County Dossier
Kent
Gateway shire: Kingdom, ports, cathedral.
Kent is a maritime county at the south-eastern tip of Great Britain, steeped in history from its days as a British kingdom before the Romans to its later status as a Jutish kingdom.
At a glance
Kent at a glance
Gateway shire: Kingdom, ports, cathedral.
- Anglo-Saxon realm 5th – 6th Centuries
- Royal and Church centres
- Appears in early chronicles
- Area: 1,611 sq miles
- Population: 2,747,715
- County Top: Betsom's Hill
County Geography
Kent meets Sussex and Surrey on land, faces Middlesex and Essex across the Thames and estuary, and is bounded by sea on its eastern and southern sides. The county runs from London-side ground and Thames marsh through downland and Weald to the Straits of Dover.
The Thames-side edge, the Medway corridor, the North Downs, the Weald, and the eastward opening to the Channel give Kent one of the clearest county shapes in southern England. The county reads as a whole because its landscapes and settlements point toward the same gateway coast.
Map Reference
View Kent on the map
Kent is the county. The map also shows lieutenancies and council areas that use the county name.
The county.
The lieutenancy.
Council areas.
Places and routes
Bromley, Rochester, Maidstone, Canterbury, and Dover show the county from London-side Kent and Medway crossing to county town, cathedral city, and Channel port. Together they show Kent as a full county geography, not just a coastal shorthand.
Connections
Kent’s routes have long followed Watling Street, the Medway crossings, the line of the Downs, and the roads and railways running to the ports. That pattern makes Kent the natural gateway county of south-east England.
Names
- Kent
- County of Kent
County of Kent is the formal historical style. Kent is older than most English shire names because it preserves the identity of the earlier Kingdom of Kent while also serving as the later county name.
Kent appears in early English writing and in Bede, and Domesday records its lathes and hundreds as an established county structure.