Country hotels Tenterden

Remember when high streets were lined with independent shops offering high quality individual service? In and around Tenterden you will still find business people who continue to uphold those traditional values while delivering the products and services required in today's modern world. Taken from the Tenterden Website.

One of the most charming towns of the South, it has a broad High Street lined with Trees, Shops and dwellings nearly all with their original facades dating from Elizabethan to Georgian times. The Georgian predominates, with most of the houses being built between 1720 and 1760. The town also has many fine old inns. The tower of the parish church of St Mildreds dominates the town Built in the 15th century, it rises more than 100ft above the ground, and from the top on a clear day it is possible to see right across the Weald to the Channel coast. It is even possible to see shipping on the channel and the French Coast. A fine view indeed and it is said that the Armada was visible from this vantage point. The tower is open only at certain times of the year.
Tenterden is an associate member of the the Cinque Ports, a confederation of Southern towns who organised themselves into a navy, to defend themselves against invaders from the continent.

Caxton, William (c. 1422-1491)

The first English printer, William Caxton was reputed to have been born in Tenterden. In fact there is a pub in the town dedicated to him. Caxton was apprenticed to a London cloth dealer in 1438, and set up his own business in Bruges 1441-70. From Bruges, he went to Cologne in 1471, where he learned the art of printing. Returning to London in 1476, he produced the first book printed in England, Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres 1477.

The books from Caxton's press in Westminster included editions of the poets; Chaucer, John Gower, and John Lydgate (c. 1370-1449). Taken from website