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To the west of Dartford, the original village was remote, supremely rural and important only for agriculture. The coming of the railways changed all that and Bexley quickly expanded. Nevertheless it has a long history dating back to 814 when the King of the Mercians granted land here to Wulfrud, Archbishop of Canterbury. Tools and other artefacts from the new Stone Ages, the Bronze and Iron Ages and Roman times have been found. Bexley has some magnificent houses – including Red House, designed by artist William Morris. The foundations of 12th century Lesness Abbey are also on view.

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What is now a residential area was simply farmland at the start of the 20th century, part of the manor of Aperfield which was given to Bishop Odo of Bayeux by his half-brother, William the Conqueror. Today Biggin Hill is a household name thanks to its association with war. Its airfield was used in the First World War and then in the Second when Hurricanes of 32 Squadron and the Spitfires of 72, 94 and 610 Squadrons took part in the Battle of Britain, shooting down some 400 enemy planes. Biggin Hill was also one of the first locations where ground-to-air communications was achieved in 1917.

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Boasting fine shops, Birchington is the largest village on the Isle of Thanet. All Saints Church has a stained glass window commemorating the life of the artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was buried here in 1882.

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Lying at the mouth of the River Medway just 31 miles from London, Chatham was at one time an important naval base after Henry VIII turned a sleepy fishing village into a major dockyard, much of which is now open to the public. Many hundreds of Royal Navy ships, including Nelson’s HMS Victory, were built here. Visitors can travel through 400 years of maritime history at the Museum of the Royal Dockyard and journey to Fort Amherst and its complex of tunnels showing how soldiers of the Napoleonic era lived and fought. The Royal Engineers Museum is one of Britain’s foremost military museums, with 6,000 items, including Wellington’s map of Waterloo. Charles Dickens lived in Chatham as a boy from 1817 to 1821 when his father worked in the naval pay office.

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Once a Roman settlement, the market town of Dartford has a number of beautiful, ancient parishes and many notable buildings. It has a rich industrial heritage and paper making and cement production were important for centuries. Dartford Tunnel takes M25 travellers beneath the River Thames. The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge once held the record as the longest cable-stayed bridge in Europe. Railway pioneer Richard Trevithick died in poverty in 1833 at the Bull Hotel, one of the few surviving galleried inns in Kent.

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One of the Cinque Ports, Deal is today a seaside resort with a natural harbour, shingle beach, promenade and myriad tales of smuggling and shipwrecks on the nearby Goodwin Sands. Its rich history is typified by the town’s low, squat castle which survives as a remarkable example of the defensive system built along the south coast by Henry VIII in the 16th century. Shaped like a Tudor Rose, it was created in response to the Pope’s enthusiasm for a crusade against England and had no less than 145 openings for guns. Julius Caesar is also supposed to have landed here on a reconnaissance mission prior to the Roman invasion.

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The town once supplied most of the fish for London’s markets and its clifftop Norman castle overlooks and protects the harbour as one of the earliest castles containing concentrically-arranged fortifications. Nearby is possibly the earliest Roman lighthouse in Britain while Dover Museum has a re-created Bronze Age boat – the ‘first cross channel ferry’, older than the pyramids. Having long been a gateway to Europe, Dover was the destination for Louis Bleriot when he made his first cross-channel flight in 1909.

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Bleak but enigmatic, the shingle-strewn headland of Dungeness is served by its own airport as well as being a terminus for the miniature Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch steam railway. Dominating the view are two nuclear power stations built in the 1960's, looking like alien structures. Commercial fishing still takes place here and the beach is a haven for sea anglers. A lighthouse is open to the public while nearby is an important RSPB nature reserve.

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The home of Britain’s ‘oldest brewer’, the Shepherd Neame Brewery (established 1698), Faversham is a hop-growing area with a fascinating past. This market town was a flourishing port until silt halted the largest ships. At one time it was also the country’s most important producer of gunpowder. It now has a gunpowder mill restored to its near-working condition. The town has no fewer than 400 listed buildings, including the 16th century Guildhall. Its heritage centre is housed in a 15th century former inn. Close by is the Brogdale Horticultural Trust – home to the largest collection of fruit trees and plants in the world.

