Kent

Kent is one of the oldest counties, having been a kingdom in Saxon times. (See Kent, kingdom of.) It has always been of great importance because of its strategic position as gateway to the continent. It is comparatively little known, since the millions who pass through it hurl themselves towards the ferries or the tunnel.

The shire was defined by the Thames and its estuary to the north and by the coast to the south and east. The border with Sussex followed the rivers Teise and Rother, and the western border with Surrey was largely the watersheds of the rivers Ravensbourne, Darent, and Medway. The north downs running from west to east end in the chalk cliffs of Dover. There has been considerable silting of the coast: the Isles of Grain, Sheppey, and Thanet are now united to the mainland, while many once flourishing ports and harbours such as Lydd in the south-west are now miles from the sea.

In pre-Roman times, the inhabitants were the Cantiaci, a group of tribes who offered serious resistance to Caesar's two expeditions. The name Cantium goes back at least to the 4th cent. bc and seems to be of Celtic origin, meaning border or coastal land. The main Roman port was Richborough (Rutupiae), where the ad 43 expedition landed, and where there remains a remarkable Roman lighthouse. A major road ran from the port to Canterbury (Durovernum) and crossed the Medway at Rochester (Durobrivae), before reaching London. It was later known as Watling Street.

In the middle of the 5th cent., the area was overrun by Jutish settlers and a kingdom established. Æthelbert pushed Kentish power to its height, occupying London and taking control of the East Saxons. He converted to Christianity and founded the sees of Canterbury (597) and Rochester (604). Later kings of Kent found it difficult to sustain their independence against powerful neighbours and fell under the domination, first of Mercia, then of Wessex. Kent became a subkingdom or province and, at length, a county. In the 9th cent. the region suffered severely from Viking raids but there was little Scandinavian settlement.

Kentish society had a number of unusual features. The shire was divided into five large divisions or lathes and then into more than 60 small hundreds. The local custom of gavelkind supported equal inheritance and Kentish men had a reputation for independence. How dangerous this could be to governments was demonstrated in the Peasants' Revolt (1381), Cade's rising (1450), and Wyatt's rebellion (1554). As late as the 1720s, Defoe commended the sturdy Kentish yeomen, ‘the graycoats’, who could turn any election and were treated by the gentlemen with great respect. The east–west division of the shire, hinted at by the establishment of two bishoprics, continued strongly. There was a convention that representation in Parliament should be shared between east and west and JPs normally exercised their authority only in their own half. Quarter sessions were at Canterbury for east Kent, Maidstone for west Kent.

By Domesday in 1086, Dover had developed as an important borough, along with Canterbury and Rochester. Also of significance were Romney, Hythe, and Sandwich, subsequently recognized among the Cinque Ports, and given special privileges in exchange for heavy defence responsibilities. The close association with the continent after the Norman Conquest brought the shire considerable prosperity, and more came with the development of the royal dockyards. By 1801 the largest towns in the shire were Deptford (17,000), Greenwich (14,000), and Chatham (10,000). Production for the ever-growing London market encouraged orchards, market gardens, hop-fields, and the rearing of sheep and cattle. Whitstable was renowned for its oysters. But as the remorseless growth of London continued, the balance of population in the county shifted to the north-west. Lewisham with 4,000 people in 1801 had 174,000 in 1921; Deptford had risen to 119,000, Plumstead to 76,000, Bromley to 68,000. Another rapid development was Gillingham with 95,000. In 1888 Kent lost a slice of London suburbia to the new London County Council, and in 1965 Erith, Bromley, Bexley, Chislehurst, and Orpington were moved out into the Greater London Council. Neither the Local Government Act of 1972 nor the Banham commission report of 1994 proposed any changes in the county, but Medway (Chatham, Gillingham, Rochester) has been made a unitary authority.

J. A. Cannon