Visitors arriving at a town’s key rail station are instantly greeted by a statue of a dinosaur.

But Iggy the Iguanodon, who stands proudly outside Maidstone East station, is not the only strange beast to be found in the county town.

A short distance away, in Brenchley Gardens, is Iggy’s offspring - Eggy. The baby dinosaur is only just emerging from his egg.

Continue walking to Maidstone Museum and you will discover Baby Iggy, Eggy’s slightly older sister. At least we think it’s his sister - dinosaurs are quite hard to sex.

The three dinosaurs are all reminders that real dinosaurs once roamed the town - albeit 125 million years ago.

The original Iggy was dug up in a quarry off Queen’s Road, Maidstone, in 1834, and his remains can now be found in the Natural History Museum in London.

Iggy was one of the first dinosaurs ever to be discovered - in fact, his discovery predated the coining of the word “dinosaur” - a fact that Maidstone proudly celebrates by including an image of Iggy on its coat of arms.

Iggy’s bones were identified by palaeontologist Gideon Mantell.

Since that early discovery, our knowledge of dinosaurs has progressed greatly, and Iggy has in fact now been identified as a sub-species of Iguanodon called a Mantellisaurus - named after Gideon Mantell.

Each of the three dinosaurs has a QR plate which will bring up a wealth of historical information. First about Iggy and his discovery, but also about the geological history of the area and its natural history, with more information about the fascinating plants and animals that once lived here and still do.

The statues are part of a Magical Beasts sculpture trail, offering four more beasts to discover during a short walk around the town centre.

Each one has a similar QR plate attached, relaying information about differing aspects of Maidstone’s heritage – offering parents a fun but educational hunt to do with the kids during the summer holidays, or any day.

Moving on from Baby Iggy, head down towards the river to find the Fairmeadow Gremlin.

He’s a rather ugly-looking character, but he’s clearly enjoying his pot of ale.

Clicking on his QR plate will reveal information about the town’s rich brewing past.

Maidstone was once home to the Fremlins Brewery, the Style and Winch Brewery, Mason and Co, Isherwood, Foster and Stacey, and many others.

It’s a tradition continued today by the Goacher Brewery in Tovil and by the Musket Brewery in Boughton Monchelsea.

Stagger on from the Fremlin Gremlin to find the Palace Elephant on the grounds of the Archbishops’ Palace.

There are two elephants on the trail, a reminder perhaps of Gert and Daisy, the two popular elephants that were the star attraction at Maidstone Zoo, owned and operated by Maidstone’s 12 times Mayor, Sir Garrard Tyrwhitt-Drake.

A definitive history of the zoo, which closed in 1962, can be found here.

Clicking on the elephant’s QR plate will tell you the history of the Archbishops’ Palace.

Dating from 1348, it was built in an age when glass was expensive and difficult to produce, and the Archbishops, stopping in Maidstone and at their other palaces, on their journey between Canterbury and London, would carry their own windows with them.

Your own journey should now take you over the Millenium Footbridge to find the remaining two “mystical beasts” at Lockmeadow.

The Lockmeadow Gremlin, who looks a little like a Steam Punk character, has information to reveal about Maidstone’s industrial heritage, particularly the paper-making industry that was once a key feature of the town and which only finally came to a halt with the closure of Whatman’s Springfield Mill in 2015.

A short distance away is the Lockmeadow Elephant, click on him and you can learn all about how the area was once home to Maidstone Market.

It still is of course, but we are talking of a market on a different scale. It included livestock sales of cows, sheep and pigs.

All of the sculptures were designed and created by father and son artists, Gary and Thomas Thrussell.

More information about the trail can be found here.

The sculpture trail was funded by the Government through its shared prosperity fund intended to improve communities and boost their well-being.