SPECIALFEATURE
Hop Growing and Hazelnut Picking
Kent is known as the Garden of England for good reason. Its chalky soils and mild climate made it a historic centre for hop growing, which boomed in the 19th century. Generations of Londoners would travel each harvest to help pick hops, creating a unique cultural exchange.
Today, Brogdale Collections near Faversham preserves over 4,000 varieties of fruit in the National Fruit Collection, making it the largest of its kind in the world. Alongside hops, Kent is also famed for cobnuts, a type of hazelnut traditionally harvested in late summer.
Fun fact! Back in the day, hop picking became such a summer ritual that it was nicknamed‘ the Londoner’ s holiday’. Families from the East End camped in Kentish fields, creating pop-up villages complete with markets, music and makeshift pubs.
Dover: Hidden Tunnels and Electric Firsts
Beyond its famous white cliffs, Dover hides a web of secret wartime tunnels carved deep into the chalk below the castle. Used for everything from housing troops to plotting the Dunkirk evacuation, the tunnels are a testament to Kent’ s strategic role in Britain’ s defences.
Nearby South Foreland Lighthouse is another unsung hero- it was the first lighthouse to use electric light and it hosted early radio experiments by Guglielmo Marconi, who sent Morse code messages across the Channel.
Fun fact! The wartime tunnels beneath Dover Castle were so secure and secret that Winston Churchill himself directed Operation Dynamo( the Dunkirk evacuation) from within them- hidden under hundreds of feet of chalk.
Kent, it turns out, has always been more than just a border county- it’ s often been on the edge of innovation. From flight to folklore, sandwiches to spa cures, Kent continues to surprise. So next time you explore its towns and villages, look beyond the plaques and postcards- you might just stumble across the birthplace of something quietly extraordinary.
KENTISH ODDITIES
While Kent is steeped in serious history, it also boasts a roster of curious oddities that delight and bewilder in equal measure...
The Offham Quintain is a medieval jousting aid perched on the village green of Offham near West Malling. This rare wooden structure was used by knights to practise striking a target while galloping. It may look like a lamp post to the untrained eye, but it is believed to be the only surviving quintain in its original location in England.
In Gravesend, beneath an unassuming park, lies a Cold War civil defence bunker, complete with briefing rooms, communications hubs and survival kits. Though now decommissioned, tours reveal eerie remnants of nuclear-era anxiety preserved in concrete.
And in the village of Tovil near Maidstone, locals love to recount tales of the mysterious Treacle Mines. Entirely mythical, these underground treacle reserves are the stuff of long-running British humour, but they still make occasional appearances in Kent folklore.
© English Heritage
DOVER WARTIME TUNNELS
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