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Elegant and colourful, Folkestone was granted a licence as a port in the 17th century and became one of the Cinque Ports. Although it has a vast cross-channel passenger terminal, it has a dual role as a typical holiday resort with grassy promenades and public gardens atop white cliffs that rise to a height of 200 feet. At one time Folkestone provided a safe haven for smugglers but finally came into its own when it was bought in 1842 by the railways for £18,000. Home of science fiction writer H. G. Wells, it was also the birthplace of Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn and the great anatomist William Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood. The most important collection of Battle of Britain artefacts in the country can be found at the Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge, near Folkestone.

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Originally ‘Gylla’s people’s homestead’, Gillingham sits on the Medway estuary and is an industrial town containing large sections of the Royal Chatham Dockyard which closed in 1984. Navigator William Adams (1564-1620) was the first Englishman to visit Japan, becoming a samurai warrior. The novel Shogun is based on his exploits. Firm favourites with visiting families are the Capstone Farm Country Park, which has 280 acres of woods, orchards and meadows in the North Downs, and the Strand Leisure Park.

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Neighbour to a power station and the UK’s second largest deepwater container port, this ancient coastal village lies on The Isle of Grain, which is no longer an island due to silting up of a local creek. Roman tiling is built into the fabric of St James' Church which has a tongue-sticker (a grotesque pagan fertility symbol) over one of its doors. Queen Victoria used Grain as a departure point for trips to Germany and ‘Port Victoria’ was built as a rail station at the end of a line from Windsor. Later Grain became synonymous with oil refining. In 1944 petrol was pumped to Allied invasion forces in France via a seabed pipeline

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A Customs and pilot station for the Port of London, Gravesend is a busy industrial town with one of Europe’s biggest shopping centres. It holds the distinction of being the landing place of the first German flying bomb to strike Britain in World War II. The town’s pier is the oldest cast-iron pier in the world and is linked to the local heritage centre by a pretty Thames-side walk. The Church of St George is the last resting place of the Native American princess Pocahontas (1595-1617), whose statue stands in the grounds. She came to Britain with her husband, the Virginian colonist John Rolfe.

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Lying on the Thames estuary, the former fishing village of Herne Bay is proud of its award-winning beaches stretching along a seven-mile seafront. In common with many other coastal towns it was turned into a holiday resort by the ever-enterprising Victorians. While landlubbers can enjoy an annual Punch and Judy festival each summer, lovers of the sea can seal-watch, join the angling fraternity or take part in numerous water sports in the bay. Blean Woods is one of the most important ancient woodlands in England.

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A former Cinque Port, Hythe is located in a sweeping bay and is popular with devotees of water sports. Although its harbour has disappeared, boats still land their catch on the beach, as they have for centuries. In the early 19th century, the Royal Military Canal and Martello Towers were built as defensive structures while The Roughs are the site of early experiments into aircraft early warning systems using concrete bowls to pick up sounds from aircraft approaching the coast. The Church of St Leonard, standing on the site of an earlier Norman building, is one of the finest parish churches in the county, dating from around 1080 AD. Saltwood Castle is notorious as the place where the knights who murdered Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral met on the previous night to plan their shocking crime. St. Leonard’s Church has an unusual crypt and a macabre collection of bones and skulls. Despite its seaside heritage, Hythe is also the home of Mackeson milk stout!

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The 2,000-acre ‘island of sheep’ lies on the south bank of the River Thames at the mouth of the River Medway. Separated from the mainland by the River Swale, it is about 10 miles long and eight miles wide and is joined by a bridge. Sheep still graze here on reclaimed pastures. Its northern edge is lined with beaches (including a naturist beach). Most of Britain’s imported cars reach us via Sheerness docks at the island’s north western tip. Sheppey is a haven for birds and has an RSPB site at Elmley Marshes, as well as the Swale National Nature Reserve.

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At the southern edge of Romney Marsh, it was once a coastal town but is now three miles away from the sea. The 132-ft tower of the 14th century Church of All Saints is called the Cathedral of Romney Marsh and dominates the flat landscape. A former rector was Thomas (Cardinal) Wolsey. The explosive lyddite was developed here.

