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- The Royal Connection
- Kent Eats
- Kent VIPs
- Richard Remembers
- Owlbut's Birdwatch
There are two castles in Kent which
have a specific royal connection and, in a way, a further connection. I will explain. The first is Leeds Castle which for years I thought was near Leeds
in Yorkshire. I could never work out why people would travel to Kent to visit Leeds Castle. Once I realised Leeds Castle was in Kent, all became clear.
It is said to be the loveliest castle in the world and, based on this picture, I would not disagree. It was Henry VIII who turned the castle from a
fortified stronghold to a magnificent royal palace. Major alterations were made between 1517 and 1523 so that Henry and his first wife Catherine of
Aragon could enjoy comfort and splendour whenever they came to visit.
However, those who know
your history will be aware that when Catherine seemed unable to provide Henry with a son and heir, he grew tired of her. He then found a new love who
happened to be one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting. Her name was Anne Boleyn and Anne's insistence that she wanted to be Henry's wife not his mistress
completely changed the history of England. Henry eventually divorced Catherine, was expelled from the Catholic Church and founded the Church of England. The
connection was that Anne was brought up in Hever castle which is also in Kent.
After 3 years of marriage Anne Boleyn was found guilty of adultery, incest and high treason and beheaded. Henry then married one of Anne's ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour.
Sadly Jane died giving birth to a son and, after a four year wait, Henry married again. This new lady wasn't a lady-in-waiting nor was she a success as a
wife, lasting just six months. Her name was Anne and she came from Cleves in Belgium. She wasn't beheaded, just divorced and as part of the divorce agreement,
Henry gave her Hever castle which he had inherited when Anne Boleyn's father, Thomas, died in 1539.
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Kent is known as the garden of England. It
has this title because the weather makes it a good place for fruit to grow (and other things). It is said that Henry VIII gave it this title after eating a
delightful bowl of Kentish cherries. It is also conveniently situated close to London so was able to get its produce to the capital fairly quickly even before
the motor car.
The video on the left is about making a Canterbury Apple Tart. There is a story that says the first recipe for such a tart was mentioned in Geoffrey
Chaucer's famous book, The Canterbury Tales. Who knows? Rhetorical question which means I'm not expecting an answer but if I did get one it would almost
certainly say, I don't.
The base of the tart is just a simple pastry base. The topping is slices of eating apples sprinkled with sugar which brown during cooking. But
the middle is the interesting bit, well to me it is, because it is a combination of grated cooking apples mixed with sugar, butter and the juice and rind of two
lemons. This gives the tart a nice, tangy flavour although Owlbut seems more interested in a grey quirrel.
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Seven random people who were born in Kent in the last 100 years:-
Katherine Rundell (Author), Dr Ranjit Singh (Doctor/TV Presenter), Pixie Lott (Singer), Dina Asher-Smith (Athlete), Keith Richards
(Guitarist/Co-Founder The Rolling Stones), Gemma Arterton (Actor/Producer) and Harvey Leigh Cantwell aka Hrvy (singer/TV Presenter)
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Kent has a north, east and south coast
bordering three different stretches of water. They are, in the same order, the River Thames, the North Sea and the English Channel. Where one ends and
another begins I am not totally sure. 
Furthermore, Kent was the end of
my first two trips and the beginning of my third. The reason for that was that
at the end of that second trip, in July 1995, our last accommodation was a flat, over looking the sea, in Ramsgate. It was so beautiful that we decided
to settle there although by October of that year we had moved inland, though still in Ramsgate.
A clockwise journey around the Kent coast starts at the Dartford Crossing where the road crosses over, heading south, or under, heading north,
the River Thames from Essex to Kent. You then head east along the edge of the Thames passing Gravesend, where the grave of the Native Indian Princess
Pocahontas can be found, past the Isles of Grain and Sheppey, which aren't islands at all and on to Whitstable, famous for its oysters. Further on you reach
Westgate where a happy 3-year-old experienced his first ever seaside holiday.
