Kent

:This article is about the English county of Kent. See also Kent (disambiguation).

Political divisions

Man of Kent or Kentish Man?

Kent is traditionally divided into West Kent and East Kent by the River Medway. This division into east and east is also reflected in the term Men of Kent for residents east of the Medway; those from west are known as Kentish Men.

Related Topics:
West Kent - East Kent - River Medway

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However, further investigation shows that the division is not the Medway, but further east in Gillingham. Edward Hasted, in his 1798 description of Rainham, writes: "The whole of this parish is in the division of East Kent which begins here, the adjoining parish of Gillingham, westward, being wholly in that of West Kent."

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The division, according to one historian, Freddie Cooper, a former Mayor of Gillingham, remained until April 1, 1929 when Rainham was transferred, despite protest, from the administration of Milton Rural District Council to that of Gillingham.

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In religious matters, Kent was divided between the two episcopal areas of Canterbury and Rochester.

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Lathes

A lathe was an ancient administration division of Kent, and may well have originated during a Jutish colonisation of the county. These ancient divisions still exist, but have no administrative significance. There are seven Lathes in Kent; Aylesford, Milton, Sutton, Borough, Eastry, Lympne and Wye. these units are recorded as intermediate between the county and hundred. The Domesday Book reveals that in 1086 Kent was divided into the seven lathes or "lest(um)" for administrative, judicial and taxation purposes and these units remained important for another 600 years. Each of the seven lathes were divided into smaller areas called hundreds, although the difference between the functions of lathes and hundreds remains unclear.

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• Taken from Frank W Jessup's History of Kent 1958

Feudalism

A Manorial court was an early form of dispensing justice which came into being after the Domesday Book. Among other things it dealt with land tenure. After the 17th century most of the court's functions were taken over by a Justice of the Peace, who had first been appointed from the 14th century. From 1361 until 1971 the justices met four times a year in Quarter Sessions. In Kent there were separate courts of Quarter Sessions (at Maidstone and Canterbury) until 1814.

Related Topics:
Manorial court - Domesday Book - Justice of the Peace - Quarter Sessions - 1814

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The Poor Law

Under the Poor Law every parish had had the responsibility of looking after its own poor, and seeing that they had the bare minimum of shelter, food, clothing and medical attention. In most parishes the burden of poor relief mounted rapidly in the early part of the 19th century. Huge population increase, and the lack of work on the land, made it imperative that the Poor Law was amended. It was, in 1834, when the institutions known as workhouses came into being. These were often run by a group of parishes ? hence the title Union Workhouse. Boards of Guardians were set up to oversee them.

Related Topics:
Workhouses - Union Workhouse

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Boards of Health

Boards of Health, in much the same way as the Boards of Guardians for the poor, were set up in 1875, because of the huge rise in epidemics, notably of cholera. The area of the sanitary districts, as they were known, coincided with the union boundaries. Larger parishes (

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Highway boards

Highway boards also came into being, and the old turnpike trusts gradually expired.

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Municipal boroughs

The final sub-division of Kent was into towns which had been granted a charter by the Crown giving them special privileges, including that of having a mayor. The boroughs at the beginning of the 19th century are those marked (MB) on the list of Cities & Towns below. In addition the village of Fordwich also counted as a borough: it was deprived of that status in 1882.

Related Topics:
Mayor - Fordwich

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Kent County Council

In 1888 an Act of Parliament set up, inter alia, Kent County Council which, with its members coming from all parts of the county (except Canterbury, which became a County Borough with similar powers), first met in 1889. Its duties at first were few, but gradually it absorbed School Boards, the rural Highway Boards and the Boards of Guardians.

Related Topics:
Act of Parliament - County Borough

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Parish councils

In 1894, parish councils were set up. These were civil parishes, and unconnected with an ecclesiastical parish. Although since 1979 there have been many changes in local government, parish councils now are in a strong position, particularly in unitary authorities, where they act as a second tier. In other districts, some functions are held by the county council, relegating parish councils to a less influential third-tier status. Parish rates are today collected by the district or unitary tier and then disbursed to parish clerks. Those parish councils serving areas of denser settlement are normally known as town councils although their rank and influence is much the same. These traditionally elect a mayor from the town councillors with the greatest experience.

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• All the preceding notes in this section taken from Kent History Illustrated Frank W Jessup (Kent County Council 1966)

Local Government Act 1972

In 1974 the old division between county and borough came to an end, with England being divided below county level into districts. Canterbury, hitherto separately administered as a county borough, became one of the boroughs into which Kent was divided.

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Medway unitary authority

In 1998 the districts of Gillingham and Rochester were removed from county council government to become the unitary authority entitled the Borough of Medway.

Related Topics:
1998 - Gillingham - Rochester - Unitary authority - Borough of Medway

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