County Of Kent England United Kingdom
'The Garden of England'  

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Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. The county town is Maidstone. Kent has land borders with East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London, and a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames estuary. Kent also has a nominal border with France halfway along the Channel Tunnel. Its name came from the Kingdom of Kent.

The two cities in Kent are Canterbury, the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Rochester, the seat of the Bishop of Rochester. However, since 1998 when local government was reorganised, Rochester lost its official city status through an administrative oversight; attempts are now being made to regain it.

Kent, because of its sobriquet "the Garden of England", might be regarded as a picturesque rural county, but farming is still an industry. Hops, a flower used in making beer, is a traditional crop, with picturesque Oast houses dotting the landscape. Over the centuries many other industries have been of importance; some still are. Woollen cloth-making, iron-making; paper; cement; engineering: all have been part of the industrial scene. Fishing and tourism occupy many people, especially the coastal resorts.

Ferry ports, the Channel Tunnel and two motorways provide links with the European continent. There are airports at Manston and smaller airfields at Headcorn, Lydd and Rochester.

Famous residents of Kent have included Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin. Sir Winston Churchill's home Chartwell is also in Kent.

Although the Victoria County History for Kent is limited, an extensive survey of the county was undertaken over a 50-year period by Edward Hasted between 1755-1805. William Lambarde was an even earlier writer, in the 16th century.

According to a marketing campaign conducted by the charity Plantlife in 2002, the county flower of Kent is the Hop.

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