Sights in Kent
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Dover Castle
Occupying top spot, literally and figuratively, on the Dovorian townscape, this most impressive of castles was built to bolster the country's weakest point at this, the shortest sea-crossing to mainland Europe. It sprawls across the city's hilltop, commanding a tremendous view of the English Channel as far as the French coastline. There's lots to see here, so allow yourself at least three hours.
The site has been in use for as many as 2000 years. On the vast grounds are the remains of a Roman lighthouse, which date from AD 50 and may be the oldest standing building in Britain. Beside it lies a the restored Saxon church of St Mary in Castro.
The robust 12th-century Great…
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Leeds Castle
This immense moated pile is for many the world's most romantic castle, and it's certainly one of the most visited in Britain. While it looks formidable enough from the outside – a hefty structure balancing on two islands amid a large lake and sprawling estate – it's actually known as something of a 'ladies castle'. This stems from the fact that in its more than 1000 years of history, it has been home to a who's who of medieval queens, most famously Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
The castle was transformed from fortress to lavish palace over the centuries, and its last owner, the high-society hostess Lady Baillie, used it as a princely family home and…
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Sissinghurst Castle Garden
Sissinghurst Castle Garden is one of the most famous 20th-century gardens in the world, legendary among writers and the green-fingered. The creation of poet Vita Sackville-West and husband Harold Nicolson, it innovatively grouped similarly coloured plants to create 10 distinct garden ‘rooms’. The famous White Garden, with its shades of white, grey and green, was a source of inspiration for Sackville-West as she gazed upon it from her study, also open to visitors.
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Hever Castle
The idyllic little Hever Castle seems to have leapt right out of a film set. It's encircled by a narrow moat and surrounded by family-friendly gardens, complete with cute topiary of woodland creatures and wandering ducks and swans.
The castle is famous for being the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, mistress to Henry VIII and then his doomed queen. It dates from 1270, with a Tudor house added in 1505 by the Bullen (Boleyn) family. The castle later fell into disrepair until 1903, when American multimillionaire William Waldorf Astor bought it, pouring obscene amounts of money into a massive refurbishment. The exterior is unchanged from Tudor times, but the interior is thick…
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Roman Painted House
A crumbling 1960s bunker is the unlikely setting for some of the most extensive, if stunted, Roman wall paintings north of the Alps. Several scenes depict Bacchus (the god of wine and revelry), which makes perfect sense as this large villa was built around AD 200 as a mansio (hotel) for travellers in need of a little lubrication to unwind.
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Dover Museum
By far the most enthralling exhibit in the town's three-storey museum is an astonishing 3600-year-old Bronze Age boat, discovered here in 1992. Vaunted as the world's oldest-known seagoing vessel, it measures a thumping 9.5m by 2.4m and is kept in a huge, low-lit, climate-controlled glass case.
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Grand Shaft
The easily dizzied may prefer to avoid the Grand Shaft, a unique 43m triple staircase cut into the chalky white cliffs as a short cut for troops during the Napoleonic Wars. Call the tourist office before arriving as it doesn't open every year.
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Spitfire Memorial Museum
Located around 4 miles northwest of the town centre at Manston Airport (aka Kent International), the main aim at this purpose-built museum is to get up close and personal with two real WWII planes, one a Spitfire, the other a Hurricane. Both look factory fresh, but are surprisingly delicate, so sadly there's no clambering on board. Around the planes are gathered myriad flight-associated exhibits, many relating to Manston's role as an airfield during the Battle of Britain. To get there, take hourly bus 38 from King St and alight at the airport. The museum is around 10 minutes' walk along Manston Rd.
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Rupert Bear Museum
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Down House
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Dickens House Museum
Given a fresh lick of paint for Dickens' 200th birthday in 2012, Broadstairs' top attraction is this quaint museum, the erstwhile home of Mary Pearson Strong who was Dickens' inspiration for the character of Betsey Trotwood in David Copperfield. Diverse Dickensiana on display includes letters from the author.
The large clifftop house dominating the northern end of Viking Bay is where Dickens stayed while in Broadstairs and where he wrote parts of David Copperfield. Today it's a private residence and not open to the public.
