Rye, Kent County, England

Apr. 16, 2023

For information about England, please see my post on Weymouth. This post will focus on the cities of Rye, Tenterden and Northiam in Kent. We were meant to pull in at Le Havre on the 16th, but because of labor troubles in France, we diverted to Rye.

Kent is the administrative, geographic, and historic county of England, lying at the southeastern extremity of Great Britain. It is bordered to the southwest by East Sussex, to the west by Surrey, to the northwest by Greater London, to the north by the Thames estuary, to the northeast by the North Sea, to the east by the Strait of Dover, and to the southeast by the English Channel. Here are the famous White Cliffs of Dover as we approach the port.

A line of chalk hills (the North Downs) running from west to east forms the spine of the county. North of the ridge the land falls to the marshy and low-lying shore of the Thames estuary, and to the south there is an area of clays and sands forming a rolling wooded region known as The Weald. The long coastline of Kent is alternately flat and cliff-lined. The low Thames coast is bordered by marshes and islands (Grain and Sheppey), and farther east the former Isle of Thanet now forms part of Kent. There are chalk cliffs at Thanet at the North Foreland and again between Dover and Deal, but farther south is the low-lying area of Romney Marsh, which has emerged from the sea since Roman times.

Because of its position facing the continent of Europe across the Strait of Dover, Kent has been subjected to numerous invasions and has attracted successive waves of settlement. Evidence of early Continental invaders is seen at Kits Coty House near Aylesford, a long barrow at Chilham, and Bigbury (a Belgian hill fort). Roman settlement began with the subjugation of the area in 43 CE. The chief Roman supply port was Richborough, and the administrative centre was at Canterbury, where Roman baths and a theatre have been unearthed. Early in the 5th century Kent was invaded by Jutes and Saxons, and it became one of the seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Britain. In 597 the king of Kent welcomed the Christian mission of Augustine (later St. Augustine of Canterbury). Augustine founded an abbey outside the walls of Canterbury, a monastery inside (where the cathedral now stands), and a second diocese (604) at Rochester.

After the Norman Conquest (1066), the Normans rebuilt Rochester and Canterbury cathedrals and constructed a number of castles, of which those at Dover and Rochester survive. In 1170 Canterbury Cathedral was the scene of the murder of Thomas Becket, the archbishop. Many pilgrims subsequently visited his shrine, and those of the 14th century were immortalized by Geoffrey Chaucer in his The Canterbury Tales.

The Tudor monarchs established a royal palace at Greenwich, the birthplace of Henry VIII. Under the Tudors, in the 16th century, when defense of Britain’s shores became a preoccupation, coastal forts were built (e.g., at Deal), and naval dockyards were established at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham and Sheerness. The Royal Greenwich Observatory was established in 1675. Sensitivity to the defense of Kent reached a peak in Napoleonic times and again in 1940 during World War II, when a German invasion was expected.

Rural Kent has long been known as the “Garden of England.” Fruits, especially apples and cherries, and hops are grown, mainly in the Medway valley and in north Kent. Market gardening is extensively practiced. Important crops include barley, wheat, oats, and potatoes. Romney Marsh, one of the world’s finest natural grasslands, is famous for its sheep, but a section of it has been plowed up for the production of spring flowers and bulbs.

Industries include papermaking along the Darent and Medway, engineering and the production of chemicals along the Thames, and the production of plastics, bricks, tiles, and cement on the Lower Medway and Swale. There are oil refineries on the Isle of Grain and railway workshops at Ashford.

Let’s discuss our tour. The excursion began by motorcoach a short distance on the main freeway; then it was off into the hinterland, driving along country roads through the quaint and scenic county of Kent. We passed small villages, farms and the hamlets of Tenterden and Northiam.

This is the town hall of Tenderden.

We drove down charming High Street of Northiam, where the buildings are clad in their original façades dating from the 16th to 18th centuries.

The coach continued to Rye, where we saw old hops-drying houses that have been converted into homes. This fortified hilltop town has played a colorful role in history since the Middle Ages, and its charm continues to draw visitors to its shores. Nowadays, Rye is a center for boat building, fishing and pottery-making. Our visit included a brief stop at the Rye Heritage Centre to view a model of the original medieval town.

Charming Mermaid street:

The beautiful tower and gate on Cliff Road:

Statue dedicated to Rye men who died in WWI at Rye cathedral:

We had some free time to explore old fortified city and stroll down its narrow lanes, and view its historic buildings.

Here’s a liquor store:

and a house made of tiles:

A field of golden grapeseed flowers inspired the song Fields of Gold by Sting.

This is part of a monument dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Battle of Britain. As Churchill famously said about this battle: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

Here is another view of the Battle of Britain Memorial:

Riding back to the ship took us over Romney Marsh — an eerie and beautiful wetlands featuring floodplains, meadows and windblown trees — and through the former smugglers’ bolt-hole of Hythe.

Hythe is a town (parish), in the Shepway district. It is the administrative and historic county of Kent, in southeastern England. It is situated on the English Channel coast at the eastern end of Romney Marsh and on the Royal Military Canal. (The canal was built as a defensive moat when Napoleon I threatened invasion of Britain.)

The Hythe train station:

The old town lies on the hillside inland from the canal, and the modern town, a seaside resort, lies between the canal and the coast. When the mouth of the River Rother was blocked and diverted eastward by gravel, the medieval port of Hythe replaced the Roman Portus Lemanis, where Lympne and West Hythe now stand, 2 miles west of Hythe. Lympne Church has a Norman tower built with Roman material. Hythe (“Landing Place”) was a port already in Saxon times, and its royal charter of 1205 confirmed earlier privileges.

The geographic area of Kent County is 1,442 square miles. The 2021 population of Kent was 1,578,500.

Filled with awe and admiration at the history and beauty of this part of England, we reluctantly headed back to the ship.