East Kent and West Kent are one-time traditional subdivisions of the English county of Kent, kept alive by the Association of the Men of Kent and Kentish Men: an organisation formed in 1913. The division may have risen from the ethnic differences approximately 1,500 years ago between the Jutish settlement of the east of the county and the Saxon presence in the west, although its origins are somewhat obscure. Residents of East Kent, those living east / south of the River Medway, are called 'Men (or Maids)of Kent', as opposed to residents of West Kent, who are known as 'Kentish Men' or 'Kentish Maids'.

According to the BBC website ^[1] a few hundred years later, it appears that the Men of Kent resisted William the Conqueror more stoutly than the Kentish Men, who wisely surrendered.

Today there is still an element of rivalry between the two, which completely disappears during the harvest season, when the Men of Kent invite the Kentish Men to the "Garden of England" to help gather in the crops.

East Kent had its own Quarter Sessions based in Canterbury until 1814, when the administrations of East and West Kent were merged. East Kent, which corresponded roughly to the Diocese of Canterbury, consisted of the three lathes: Lathe of St Augustine, Lathe of Shepway and the upper division of the Lathe of Scray.^[2]

Places in East Kent include

• Broadstairs
• Ashford
• Deal, Dover
• Canterbury,
• Faversham,
• Folkestone
• Herne Bay
• Margate
• Ramsgate,
• Romney
• Sandwich
• Sheppey
• Sittingbourne
• Thanet,
• Whitstable

[edit] See also

• Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)
• Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment

[edit] References

Coordinates: 51°12′N 1°00′E / 51.2°N 1°E / 51.2; 1

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