A full colour map, based on a digitised map of the city of Canterbury in 1907, with its Roman, Anglo-Saxon and medieval past overlain and important buildings picked out. Founded as the Roman town of Durovernum Cantiacorum, Canterbury grew to be more important than London. Canterbury Cathedral became a major European centre of pilgrimage following the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170 and the centre of the Anglican church after the Reformation. Although damaged in the Second World War, its many surviving medieval buildings make it a major attraction for visitors and home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The map shows a small cathedral city in 1907 with large buildings, surrounded by orchards and a remarkable military presence. The map's cover has a short introduction to the city's history, and on the reverse an illustrated and comprehensive gazetteer of Canterbury's main sites of interest, from the city's Roman theatre and forum to medieval monasteries, the city's walls and its castle. Produced with Canterbury Archaeological Trust and Canterbury Christ Church University.

In the late 2000s, the development of the country’s biggest glasshouse complex by Fresca Group Ltd at Monkton Road Farm on Isle of Thanet led to one of the largest open area excavations ever conducted in Kent. The development covered 90 hectares (about 220 acres) of previously open agricultural land, including the building of seven industrial scale greenhouses, a packhouse, a research and education centre and associated roads, drainage and other infrastructure, and considerable remodelling of the existing landscape, through cut and fill works to create the eight flat platforms. Kent County Council Heritage Group stipulated that those areas about to be reduced should be subjected to comprehensive archaeological investigation. This lavishly illustrated and approachable book presents a description of the superb archaeology uncovered as a result, 6000 years of farming, everyday life and ritual, from some of the earliest farmers in the British Isles, to Copper and Bronze Age burials and monuments, prehistoric and Romano-British landscapes, Anglo-Saxons and hitherto completely unknown agglomeration of medieval settlement covering the entire site, complete with mysterious underground chambers. These buildings and farmsteads fell out of use and disappeared from memory hundreds of years before the hilltop agrarian site came to be characterised by lonely seamarks to guide post-medieval mariners, and finally the location of occasional Second World War installations.

Essays on the most important aspects of Kent's history at a time of great growth and change. Duke William's march through Kent on his way to London after Hastings in 1066 is testimony to the importance of the county. So too are the royal fortifications at Canterbury, Dover and Rochester, and the mostly successful strategyof ruling Kent through a partnership of Crown and Church. The religious communities at Canterbury Cathedral and St Augustine's became two of the premier monasteries in England, and (following the death of Thomas Becket) international centres of pilgrimage. Yet, as well as times of triumph, these four hundred years witnessed massive difficulties for the people of Kent, and England. Viking incursions in two major phases covering two centuries were instrumental, for example, in the loss of most royal nunneries in Kent and the sacking of Canterbury in 1011. Socially, too, this was a formative period in the county's history. Colonization and rural settlement were shaped by the varied physical landscape, but also by matters of lordship and landholding that together marked Kent as distinctive, which would later become enshrined in the Customs of Kent (1293). Similarly the growth of numerous small towns, especially coastal and inland ports, highlight the vitality of the county's commercial development; the provision of ship service to the king by the confederation of the Cinque Ports denotes a special relationship that still exists today. These essays provide insights into a range of topics of importance in the history of Kent during this seminal period. To provide a context for these, the opening essay presents an assessment of the kingdom of Kent. Subsequentchapters consider the development of first rural and then urban society, the impact of the Vikings, pilgrimage and the landscape, literacy and learning, the developing monastic way of life, and parish church architecture. Three multidisciplinary chapters discuss Canterbury as a case study, while a gazetteer of place-name elements closes the book. Sheila Sweetinburgh is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Kent. Among her numerous publications she has edited Later Medieval Kent, 1220-1540 Contributors: Paul Bennett, Mary Berg, Stuart Brookes, Nicholas Brooks, John Cotter, Paul Cullen, Gillian Draper, Diane Heath, Hilary Powell, Andrew Richardson,Sheila Sweetinburgh, Jake Weekes.