Kent's Transport Heritage

2017 | Transportation

Kent is strategically located, lying on the approach to London and being the shortest route to and from continental Europe. As a result the evolution of the means of transport has left its mark. Roads were turnpike in the eighteenth century leaving toll houses, coaching inns, mile stones and bridges, while the motor car age saw the rise of filling stations. Kent claims the world's first all-steam-powered railway. After the railways spread their network of mainlines and branch lines they left a legacy of stations, signal boxes and goods sheds, as well as traces of where redundant lines have been lifted. Waterborne transport has also left a legacy in the form of canals and cuts, locks and bridges, along with sea ports, docks and wharves. Into the twentieth century new forms of transport such as aircraft led to the building of airports and hoverports which came and have largely departed. Kent's Transport Heritage outlines the changes taking place in these various aspects of transport and illustrates what remains extant.

James Preston (Author)