Next to Westgate is Margate and it is here you turn south and the sea becomes the North Sea. I remember Margate as a brash resort with a large
beach and south of that is Broadstairs, one time home of Charles Dickens and a far quieter resort but home to the greatest ice cream parlour in the world.
I went back there in 2016 after 14 years away and the ice creams were just as good as I remember. I did say that I lived in Kent from 1995 until 2002 and
so know the county pretty well and Morelli's ice creams ever better. First sold in 1907, in my view, the choice and quality is unbeaten anywhere.
We then move south to Ramsgate itself and I think one
of the reasons, apart from the sea views, that I wanted to settle there was based on my very
first impression when I drove in there in 1986 on my first trip. The view is very much as you see in the picture on the right. It was a sunny day and to see
all these boats moored in a calm, protected harbour stunned me. In fact, every time after that when I returned to Ramsgate, even if I'd only been away for a
few hours, I tried to take that route in to the town. I'm don't think I ever really created that first time feeling. This view will be the first of my 10
memorable, wow-giving, views in England. Look out for the others.
Ramsgate was also one of the ports where
the soldiers from Dunkirk were disembarked. 4,200 little ships left from Ramsgate Harbour to rescue troops from Dunkirk and 80,000 men were brought back to
safety. Ramsgate is the only "Royal" harbour in England. It was granted that status by George IV in 1821 after he had stayed in the town. It also has its
own Meridian Line, set down in 1819, which was 5 minutes and 41 seconds ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, GMT. In 1848 Ramsgate abandoned RMT in favour of GMT.
The next significant place I remember is St Margaret's Bay as this
is the place where all the silly people who think swimming 21 miles across the channel is a fun idea
start their journey. Then I remember the ports of Dover and Folkestone, I've already told you a bit about Dover Castle and the wartime tunnels but the first view of the
port down a steep hill always makes me think of European travel. Dover also has a part of the port for cruise ships. Out to sea near here are the Goodwin Sands, a sand bar
12 miles long and 5 miles wide and the graveyard of countless ships over the years. The sands can be visible at low tide and, in 1854, a Mr Hammond and a Mr
Thompson held a cricket match on the sands. This rather strange idea has continued, on and off, ever since.
My final memories of the Kent coast are the rather unspoilt and indeed when I was there, empty beaches at Greatstone and Littlestone and the
utter loneliness and desolation seen at Dungeness.
Inland, Kent is dominated by Canterbury Cathedral. Unsurprisingly this is in the city of Canterbury, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The cathedral, or the site it is now on, has been a place of worship for over 1,400 years. It houses the tombs of many Kings and Queens and, of course, is
the site of the assassination of Thomas à Beckett. You can read more about this in our Times Past section, here.
The other thing I remember about Canterbury is that some of the old city walls still surround the city. Alongside new, modern roads with modern
traffic are these old walls. There is more to Kent with its oast houses and strange roofs, the name of "The Garden of England" for all the fruit
growing and, in some places, a feeling of old-fashioned quiet. The Battle of Britain may well have been fought above these green fields but nowadays there is
no sign of that horrific fight which culminated in victory for the United Kingdom and ensured our freedom.
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The Canada goose was introduced into England from North America. It is a large goose and has a black head and
neck with a large white patch on its throat. Its feathers are a mixture of black, brown, cream, grey and white. It has brown legs and a chunky, black,
medium-length beak.
They are a common sight around lakes, gravel pits and parks and can be a bit of a nuisance. They eat roots, leaves, grass and seeds. There
are over 60,000 breeding pairs while 3 times that number may winter here.
Canada geese are between 90 and 110 cms in length, have a wingspan of between 1.5 to 1.8 metres and can weigh between 4.3 and 5 kilograms.
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Two extra sections, "It Happened Here" and "Now That's Weird", will appear on 14 October 2024
