Editing Kent (section)

==Culture==

===Architecture===
[[File:Canterbury Cathedral - Portal Nave Cross-spire.jpeg|thumb|[[Canterbury Cathedral]]]]
Kent's geographical location between the Straits of Dover and London has influenced its architecture, as has its [[Cretaceous]] geology and its good farming land and fine building clays. Kent's countryside pattern was determined by a [[gavelkind]] inheritance system that generated a proliferation of small settlements. There was no open-field system, and the large tracts were owned by the two great abbeys, [[Christ Church, Canterbury]] and [[St Augustine's Abbey]], that did not pass into the hands of the king during the [[Reformation]]. [[Canterbury Cathedral]] is the United Kingdom's [[Suffragan|metropolitan cathedral]]; it was founded in AD 598 and displays architecture from all periods. There are nine Anglo-Saxon churches in Kent. [[Rochester Cathedral]] is England's second-oldest cathedral, the present building built in the Early English Style.<ref name="Pevsner">{{cite book |last=Newman |first=John |title=North East and East Kent|editor=Pevsner |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth, England |date=1969 |edition=3 |series=Buildings of England |page=35 |chapter=The Buildings of Kent |isbn=978-0140710397}}</ref> These two dioceses ensured that every village had a parish church.

The sites of [[Richborough Castle]] and [[Dover Castle]], along with two strategic sites along Watling Street, were fortified by the Romans and the Dukes of Kent. Other important sites include [[Canterbury city walls]] and [[Rochester Castle]].<ref name=autogenerated3>{{cite book |last=Newman |first=John |title=North East and East Kent |editor=Pevsner |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth, England |date=1969 |edition=3 |series=Buildings of England |pages=36–123 |chapter=The Buildings of Kent |isbn=978-0140710397}}</ref> There remained a need to defend London and thus Kent. [[Deal Castle]], [[Walmer Castle]], [[Sandown Castle, Kent|Sandown Castle]] (whose remains were eroded by the sea in the 1990s) were constructed in late mediaeval times, and [[Chatham Historic Dockyard|HM Dockyard, at Chatham]] and its surrounding castles and forts—[[Upnor Castle]], [[Great Lines Heritage Park|Great Lines]], and [[Fort Amherst]]—more recently.

Kent has three unique vernacular architecture forms: the [[oast house]], the [[Wealden hall house]], and [[peg tile#Peg tile|Kentish peg-tiles]].

Kent has bridge trusts to maintain its bridges, and though the great bridge (1387) at [[Rochester Bridge|Rochester]] was replaced there are medieval structures at [[Aylesford]], [[Yalding]] and [[Teston]].<ref name=autogenerated4>{{cite book |last=Newman |first=John |title=North East and East Kent |editor=Pevsner |publisher=Penguin Books |location=Harmondsworth, England |date=1969 |edition=3 |series=Buildings of England |page=58 |chapter=The Buildings of Kent |isbn=978-0140710397}}</ref> With the motorways in the late twentieth century came the [[M2 motorway (Great Britain)|M2 motorway bridge]] spanning the Medway and the Dartford tunnel and the [[Dartford Crossing|Dartford Bridge]] spanning the Thames.

