Administrative Boundary of Kent

About Kent

Kent is a county in the South East of England. Covering approximately 3,544 square kilometres from the Thames Estuary in the north to the English Channel coast in the south, Kent had a population of approximately 1.8 million at the 2021 Census (excluding the unitary authority of Medway). Known as the "Garden of England" for its fruit orchards, hop gardens, and market gardens, Kent also contains the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Canterbury, some of the finest medieval castles in England, and the White Cliffs of Dover — the defining image of England's southern coast. Canterbury and the World Heritage Site Canterbury Cathedral — the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury — is the mother church of the Church of England and the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion worldwide. The cathedral's history of continuous Christian worship on the site stretches back to Augustine of Canterbury, who arrived from Rome in 597 AD and established the first English cathedral. The present building spans nearly nine centuries of continuous construction, from the Norman choir of 1070 to the Perpendicular Gothic nave of the 15th century; the Trinity Chapel contains the original site of the shrine of Thomas à Becket (Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in the north transept of the cathedral in December 1170 on the indirect orders of Henry II), which was one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in medieval Europe. Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c.1387–1400) immortalised the pilgrimage road from London to Canterbury. Canterbury, the adjacent ruins of St Augustine's Abbey (founded 598 AD), and St Martin's Church (the oldest church in continuous use in the English-speaking world, predating Augustine) together form the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey, and St Martin's Church." Dover Castle and the White Cliffs Dover Castle — the "Key of England" — sits atop the famous white chalk cliffs above the Strait of Dover, guarding the narrowest crossing between England and France. The castle was founded by Henry II in the 1180s and was substantially extended by successive kings; its Great Tower (the finest 12th-century royal tower in England), the medieval tunnels, and the Napoleonic-era and Second World War tunnels and operations rooms (from which the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940 was coordinated) together make it one of the most complex and historically layered fortifications in England. Castles, Gardens and Country Houses Kent's extraordinary wealth of historic houses and gardens reflects its long history of aristocratic settlement and its proximity to London. Hever Castle, in the Weald of Kent, was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife and mother of Elizabeth I. Knole House (National Trust, 1456) — one of the largest private houses in England with 365 rooms — was the principal seat of the Sackville family and is one of the most complete surviving great medieval and Tudor houses. Sissinghurst Castle Garden (National Trust), created by Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson in the 1930s around the ruins of an Elizabethan mansion, is one of the most celebrated gardens in England. Leeds Castle, set on islands in a lake near Maidstone, is one of the most visited historic properties in England. Chartwell (National Trust), near Westerham, was the home of Winston Churchill from 1922 to 1964. GIS and Boundary Data The administrative boundary of Kent County Council is available for free download in GeoJSON and KML formats, sourced from the ONS Open Geography Portal (Crown copyright 2024). Compatible with QGIS, ArcGIS, Mapbox, and Google Earth, the dataset supports heritage mapping, pilgrimage route conservation, castle archaeology, garden landscape planning, and demographic analysis across the Kent local authority area.

📍 Administrative boundary of Kent county