The district was formed in 1974 and was originally named Shepway after one of the ancient lathes of Kent, which had covered a similar area.

The district also includes the towns of Hawkinge, Hythe, Lydd and New Romney, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas.

Much of the south of the district forms the low-lying Romney Marsh, an area of land partly reclaimed from the sea.

The district contains the Eurotunnel Folkestone Terminal, the main interchange for road vehicles at the UK end of the Channel Tunnel.

[14][15] The first election to the council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority before coming into its powers on 1 April 1974.

The Romney and Walland Marshes cover a good deal of its area to the west; where the North Downs begin to reach the sea there is much more in the way of settlement.

The district area is the same size as the similarly named Folkestone & Hythe parliamentary constituency, but leaves out the Saxon Shore ward from the neighbouring Borough of Ashford.

[29] The layout of the main towns is one of Victorian streets interspersed with apartment blocks, including a few tower blocks with otherwise housing in the district formed of low-rise apartments, semi-detached, terraced or (less often) detached homes with typically smallholdings or small gardens.

An examples at Grade I is Davison's Mill, a large windmill set by a green rolling lawn.

In economic terms, Folkestone and Hythe is the third most deprived area in Kent, after Thanet and Swale.

Like them, it has a high rate of unemployment; poor educational attainment figures; and with the majority of businesses being small operations.

The A259 south coast road starts at Folkestone via Hythe, Kent and Romney Marsh in the district to Rye, East Sussex, Hastings, Bexhill-on-Sea, Eastbourne, Brighton, Worthing, Littlehampton, Bognor Regis and Chichester to Emsworth near Portsmouth.

Stagecoach South East operate all local buses in the district to Dover, Canterbury, Hastings, Maidstone and Ashford.

Trains go to London Charing Cross via Ashford International and Tonbridge to the west and Ramsgate via Dover Priory to the east.

The western end of the Channel Tunnel is at Cheriton, just west of Folkestone and trains that carry cars are provided by Eurotunnel.

The Royal Military Canal starts at Seabrook, near the sea at Sandgate, and runs through Hythe town centre and the northern edge of the Romney Marsh.