===Literature and publishing===
Kent has provided inspiration for several notable writers and artists. It has been suggested that Kent inspired many settings in Shakespeare's plays, and he described it in the line 'Sweet is the country, and is full of riches / The people liberal, active, valiant, worthy.'<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mee |first=Arthur |title=The King's England: Arthur Mee's Kent |publisher=The Caxton Publishing Company Ltd. |year=1936 |pages=2}}</ref> Canterbury's religious role gave rise to [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Canterbury Tales|Canterbury Tales]]'', a key development in the English language. The father of novelist [[Charles Dickens]] worked at the [[Chatham Dockyard]]; in many of his books, the celebrated novelist featured the scenery of Chatham, Rochester, and the [[Cliffe-at-Hoo|Cliffe]] marshes.<ref name="dickens">{{cite web |title=Charles Dickens |publisher=InfoBritain |url=http://www.infobritain.co.uk/Charles_Dickens.htm |access-date=20 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070417033957/http://www.infobritain.co.uk/Charles_Dickens.htm |archive-date=17 April 2007 }}</ref> During the late 1930s, Nobel Prize-awarded novelist [[William Golding]] worked as a teacher at [[Maidstone Grammar School]], where he met his future wife Ann Brookfield.<ref name=autogenerated2>{{cite web |title=William Golding&nbsp;– Biography |publisher=William-Golding.co.uk |url=http://www.william-golding.co.uk/p_biography.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030224034425/http://www.william-golding.co.uk/p_biography.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 February 2003 |access-date=20 June 2007}}</ref> [[William Caxton]], who first introduced the [[printing press]] to England, was born in Kent; the recent invention was key in helping many [[Kentish dialect|Kent dialect]] words and spellings to become standard in [[English language|English]]. [[Lord Northbourne]] hosted a [[biodynamic agriculture]] conference on his estate at [[Betteshanger]] in the summer of 1939, he coined the term '[[organic farming]]' and published his [[manifesto]] of [[organic agriculture]] the following year spawning a global movement for [[sustainable agriculture]] and food.<ref name=Kent>Paull, John (2021). [https://www.academia.edu/48843258/Organic_Agriculture_Invented_in_Kent Organic Agriculture - Invented in Kent] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514021450/https://www.academia.edu/48843258/Organic_Agriculture_Invented_in_Kent |date=14 May 2021 }}, Kent Maps Symposium, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, 5 May.</ref>

===Classical music===
Many notable musicians have been associated with Kent.<ref>Gerald Norris, A Musical Gazetteer of Great Britain & Ireland (David & Charles, 1981).</ref> [[Walter Galpin Alcock]], composer and organist, who played the organ at the coronations of Edward VII, George V and George VI, was born at [[Edenbridge, Kent|Edenbridge]] in 1861. [[Richard Rodney Bennett]], composer and pianist, was born at [[Broadstairs]] in 1936. [[Alfred Deller]], counter-tenor singer, was born at Margate in 1912. [[Orlando Gibbons]], composer and organist, died in Canterbury on 5 June 1625 and is buried in the cathedral. [[George Frideric Handel]] took the waters at Royal Tunbridge Wells in 1734 and 1735. [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]], together with his father, mother and sister, stayed at [[Bourne Park House]] near Canterbury, 25–30 July 1765. The nights of 24 and 30 July were spent in Canterbury, where they also went to the horse races. [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]], then an 18-year-old sea cadet, was anchored at Gravesend from November 1862 to February 1863; while there, he completed the slow movement of his First Symphony. [[Malcolm Sargent]], conductor, was born at Ashford in 1895. [[Thomas Tallis]], composer and organist, was a [[lay clerk]] of [[Canterbury Cathedral]] around 1541–2. [[Peter Warlock]], composer and writer on music, and [[Ernest John Moeran]], composer, resided at [[Eynsford]] from 1925 to 1928; [[Arnold Bax]], [[William Walton]] and [[Constant Lambert]] visited them here. [[Percy Whitlock]], organist and composer, was born at Chatham in 1903.

===Visual arts===
A number of significant artists came from Kent, including [[Thomas Sidney Cooper]], a painter of landscapes, often incorporating farm animals,<ref>Edward Strachan and Roy Bolton, ''Russia & Europe in the Nineteenth Century'' (London: Sphinx Fine Art, 2008 ) p. 46.</ref> [[Richard Dadd]], a maker of faery paintings, and [[Mary Tourtel]], the creator of the children's book character, [[Rupert Bear]]. The artist [[Clive Head]] was also born in Kent. The landscape painter [[J. M. W. Turner]] spent part of his childhood in the town of [[Margate]] in East Kent, and regularly returned to visit it throughout his life. The East Kent coast inspired many of his works, including some of his most famous seascapes.<ref name="turner">{{cite web |title=The Turner Connection |publisher=TurnerContemporary.org |url=http://www.turnercontemporary.org/about/?p=15 |access-date=20 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070723090923/http://www.turnercontemporary.org/about/?p=15 |archive-date=23 July 2007 |url-status=live }}</ref> Kent has also been the home to artists including [[Frank Auerbach]], [[Tracey Emin]] and [[Stass Paraskos]].

