Maidstone’s civic leaders gathered in the Lower High Street on today for an Armistice Day service and to open the County Town’s newly created Remembrance Square.

The Rev Canon Andrew Sewell, area dean of Maidstone, conducted the service and the Mayor, Cllr Richard Thick, laid the first wreath, followed by Cllrs Malcolm Greer, Denise Joy and members of the public.

The Last Post was played by Kevin Ashman from Bearsted on a trumpet that had been carried into the First World War by a relative of Cllr Dan Daley.

Cllr Daley, a member of the council’s First World War steering group, reminded the crowd of around 100 that the town’s centenary events “never contained a hint of celebration, only of commemoration.”

He said they were an opportunity to think about what had happened and he described the First World War as the most terrible disaster that the human race had ever inflicted upon itself.

He said that the town’s new square was opened to provide the opportunity for thoughtful reflection in the hope that one day all the world’s guns would fall as silent as the Napoleonic canon behind him.

The Mayor cut a ribbon to officially declare the square open.