History of Kent
is a traditional county in South East England with long-established human occupation.
Prehistoric Kent
The discovery of stone tools at the Lower Palaeolithic site of Chequer's Wood and Old Park, near Canterbury, provides the earliest evidence of human occupation in Kent, as early as 712,000–621,000 years ago. The early human species who made these tools was likely Homo antecessor or Homo heidelbergensis. This is the earliest securely dated site with Acheulean stone tools in northern Europe. The Old Park site is also important for retaining evidence of very early Neanderthal populations visiting Britain during the Anglian Glaciation, the most severe glaciation of the last two million years. Although they likely visited during the brief, warmer interstadial periods within this broader ice age period.The Swanscombe skull, uncovered at Barnfield Pit, a quarry in Swanscombe, is the oldest human skull found in Britain. It is difficult to say much about the three fragments of skull from one individual, as they are all from the rear of the skull, but Chris Stringer suggests that they come from a female, some of whose characteristics suggest she is from a population ancestral to Neanderthals. It dates to the Hoxnian Interglacial, a warming period 400,000 years ago.
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 Strood. 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.
Iron Age Kent
The name Kent probably means 'rim' or 'border', regarding the eastern part of the modern county as a 'border land' or 'coastal district.' Historical linguists believe that the proto-Indo-European root *kanthos could not pass into a Germanic language with its initial K sound intact, so the word must have passed via an intermediate language, either Celtic or Latin. Julius Caesar described it as Cantium, although he did not record the inhabitants' name for themselves, in 51 BC. His writings suggest localised groups of people whose chieftains were flattered by his description of them as 'kings'. 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". Pottery studies indicate the county east of the River Medway was inhabited by Belgic peoples who were part of an economic and cultural region embracing south east England and the lands across the English Channel.The extreme west of the modern county was occupied by other Celtic Iron Age tribes; the Regni and possibly another ethnic group occupying The Weald known today as the Wealden People. During the late pre-Roman Iron Age the names of a few British kings are known, such as Dumnovellaunus and Adminius. 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.
Roman Kent
Although now two miles from the sea amid the marshes of east Kent, Richborough Roman fort was arguably the Romans' main entry point when they invaded Britain in circa AD 43. 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.Roman Britain was under attack by Saxon and other raiders in the 3rd century and it became necessary to fortify the once-prosperous commercial port of Rutupiae. 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 was one of the last to be regularly occupied and there is evidence of a large Roman population here in the early 5th century, some of them worshipping in the early Christian church discovered in a corner of the fort.
Early Medieval Kent
Following the withdrawal of the Romans, a large-scale immigration of Germanic peoples occurred in Kent. These groups introduced the Old English language to Britain. It is likely that some of the native Romano-Britons remained in the area, however, as they were able to influence its name even after the settlement of the Germanic tribes. East Kent became one of the kingdoms of the Jutes during the 5th century. The early Medieval inhabitants of the county were known as the Cantwara or Kentish people, whose capital was at Canterbury.Canterbury is the religious centre of the Anglican faith, and see of Saint Augustine of Canterbury. Augustine is traditionally credited with bringing Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England, landing at Ebbsfleet, Pegwell Bay on the Isle of Thanet in the spring of 597.
A lathe was an ancient administration division of Kent, and may well have originated during the Jutish colonisation of the county. These ancient divisions still exist, but have no administrative significance today. There were seven Lathes in Kent at the time of the Domesday Book, which reveals that in 1086 Kent was divided into the seven lathes or "lest": Aylesford, Milton, Sutton, Borough, Eastry, Lympne and Wye. For administrative, judicial and taxation purposes these units remained important for another 600 years, although by 1295 the number of lathes had reduced to five: Borough and Eastry were merged to form the Lathe of St. Augustine, the lathe of Lympne was renamed the Lathe of Shepway, the lathes of Milton and Wye were merged to form the Lathe of Scray. Each of the lathes were divided into smaller areas called hundreds, although the difference between the functions of lathes and hundreds remains unclear.
Medieval Kent
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. This claim was given credence by the fact that the Normans had quickly marched to London without subduing the Kentish lords and peasantry, constantly harassed and ambushed by the Kentish populace at every turn. Kent did not submit to Norman rule until their rights and privileges had been acknowledged and unmolested. As a result, Kent became a semi-autonomous County Palatine under William's half-brother Odo of Bayeux, with the special powers otherwise reserved for counties bordering Wales and Scotland. A decade after the Norman Conquest, Penenden Heath near Maidstone was the scene of a successful trial of Odo of Bayeux. 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.Gavelkind was an example of customary law in England. After the Norman Conquest, gavelkind was superseded by the feudal law of primogeniture in the rest of England, but in Kent gavelkind meant that on death, a man's property was equally divided amongst his surviving sons, which led to land being divided into ever smaller parcels. Therefore, the strip system of farming in open fields was never established in Kent. This gives evidence to the Invicta legend and seems to support that, at least among smaller landowners and common folk, Normans, were forced to respect Kentish rights and law. Gavelkind was finally abolished by the Law of Property Act in 1925.
Canterbury became a great pilgrimage site following the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, who was eventually canonised in 1246. Canterbury's religious role also gave rise to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a key development in the rise of the written English language and ostensibly set in the countryside of Kent. Rochester had its own martyr, William of Perth, and in 1256 Lawrence, Bishop of Rochester travelled to Rome to obtain William's canonisation.
During the medieval period, Kent produced several rebellions including the Peasants' Revolt led by Wat Tyler and later, Jack Cade's rebellion of 1450. Thomas Wyatt led an army into London from Kent in 1553, against Mary I.
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.
Early Modern Kent
The Royal Navy first used the River Medway in 1547 when a storehouse was rented on 'Jyllingham Water'. By the reign of Elizabeth I a small dockyard had been established at Chatham. By 1618, storehouses, a ropewalk, a drydock and houses for officials had been built downstream from Chatham.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. Forts were built along the coast following a raid by the Dutch navy on the shipyards of the Medway towns in 1667. Kent also played a significant role in the English Civil War around 1648.
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. Many of the Georgian naval buildings are still extant. In peacetime the work force at Chatham Dockyard was reduced to a quarter of its wartime roll.
Chatham Dockyard built over 400 naval ships including in the age of ships of the line, ironclads including 1905, and 57 submarines, while also refitting ships. The keel for HMS Victory was laid at Chatham on 23 July 1759. During World War II, Chatham refitted 1360 warships such as HMS Ajax. Charles Dickens' father worked in the dockyard, and Chatham, Rochester and the Cliffe marshes were to feature in many of his books.
As an indication of the area's military importance, the first Ordnance Survey map ever drawn was the 1 inch map of Kent, published in 1801. Work on the map started in 1795.
In the early 19th century smugglers were very active on the Kent coastline, with gangs, such as the Aldington Gang bringing spirits, tobacco and salt to Kent, taking goods like wool across the English Channel to France.
On Saturday night, 28 August 1830, a widespread uprising by rural workers began in East Kent, with the destruction of threshing machines in the Elham Valley area and by the third week of October, over one hundred machines had been destroyed.
The uprising, that eventually became known as the Swing Riots, spread across southern England and East Anglia. The general unrest, particularly about the state of the workhouses, was instrumental in the introduction of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834.