Trams,Buses & Trolleybuses Past and Present : Kent No. 3

Kent is one of the most diverse and interesting of all English counties. Stretching into London at its north western extremity, and at the same time the nearest county to mainland Europe, its bus companies reflect this variety. From the 1930s onwards three companies dominated its bus and coach services, East Kent, Maidstone and District and London Transport. There had once been trams, in Margate and Dartford for example, and trolleybuses also in Dartford and well as in the county town of Maidstone. The area around Chatham and the Thames estuary was heavily industrialised, which provided much business for Chatham and District buses which replaced trams in the Medway towns and was a subsidiary of Maidstone and District. But Kent is also deeply rural and Maidstone and District buses in their dark green and off white livery with perhaps the most attractive logo of any bus company complimented the lush greens of the hop fields for example. The dark red and pale cream of East Kent's buses will always be associated with Kent's holiday resorts as well as Canterbury with its world famous cathedral.Probably no company, other than London Transport, suffered as much in the Second World War as East Kent, its routes in and around Dover being within shelling distance of Nazi guns mounted on the French coast whilst whether they liked it or not Kent bus passengers had a grand stand view of the Battle of Britain as it was fought out over their heads.