Kent was also the location of the largest number of art schools in the country during the nineteenth century, estimated by the art historian David Haste, to approach two hundred. This is believed to be the result of Kent being a front line county during the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. At this time, before the invention of photography, draughtsmen were used to draw maps and topographical representations of the fields of battle, and after the wars ended many of these settled permanently in the county in which they had been based. Once the idea of art schools had been established, even in small towns in Kent, the tradition continued, although most of the schools were very small one-man operations, each teaching a small number of daughters of the upper classes how to draw and make watercolour paintings. Nonetheless, some of these small art schools developed into much larger organisations, including Canterbury College of Art, founded by Thomas Sidney Cooper in 1868, which is today the [[University for the Creative Arts]].<ref>David Haste, The Art Schools of Kent (London: Werther Books, 2014).</ref>

[[Blean]] near [[Canterbury]] was home to [[Smallfilms]], the production company founded by [[Oliver Postgate]] and [[Peter Firmin]] and responsible for children's TV favourites [[Noggin the Nog]], [[Ivor the Engine]] and [[Bagpuss]].

===Performing arts===
The county's largest theatre is the [[Marlowe Theatre]] in the centre of Canterbury.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/sep/28/new-marlowe-theatre-canterbury |title=Marlowe theatre: curtain rises on Canterbury's £25.6m revamp |last=Kennedy |first=Maev |author-link=Maev Kennedy |date=28 September 2011 |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |access-date=23 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141228052059/http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/sep/28/new-marlowe-theatre-canterbury |archive-date=28 December 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Music festival]]s that take place in Kent include [[Chilled in a Field Festival]], [[Electric Gardens]], [[Hop Farm Festival]], [[In the Woods Festival]], [[Lounge On The Farm]] and the annual [[Smugglers Festival]] near Deal. Other venues for live music include [[Leas Cliff Hall]] in Folkestone and the [[Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells|Assembly Hall]] in Tunbridge Wells.

=== Kentish independence ===
Many Kentish people have long viewed themselves as Kentish first and British second, and to this day refer to themselves as either 'Men of Kent' or 'Kentish men' depending on whether they live to the East or West of the [[River Medway]].<ref name="k228500"/> After the [[2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum|2016 Brexit referendum]] and subsequent proposals for "border checks" on the Kentish border, effectively making Kent a country within a country,<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 September 2020 |title=Lorry drivers will face de facto Brexit border in Kent, Gove confirms |url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/23/truck-queues-could-be-7000-long-when-brexit-transition-ends-ministers-warn |access-date=4 June 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en |first1=Lisa |last1=O'Carroll }}</ref> this pride in being Kentish began to form into calls from some areas for an independent Kent or an autonomous republic within the UK, especially from the county's prominent newspapers, with the idea being discussed in detail in some areas<ref>{{Cite web |last=West |first=Patrick |title=An independent Kent isn't as ridiculous as it sounds |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/an-independent-kent-isn-t-as-ridiculous-as-it-sounds |access-date=4 June 2022 |website= The Spectator |date=24 September 2020 |language=en}}</ref> – with some ideas such as mock passports<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 September 2020 |title=Welcome to the Republic of Kent! |url=https://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/welcome-to-the-republic-of-kent-234343/ |access-date=4 June 2022 |website=Kent Online |language=en}}</ref> and [[tongue-in-cheek]] manifestos being created.<ref>{{Cite web |last=James |first=John |date=24 September 2020 |title=The radical steps Kent must take to thrive as an 'independent nation' |url=https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/radical-manifesto-see-kent-thrive-4544383 |access-date=4 June 2022 |website=KentLive |language=en}}</ref> These calls for independence can be explained by the individualistic and rebellious mentality that has always existed in the county, which can be explained by the county's position in the very south-east of the [[United Kingdom]], having been a [[Kingdom of Kent|prominent and independent kingdom]] for centuries as well as being the source of many major rebellions that have occurred in the United Kingdom.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}