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Browse all places to visit in Kent.
Unusually Kent - Quirky & Essentially English
Kent is a county of royalty and pomp, quaint villages, English country gardens, stately sprawls and wistful rolling countryside. There's no place quite like Kent; where England began... and begins.
England is a country known the world over for its consumption of tea, its propensity for the inexplicable game of cricket and its national obsession with the weather. Celebrate these eccentricities when you embark in Kent - the Garden of England.
Kent has a surprising selection of quirky and downright bizarre museums and attractions that should keep the whole family entertained. All that eccentricity is best enjoyed over afternoon tea in an English country garden or over a pint of beer in a quiet country pub, preferably in an oddly named village.
Here are just a few of the more original ones...
The Bargrave's Collection - Canterbury Cathedral Archives
The Cathedral holds many interesting, unusual and odd treasures and collections.Arguably,the most fascinating is held in the Bargrave's 'Cabinets of Curiosity'.From Roman antiquities and cultural items to a Frenchman's finger and a hippopotamus tooth, the cabinets hold it all! Other Archives' treasures include the 'Accord of Winchester' signed by William the Conqueror, the (Christopher) Marlowe Rose, and the beautifully illustrated 'Book of Beasts'. Only available for viewing by prior appointment, visits@canterbury-cathedral.org.
(20 minutes from Dover Cruise Terminal)
The district's largest and most varied museum has a range of fascinating real objects, models and original pictures showing the history of Dover. Included in admission is entry to the award winning Bronze Age Boat Gallery with interactive exhibits, computers and microscopes.
(5 minutes from Dover Cruise Terminal)
The Dog Collar Museum, Leeds Castle
The 100 collars here span five centuries and include some rather gruesome spiked versions to protect dogs against wild boar and wolves to gentler and more fashionable collars from the 21st century.
(40 minutes from Dover Cruise Terminal)
Lullingstone Castle and The World Garden
Tom Hart Dyke twentieth generation of the family, recently built the famous 'World Garden' within the grounds. It is laid out like the map of the world and contains plants, collected from across the globe and planted in their respective areas of origin.
(1 hour by coach from Dover Cruise Terminal)
Containing more than 100 historical keyboard instruments, this Georgian manor house is alive with music from regular concerts and recitals. Among the pianos, harpsichords and organs are two grand pianos similar to those that Mozart knew.
(1hr 10 minutes from Dover Cruise Terminal)
A labyrinth of dark mysterious passageways which have been hewn by hand from the chalk, deep beneath the village of Chislehurst. There are over 20 miles of caverns and passageways, dug over a period of 8000 years.
(50 minutes from Dover Cruise Terminal)
Shell Grotto, Margate
A series of mysterious underground rooms and passageways covered by 2000sqft of exquisite shell mosaic. Discovered in 1835, nobody knows who created it, although many believe it is a 2000 year old temple with ancient origins. NOTE - The Grotto is a short walk after a coach drop off at Northdown Road. Unfortunately, the grotto is inaccessible to wheelchair users due to steep stairs and the width of passageways.
(35 minutes from Dover Cruise Terminal)
Quex House at Powell-Cotton Museum, House & Gardens
100 years ago Major Percy Powell-Cotton brought back 500 African animals and displayed them in reconstructions of their homeland. The specimens have proved to be a vast genetic record and their DNA is being used to create breeding programmes to save rare species from extinction. Quex House also houses fine collections of porcelain, weapons and archaeological treasures.
(35 minutes from Dover Cruise Terminal)
