Portal:Kent
Introduction
Kent is a county in the South East England region, the closest county to continental Europe. It borders Essex across the entire estuary of the River Thames to the north; the French department of Pas-de-Calais across the Strait of Dover to the south-east; East Sussex to the south-west; Surrey to the west and Greater London to the north-west. The county town is Maidstone.
It is the fifth most populous county in England, the most populous non-metropolitan county and the most populous of the Home Counties, an area influenced by the capital such as commutes and transport connections to the capital. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty: the North Downs and The High Weald. (Full article...)
Selected article
An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing (and former hop-growing) areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture. Many redundant oasts have been converted into houses. The names oast and oast house are used interchangeably in Kent and Sussex. In Surrey, Hampshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire they are called hop kilns.
They consist of a rectangular one- or two-storey building (the "stowage") and one or more kilns in which the hops were spread out to be dried by hot air rising from a wood or charcoal fire below. The drying floors were thin and perforated to permit the heat to pass through and escape through a cowl in the roof which turned with the wind. The freshly picked hops from the fields were raked in to dry and then raked out to cool before being bagged up and sent to the brewery. The Kentish dialect word kell was sometimes used for kilns ("The oast has three kells") and sometimes to mean the oast itself ("Take this lunchbox to your father, he's working in the kell"). The word oast itself also means "kiln".
The earliest surviving oast house is at Golford, Cranbrook near Tunbridge Wells. It dates from sometime in the 17th century and closely mirrors the first documentary evidence on oasts soon after the introduction of hops into England in the mid-16th century. Early oast houses were simply adapted barns, but, by the 18th century, the distinctive tall buildings with conical roofs had been developed to increase the draught. At first, these were square, but around 1800 roundel kilns were developed in the belief that they were more efficient. Square kilns remained more popular in Herefordshire and Worcestershire and came back into fashion in the southeast in the later 19th century. In the 1930s, the cowls were replaced by louvred openings as electric fans and diesel oil ovens were employed.
Hops are today dried industrially and the many oast houses on farms have now been converted into dwellings. One of the best-preserved oast house complexes is at the Hop Farm Country Park at Beltring. (Full article...)
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Selected biography
Brenda Blethyn OBE (née Bottle; born 20 February 1946) is an English actress. Known for her character work and versatility, she is the recipient of various accolades, including a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Primetime Emmys. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to drama in 2003.
Blethyn pursued an administrative career before enrolling at the Guildford School of Acting in her late 20s. She subsequently joined the Royal National Theatre, gaining attention for her performances in plays such as Benefactors, for which she received an Olivier nomination in 1984. Blethyn made her screen debut in the Mike Leigh television film Grown-Ups (1980), and later won leading roles on the short-run sitcoms Chance in a Million (1984–1986) and The Labours of Erica (1989–1990). She made her feature film debut with a small part in Nicolas Roeg's The Witches (1990), followed by a supporting role in Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It (1992).
Blethyn experienced a career breakthrough with her portrayal of Cynthia Purley in the 1996 drama Secrets & Lies, for which she earned multiple awards, including Best Actress at Cannes, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She received a second Oscar nomination two years later, this time for Best Supporting Actress, for her portrayal of Mari Hoff in Little Voice (1998). Blethyn has since appeared in a range of mainstream and independent features, such as Girls' Night (1998), Saving Grace (2000), Lovely & Amazing (2001), Pumpkin (2002), Beyond the Sea, A Way of Life (both 2004), Pride & Prejudice (2005), and Atonement (2007).
Blethyn played Miriam Dervish on the ITV sitcom Outside Edge between 1994 and 1996, receiving a British Comedy Award. For her portrayal of Auguste van Pels in Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001), she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries. She received a second Emmy nomination, this time for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, for her portrayal of Caroline Cresswell on season ten of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2008). She starred as Kate Abbott on the ITV sitcom Kate & Koji from 2020 to 2022.
Blethyn has played the title role, Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope, in the long-running ITV crime drama series Vera since 2011. In 2017, she was named Performer of the Year by the Royal Television Society for this role. (Full article...)
Things you can do
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Join the WikiProject Kent: Any help on the Kent project would be gratefully received, even if only on your local area of expertise. FAQ about editing Ask the project a question here
Tasks: Here are some Kent related tasks you can do:
- Clean up an article: Here are automatically generated lists of articles needing cleanup sorted alphabetically and by category.
- Edit the Top and High importance articles.
- Refine/polish: Ashford, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Canterbury
- Expand:: List of churches in Kent, Maidstone Borough Council
- NPOV: K College
- Citation needed: Unreferenced Kent articles
- Cleanup/Copyedit: Kingdom of Kent
- Expert attention: Channel Tunnel, Bromley Civic Society
- Stubs: see Kent geography stubs articles
Note: These articles may overlap with those on other related lists. If you would like to make a change, either do so yourself, or make a suggestion.
Districts in Kent
Kent is divided into 12 local authority districts and Medway Unitary Authority.
Did you know...
- ... that the present town of Ashford in Kent, England, originates from an original settlement established in 893 AD by inhabitants escaping a Danish Viking raid?
- ...that Charles Davis Lucas, the first person to be awarded the Victoria Cross, is buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence's Church in Mereworth, Kent?
- ...that the village of Chiddingstone near Sevenoaks is unique in that with the exception of church and castle it is entirely owned by the National Trust?
- ...that Matthew Webb, the very first person to swim the English Channel, left from Dover in 1875 ?
- ... that the world’s first aircraft factory was opened at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey by the Short Brothers in 1909?
- ... that there were 36 Kings of Kent?
- ... that Herne Bay Pier was the setting for the opening sequence of Ken Russell's first feature film French Dressing?"
On this Day - May 12th
- 1942 - Ian Dury, best known as founder and lead singer of the band Ian Dury and the Blockheads was born, he taught art at the Kent Institute of Art & Design
- 1997 - The Roman Painted House, in Dover, described as "Britain's Pompeii", was opened to the public
The County
At the time of the 1831 census, Kent was the 10th largest county, covering 972,240 acres (3,934.5 km2), however by 1871 it had grown to 995,344 acres (4,028.01 km2) and became the 9th largest.
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