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A Cinque Port and playground for thousands of Londoners, the resort of Margate has a fascinating heritage brought to life via displays at a number of museums. It was the pioneer of seaside holidays and became the first resort to have donkey rides (1790) and deck chairs (1898). The covered bathing machine was also invented here in the 18th century. With a sandy beach stretching nine-miles, and a grotto containing four million shells, Margate is the real seaside deal!

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A small, pretty village, Minster’s beach is a powerful lure for surfers. Above it is a hilltop church and a museum housed in the surviving gatehouse of a 12th century Benedictine abbey. The highest point on the Isle of Sheppey, it also offers visitors breathtaking views.

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Home to Britain’s only Royal Harbour, Ramsgate became a holiday resort in the 19^th century and offers a rare mixture of seaside traditions and maritime heritage. It has golden sands, a modern marina, stunning bays and cliff tops that cry out to be explored. It was granted royal status for its harbour in 1821 following a visit by George IV. Ramsgate Maritime Museum depicts many aspects of East Kent’s sea-going history. St Augustine’s cross marks the landing place of the saint. The Gatehouse Museum contains a model of Queenborough Castle which was destroyed on the orders of Parliament.

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Once a cross-Channel port, red-roofed Rye is now marooned thanks to centuries of silt. It has picturesque buildings and cobbled streets. Most famous resident was author Henry James who lived in Lamb House from 1898 until his death in 1916. Another resident, writer E. F. Benson, made Rye the backdrop to his ‘Mapp and Lucia’ stories and became its mayor in the 1930's.

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Once England’s most important seaport (the town is now two miles inland), Sandwich is one of the UK’s best-preserved medieval towns. It was from here that Thomas Becket fled to France and Richard I landed on his return from the Crusades. The town was constantly raided by the French who partly burned it down in the 15th century. That gastronomic delight ‘the sandwich’ owes its title to the Earl of Sandwich, John Montagu, who liked cold roast beef between two slices of toast at the gambling tables. Royal St George’s Golf Course, where the Open Championship has been held, lies between the town and Sandwich Bay. One of its members was Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, who used it as a setting in ‘Goldfinger’. English Heritage manages Richborough Roman Fort which marks the point where the Romans launched their successful invasion of our shores in 43AD.

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The Sheerness Heritage Centre is a must-see for anyone wishing to investigate the history of the ‘capital’ of the Isle of Sheppey, a naval dockyard from the time it was put on the map by Charles II in the mid-17^th century until its closure in the 1960s. It is now a huge container port and the disembarkation point for most of Britain’s imported cars.

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A former coaching town well used to catering for travellers – it was a stop-over for Canterbury pilgrims – it is now the administrative seat of the Swale district and gateway to the Isle of Sheppey, Henry V rested here on his way from his victory at Agincourt. In modern times the town became famous for the manufacture of brick and paper as well as sailing barges. Its industrial past is brought to life at The Court Hall Museum and the Sittingbourne Heritage Museum. Nestling nearby in picture-postcard settings are thatched-cottage hamlets and centuries-old churches.

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A one-time Cinque Port, Tenterden today lies 10 miles from the sea but has retained its Kentish charm and is still dominated by the distinctive tower of the 12th century St. Mildred’s Church. Arguably one of the county’s most picturesque towns, it was originally nothing more than a forest clearing. It eventually rose to fame as a centre for the wool trade and profited from Edward III’s decision in the 14th century to ban the export of raw wool and use foreign craftsmen to teach Englishmen the skill of producing finished cloth. Despite its relative affluence a number of local people joined Wat Tyler’s Peasant’s Revolt.

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Tilbury has been a port since ancient times and is now the main container port for London. It was here in 1588 that Queen Elizabeth I famously pointed out that although she had the body of a weak and feeble woman she also possessed the heart and stomach of a king. Her comments were made in a speech to troops setting out to defeat the Spanish Armada. Earlier the huge Tilbury Fort had been built to prevent invasions from Holland and France.

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The town’s origin probably dates from Roman times and later the Anglo-Saxons established a settlement here. A market town for centuries it lies between the North Downs and the Weald on the River Medway. English Heritage manages a ruined Norman castle which houses the tourist information centre. Tonbridge offers the visitor numerous walks and is a stop on several major walks, including the 80-mile Wealdway Walk.

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