Borough Green and, ultimately, London.
ABOVE: The main railway line from Maidstone (to the right) towards Borough Green (to the left). The nearest station in this area is Barming, half a mile to our left.
Before we enter the vilage of Aylesford, we pass Royal British Legion Village, a community that was especially created in 1919 to provide housing, welfare support and care to over 300 members of the Armed Forces community. There is a through road into the village so part of me wonders why there doesn't appear to be a bus service running through.
In Aylesford, I'm struck by the contrast between the modern South Aylesford Retail Park, on the left as we go forward, and the quaint little cottage on the opposite side of the main road.
Whilst it would add a few minutes to the journey, it feels quite unusual that the bus does not take a detour to go into the Retail Park. Anyone catching a bus from the Retail Park towards Maidstone therefore has to cross the main road to get to the bus stop. There are some pedestrian crossings but it still doesn't look easy.
The territory is still built-up as we move into Ditton. This long and narrow village is mentioned in the Domesday Book. The village contains a number of listed buildings, including a 12th-century church, an old mill house, and two oast houses. There's also an attractive-looking Fish and Chip Restaurant:
On to Larkfield, reportedly named because of the large numbers of skylarks found in the fields. This is an area that has expanded substantially since the nearby M20 motorway was built in the 1970s.
But there are many older buildings too. Wealden Hall is a 14th-century Grade-II listed public house and restaurant:
The 71 pulls off the A20 here - we have been together since the outskirts of Maidstone. We cross over the M20 motorway and embark on what turns out to be a circular double-run to call at the Tesco Extra at Lunsford Park. This is where alternate buses on the 71 terminate, and we catch up again with the service that departed just ahead of us, which I had lost sight of around Wealden Hall.
ABOVE: Arriva 6522 (YX17 NEU) stands at the Larkfield Tesco short-working terminus of route 71.
It's a curious frequency with through buses every 40 minutes, as this doesn't provide a 'clockface' timetable once the short-workings have been left behind. I wonder whether what is now every 20 / 40 minutes was once every 15 /30 minutes?
If not quite knocking on the door of Snodland yet, we are certainly in the garden. And what a garden! We are in the Garden of England, of course, and we're now passing the edge of the Leybourne Lakes Country Park. Created in 2004, and covering an area of 230 acres, the Country Park features multiple lakes, wildflower meadows, wetlands, hedgerows and scrub.
ABOVE: A view of Ocean Lake, one of the Leybourne Lakes, from Leybourne Way
We reach the edge of Snodland:
Technically this area is Ham Hill; Smodland is a mile down the road and we still have some ground to cover before we reach the terminus...
ABOVE: Nu-Venture 821 (YX59 BYO, "Derek Smith"), an ADL Enviro200, passes the Freemasons Arms on Malling Road in Ham Hill, Snodland. It is working route 151 from Chatham to King's Hill.
We turn off Malling Road to dive into a large residential area of town. The setting of these houses is picturesque; it's all very green around here!
We pass a few people who are waiting for the return service. With the bus now about 25 minutes late, there is a realisation for some that they face a long wait, as this is the bus they are waiting for, and it has yet to complete the inbound trip.
We're actually by-passing the town centre at the moment, and we head further north into Holborough.
There's a bus-only road here, protected by one of those trenches that would ground a smaller vehicle if it tried to pass. The traffic light on this single-file road is red, but the mentor tells the driver to proceed as "it's always red and we can see there's nothing coming".
Holborough Lakes seems to be quite an exclusive community. Created over the last few years - the first properties were available in 2017 - even Google Streetview hasn't been inside.
It looks very unusual for Britain in my experience, and makes me think of the kind of streets that one might find in some parts of the suburban areas of the United States of America (not that I've been)... Or perhaps a Butlin's Holiday Camp?
ABOVE: Holborough Lakes
There's even a gated entrance:
Although Maidstone is to the south-east of Snodland, we're now to the north of the town, so have to turn south to head into town.
Snodland is a town of just over 10,000 inhabitants (as of the 2011 Census). "Snoddingland" was first mentioned in a charter of 838, in which King Egbert of Wessex gave "four ploughlands in the place called Snoddingland and Holanbeorge" (Holborough) to Beornmod, the Bishop of Rochester. An extinct village, Dode, once sat in the hills above Snodland, but was wiped out by the Black Death. All that remains there now is the deconsecrated church, which was rebuilt in the 1990s.
As we enter the town centre of Snodland, there's a rather magnificent Clock Tower; a Victorian structure built "in loving memory of Charles Townsend Hook, owner of the Snodland Paper Mill. I fail to get a decent picture of the tower, but you can see it here.
The Town Centre is quite small, and the retail part is focused on a small area around the junction of Holborough Road, Constitution Hill and the High Street. The bus doesn't even need to stop, and my resulting inadequate photo is below.
The twisting and turning isn't over yet. Having bypassed the town to get to Holborough, we have now bypassed the station and need to turn east and then north again to get to it! We pass over an actual bypass that gives the impression of splitting the town neatly in two.
We reach Snodland Station, the terminus of the 71 service, 25 minutes late, at 1330 - exactly an hour after the bus pulled up in Maidstone.
There's a lovely church on the other side of the railway line; All Saint's Church.
ABOVE: All Saint's Church, Snodland
The return journey should have set off at 1312. It now does so, 20 minutes later than scheduled - at the right time to reach Larkfield just as the next short-working service behind it is due to leave!
ABOVE: Arriva 4452 (MX61 AYL), a VDL DB300 Wright Gemini 2, departs from Snodland on the return route 71 service to Maidstone.
This is a lovely ride, with the hills of the Garden of England forming a backdrop most of the way, and the unexpected delights of Leybourne Lakes and Holborough making it well worth sticking to it right to the end!