The ever-resourceful restaurateur and entrepreneur James Bailey has delved into the history of the county town to discover a new way to mark the Queen’s Jubilee.

Mr Bailey, who runs the Barge Restaurant on the Medway by The Archbishop’s Palace, has discovered that back in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, one newborn Maidstone baby was christened “Jubilee” to mark the occasion.

When he was 10, Jubilee Briggs started work on the ferry crossing service that then ran between The Horseway, next to All Saints Church, and the opposite bank of the River Medway at Lock Meadows, as it then was.

He worked the ferry from 1897 until the mid-1940s, through both world wars.
Because of Briggs’ name and its history, the ferry crossing was known locally as the Jubilee ferry boat.

Mr Bailey's company, Greenleaf Leisure, will repeat history by launching a new boating operation trading as “Jubilee Boats” from the same location.

They have already been running over the weekend.

Mr Bailey added: "Until Tuesday families will be able to park at Lockmeadow and cross the River Medway in one of our new electric solar-shuttle boats, all for Jubilee Briggs’ original price of 1p (although then it was actually 1d).”
The ferry will run between 10am and 5pm each day.

After the Queen’s celebrations are over, the boats will provide a new morning and evening shuttle boat service that will pick-up commuters from Tovil and take them downriver to the Maidstone East or Maidstone Barracks train stations.