Kent's historic landscapes

Kent's historic landscape has evolved over thousands of years. The natural geology of Kent is extremely varied and has led to diverse natural landscapes including coastal plains, river valleys, chalk downland, and woodland.

These can be viewed on the Kent Landscape Information System website.

Onto this canvas are imprinted the activities of people. Historic landscapes are very much man-made; the settlement patterns, road networks, industrial land, parkland, monuments and burial sites. They include the World Heritage site of Canterbury, numerous parks and gardens and historic battlefields.

The wider landscape has distinctive character areas, for example:

• Neolithic megalithic monuments within the Medway Valley
• Prehistoric barrows over the Kent downland
• The reclaimed marshes of Romney Marsh
• Industrial areas fronting the rivers
• Military and national defence landscapes of airfields and a network of forts
• The local historic landscape - the distinctively Kentish village green or well-known views of the church or pub.

These are all uniquely Kentish landscapes and historic - they represent something from our past, a connection to our ancestors.

Essentially, the whole of Kent is a mosaic of different historic landscapes, continuously evolving and changing. There are a host of different types of historic landscapes which mean different things to different people, residents or visitors. These include:

• landscapes associated with a particular person, such as Chaucer, who wrote about the Pilgrim's Way in the Canterbury Tales, or Charles Dickens, who often wrote about the North Kent marshes in his books
• military and aviation areas used for national defence, particularly Kent's key airfields, such as Manston and Hawkinge, and the forts and towers around the coast
• leisure landscapes - designed parkland associated with country residences, and public open spaces such as The Leas, Folkestone, a favourite holiday by the sea for the Victorians. Kent has several significant designed landscapes, some by the famous 18th century landscape designer Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, including Chilham Castle and Ingress Abbey
• remains of agricultural work, banks and ditches made by medieval or post medieval ploughing, the tapestry of hedgerows and footpaths, drains and marshland 'walls', traditional farm buildings and coppiced woodland. The Romney Marsh area is particularly striking from the footpaths along the old coastline from Hythe to Rye
• townscapes - the wide views of Canterbury or the pattern of lanes in our medieval market towns. More can be seen by visiting the Kent Historic Town Surveys
• industrial landscapes - both the Rivers Medway and Thames were the focus for trade and industry with shipping wharfs and large scale factories. The Roman, medieval and post medieval industries of iron working and cloth production have  left their mark on the landscape. There are gunpowder mills in Leigh, Oare and Darenth, and woodlands in the Weald have a wealth of managed streams, mills and pits.

The land we live, work and play in is of value, and reflects the unique character of Kent. The Heritage Conservation Group at Kent County Council aim to protect the historic landscapes of Kent, raise awareness and encourage enjoyment of them.