History of Kent
Recent excavations and radiometric dating at a Lower Palaeolithic site at the West Gravel Pit, Fordwich, near Canterbury confirmed the presence of early humans in the area between 560,000 and 620,000 years ago during a warming phase (Marine isotope stage 15).
[4] In June 2023 researchers from UCL Archaeology Southeast over 800 stone tools, including two giant handles dating to over 300,000 years ago, were discovered on a hillside near Medway Valley in Frindsbury near Stroud.
[5] At the time the area was a wild landscape of forests and river valleys with animals including red deer, straight-tusked elephants, lions and horses.
During the Neolithic the Medway megaliths were built and there is a rich sequence of Bronze Age occupation indicated by finds and features such as the Ringlemere gold cup.
Writing of the Britons generally in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico Caesar noted that: "...by far the most civilised are those who inhabit Cantium, the whole of which is a maritime region; and their manners differ little from those of the Gauls".
An Iron Age settlement seems to have formed the basis for the later town of Folkestone, whilst a hillfort of that date seems to be the forerunner of Dover Castle.
They established a bridgehead and commemorated their success by building a triumphal arch whose cross shaped foundations still survive at the site which is now looked after by English Heritage.
Triple ditches and ramparts were dug (still visible round the site of the arch Richborough Roman fort although the defences were completely revamped after a decade or so and Richborough was provided with its circuit of towered stone walls and outer ditches, becoming one of the most important of the Saxon shore forts.
It is likely that some of the native Romano-Britons remained in the area, however, as they were able to influence its name (recorded as Cantia or Cent) even after the settlement of the Germanic tribes.
The early Medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara or Kentish people, whose capital (the only town called a metropolis by Bede[8]) was at Canterbury.
Augustine is traditionally credited with bringing Christianity to Anglo Saxon England, landing at Ebbsfleet, Pegwell Bay on the Isle of Thanet (northeast of Kent) in the spring of 597.
[11] Following the invasion of Britain by William of Normandy the people of Kent adopted the motto Invicta meaning "unconquered" and claimed that they had frightened the Normans away.
The trial, ordered by William I at the behest of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury challenged the Earl's purported landholdings in the county, an event which represented an important attempt by Saxon landowners to reassert their pre-Norman rights and privileges.
This gives evidence to the Invicta legend and seems to support that, at least among smaller land owners and common folk, Normans, were forced to respect Kentish rights and law.
As well as numerous fortified manor houses, Kent has a number of traditional militarily significant castles, including those at Allington, Chilham, Dover, Hever, Leeds, Rochester and Walmer, built to protect the coast, the River Medway or routes into London.
[17] By the 17th century, tensions between Britain and the continental powers of the Netherlands and France led to increasing military build-up in the county.
[19] The 18th century was dominated with wars with France, and the Medway became the prime position to base a fleet that would act against the Dutch and French Coasts.
When the theatre of operation moved to the Atlantic, Portsmouth and Plymouth assumed these roles and Chatham concentrated on shipbuilding and ship repair.
According to the Dr. Paul Wilkinson, the building contained broken stone walls covering huge amounts of box flue tiles, which were used to direct hot air up the indoor walls, glazed terracotta floors, an untouched underfloor with hypocaust heating and tons of ceramic roof tiles.
The new county incorporated part of north west Kent including Deptford, Greenwich, Woolwich and Lewisham.
Much of the Battle of Britain during World War II was fought in the skies over the county, and between June 1944 and March 1945, over 10,000 V1 flying bombs, or Doodlebugs, were fired on London from bases in Northern France.
However, since 1998 when local government was reorganised, Rochester lost its official city status, thought at the time to be through an administrative oversight.
In the early days of the English church it was usual for kingdoms, even large ones like Mercia and Northumbria, to be served by just one diocese, but Kent was unique in having two, Rochester in the west, and Canterbury in the east.
[31] These political divisions may reflect the varying ethnic make-up of the leadership of Kent at that time, the difference being between the Jutes who settled in the east and south of the county shortly after the Roman armies' departure early in the 5th century and the Angles and Saxon who may have settled in the west of the county slightly later, or simply a divided, decentralized Jutish kingdom.
Modern DNA testing suggests the people of Kent have a greater genetic affinity with each other than persons from other counties in England.
They were responsible for introducing the system of inheritance known as gavelkind, whereby all descendants of a deceased person shared the property and belongings equally.
In Saxon law, the eldest child inherited.The history of early Anglo-Saxon England is very uncertain and prone to re-interpretation according to the fashion of the time.
Here once stood an ancient boundary stone, near The Hops and Vine public house – formerly The Belisha Beacon – and since replaced by a milestone that, traditionally, marks the division of Kent into its eastern and western zones.
