From evacuees waving tearful goodbyes to crowds of music fans screaming for the Queen of Pop – if it has happened in Maidstone during the last 150 years, your Kent Messenger has been there to cover it.

If the saying a picture tells a thousand words is true, then some of the Kent Messenger’s photographs through the ages will read like a long and fascinating book when they go on display at a special photographic exhibition next month.

As part of our 150th anniversary celebrations throughout 2009, the KM is bringing you a selection of some of its most memorable and popular images of events which have happened in the area since photographs began, right up to the present day.

From sheep crossing a Maidstone bridge, to the new Maidstone Marker shining out alongside the bridge some 70 years later – the images which stick in your mind for years to come will all be there.

The KM has teamed up with Kent on Canvas, The Mall Chequers and the Kent County Photographic Association to bring you KM News in Pictures - A 150th anniversary exhibition at The Mall Chequers between Monday, April 6, and Saturday, April 11 (Easter Saturday).

It will feature more than 100 images showing a slice of Maidstone life, either taken by the KM, or published by the KM.

There will also be a chance to see just a handful of these pictures in our supplement, to be published in your KM on Friday, April 10.

You will be able to buy copies of the pictures, by visiting the Kent On Canvas website at or by visiting www.kentmessenger.co.uk