The Lathe of St Augustine is an historic division of the county of Kent, England, encompassing the present-day Districts of Canterbury, Dover and Thanet.
[1] The Lathes of Kent were ancient administration divisions originating, probably, in the 6th century, during the Jutish colonisation of the county.
[5] The Lathe was an important administrative, judicial and taxation unit for 600 years after the Domesday Book.
[7] The Sheriff toured the county twice yearly attending on the lathes.
However the Lathe court became anomalous as it fell between the hundredal courts below and the Justices of the county (in petty and quarter sessions) above [8] The Lathe of St Augustine had an area of 166,760 acres (260 sq.