Will Adams Memorial & Clocktower

The clocktower stands in Maidstone's town centre like a proper Victorian statement - solid, no-nonsense, and easy to miss if you're rushing past. It's the Will Adams Memorial, honouring the Kentish navigator who sailed to Japan in the early 1600s and became the first English samurai. Sounds daft when you say it like that, but it's genuinely one of those British colonial stories that still feels impossibly strange.

You don't need hours here. A quick walk around the base takes five minutes, maybe ten if you stop to read the inscriptions and actually absorb what Adams achieved. The tower itself catches the light nicely in the afternoon, and the location means you're already in the heart of town - easy enough to combine with a proper look around Maidstone's shops or grab a coffee nearby.

History types will find it worthwhile, particularly anyone interested in early maritime exploration or the oddball corners of English influence abroad. Kids will think the Japan connection is interesting for about four minutes, then want to move on. It's free to view from outside, obviously.

If you're basing yourself at Kits Coty Glamping or Oak View Holiday Park nearby, the memorial makes a straightforward ten-minute drive into town. Not a reason to plan your whole day around, but absolutely worth stopping at if you're already exploring Maidstone. The story behind Adams is stranger than most tourist attractions manage.