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Margate Caves
The 1000-year-old Margate Caves are closed due to subsidence, but keep an eye out for them re-opening. There is a church, smugglers’ refuge, dungeon, cave paintings and some witty (if not 100% proven) historical explanations.
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Chapel Down Vinery
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West Gate Towers
The city's only remaining medieval gateway has become the Canterbury's most discussed sight in recent years. Threatened with closure due to council cuts in 2011, it was taken over by a local businessman who spent large sums turning it into a real family attraction. His sudden death in early 2012 left the towers closed again and their future uncertain. Double-decker buses only ceased edging their way through the narrow 14th-century archway, wing mirrors flattened, in spring 2012.
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St Martin's Church
This stumpy little building just off the road out to Sandwich is thought to be England's oldest parish church in continuous use, and is where Queen Bertha (the wife of the Saxon King Ethelbert) welcomed Augustine upon his arrival in the 6th century. The original Saxon church has been swallowed by a medieval refurbishment, but it's still worth the 900m walk east of the abbey.
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St Augustine's Abbey
An integral but often overlooked part of the Canterbury World Heritage Site, St Augustine's Abbey was founded in AD 597, marking the rebirth of Christianity in southern England. Later requisitioned as a royal palace, it fell into disrepair and now only stumpy foundations remain. A small museum and a worthwhile audio tour (free) do their best to underline the site's importance and put flesh back on its now humble bones.
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Shell Grotto
Margate's unique attraction is this mysterious, subterranean grotto discovered in 1835. It's a claustrophobic collection of rooms and passageways embedded with millions of shells arranged in symbol-rich mosaics. It has inspired feverish speculation over the years, but presents few answers: some think it to be a 2000-year-old pagan temple; others, an elaborate 19th-century hoax. Either way, it's an exquisite place worth seeing.
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Beaney House of Art & Knowledge
Locally known as the Beaney, this mock-Tudor edifice is the grandest on the main shopping thoroughfare, if not the most authentic. It has housed Canterbury's main library, a museum and an art gallery since 1899, but closed in 2009 for major renovation and expansion. The whole caboodle reopened in 2012 with a much larger exhibition space, a much improved library and a new tenant, the tourist office.
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Roman Museum
Recently saved from a council ruse to convert it into a restaurant, this fascinating subterranean archaeological site enables visitors to walk around reconstructed Roman rooms, including a kitchen and a market place, as well as view Roman mosaic floors.
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Norman Staircase
In the northwestern corner of Green Court (far left) is the famous Norman Staircase .
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Canterbury Heritage Museum
A fine 14th-century building, once the Poor Priests' Hospital, now houses the city's absorbing museum, which has a jumble of exhibits from pre-Roman times to the assassination of Becket, and from Joseph Conrad to locally born celebs. The kids' room is excellent, with a memorable glimpse of real medieval poo among other fun activities, and choo-choo fans can admire the Stephensons' Invicta loco that ran on the Crab & Winkle line between here and Whitstable (the world's third passenger railway). The building also houses the fun Rupert Bear Museum (Rupert's creator, Mary Tourtel, was born in Canterbury) and a gallery celebrating another children's favourite of old, Bagpuss.
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Greyfriars Chapel
In serene riverside gardens behind the Eastbridge Hospital you'll find Greyfriars Chapel, the first English monastery built by Franciscan monks in 1267. The grounds are a tranquil spot to unfurl the picnic blanket.
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Green Court
When you leave Canterbury Cathedral, go round the eastern end and turn right into Green Court, surrounded on the eastern side by the Deanery and the northern side (straight ahead) by the early-14th-century Brewhouse and Bakehouse, which now house part of the very exclusive prep school, King's School
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Eastbridge Hospital
A 'place of hospitality' for pilgrims, soldiers and the elderly since 1180 and the last of many such buildings in the city still open to the public, Eastbridge Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr is worth a visit for the Romanesque undercroft and historic chapel. The 16th-century almshouses, still in use today, sit astride Britain's oldest road bridge dating back over 800 years.
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Canterbury Tales
A three-dimensional interpretation of Chaucer's classic tales through jerky animatronics and audioguides, the ambitious Canterbury Tales show is certainly entertaining but could never do full justice to the original tales. However, it does serve as a light-hearted introduction for the young or uninitiated.
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