Kent & East Sussex



		three sides, Kent includes the famous White Cliffs of Dover with its view across the 22-mile wide Channel to the matching cliffs of France; the wide open spaces of Romney Marsh with its special collection of churches; and some of the first popular seaside destinations in Britain. Across the county, the list of places to visit is impressive (placing your mouse over the blue text will bring up photos) • Castles: Dover Castle, Henry II's well-preserved stronghold atop the White Cliffs Walmer Castle & Gardens, country residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and scene of the death of the Duke of Wellington - see his camp-bed, and his famous boots! Deal Castle, one of Henry VIII's new-style castles sited to stop enemy landings on the coast, and designed to withstand cannonfire from ships Leeds Castle & Gardens, in a stunning lake setting Hever Castle, where Henry VIII wooed Anne Boleyn Tonbridge Castle, with its strong Norman Keep in rich sandy colours Rochester Castle, looking over the River Medway and Rochester Cathedral Upnor Castle, a late-Tudor gunfort overlooking the Medway estuary Canterbury Castle, the ruined keep abutting the city walls And just over the border in Sussex: Bodiam, the much-photographed classic of late-medieval castle architecture (c. 1380, when Keeps had disappeared, replaced by a series of strongpoints on the Curtain Walls) - wide moat • Gardens: Sissinghurst, preserved from the 1930's by Vita Sackville-West Goodnestone Park, a classic country house and garden 10 miles east of Canterbury Scotney Castle, a landscaped garden around a lake with ruins of a castle Emmett's Garden, with its hillside setting overlooking the Weald Great Dixter, just over the border in East Sussex: • History: Chartwell, country home of Winston Churchill Canterbury, medieval city with fine Cathedral Dover Museum, including the 3,500 year-old Bronze Age Boat Ightam Mote, charming country house built in stages from the 1300's onwards; surrounded by moat and gardens Old Soar Manor at Plaxtol, with remains of a late-13th century knight's manor house Penshurst Place, with fine 14th century Great Hall Richborough Roman Fort Lullingstone roman villa Rochester, with castle, cathedral, and many sites associated with Charles Dickens who lived here as a boy Royal Naval Dockyards at Chatham, where Nelson's HMS Victory was built Battle of Britain Memorial on the clifftops near Dover, and preserved Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft at Manston • Coast: Whitstable, fishing port looking out over the Thames Estuary and the North Sea, famous for its oysters Broadstairs, early seaside resort made famous in the books of Charles Dickens Sandwich, one of the medieval Cinque Ports, with fine stock of medieval buildings and churches The White Cliffs at Dover - with its walking, Castle, and the stunningly-preserved Bronze-Age Boat - 3,500 years old, unearthed in 1992 and on display since 1999. Romney Marsh with its Martello Towers from the Napoleonic Wars, its sheep, its churches and its wide-open spaces. And just over the border in Sussex, the Cinque Port of Rye and the medieval 'new town' of Winchelsea, founded by Edward I in the late 1200's

Above: fine Tudor houses in Canterbury
Right: the White Cliffs of Dover

Go To Top

Related links:

Kent & East Sussex:
Castles, Gardens, History & Coast

Visits with Dr Thomson's Tours:
Escorted outings by car for the day from Canterbury - or come down from London for the day by train and we'll meet you in our vehicle. Tailor-made itineraries on request. Here are some ideas:

Above: St Mary in the Marsh
Right: the sea at Whitstable

The county of Kent, between London and the English Channel, is often called 'The Garden of England' - a tribute to its extensive fruit-growing regions, but also a marker of the county's attractive and varied countryside. With coast on

Half-day options:
Dover Castle atop the White Cliffs; Walmer Castle with its fine gardens and mementoes of Wellington; Churchill's Chartwell; Sissinghurst gardens

All-day excursions in Kent and East Sussex:
Dover Castle & the Bronze Age Boat, then Walmer Castle and the town of Deal in the afternoon;
The Cinque ports of Rye and Winchelsea, with a visit to Bodiam Castle in the afternoon;
Churchill's Chartwell, then Ightham Mote after lunch;
Plaxtol, then Sissinghurst after lunch;
Dickens' Rochester, Chatham Dockyards and back via the small town of Faversham;
Historic Canterbury, then Dover Castle after lunch;
Walking on the North Downs, then a visit to Rye and Romney Marsh.