You may have missed it, but today is Kent Day.

The day is celebrated on May 26 every year, which is the feast day of St Augustine - the first Archbishop of Canterbury and Patron Saint of Kent.

To mark the occasion, we take a look at some of the little known facts about this glorious county of ours.

Pietastic

For all the wonderful festivals the county holds each year, did you know Kent is home to the World Custard Pie Championships and has been for more than 50 years?

Held in the village of Coxheath, it originally set out as a fundraiser for the village hall. Today it attracts teams from across the globe with some 2,000 pies hurled at opponents during last year's event.

Should you be wondering, teams of four go head-to-head with maximum points for full 'in the face' hits. Miss three times in a row, though and you get points docked.

And if you're thinking you fancy a crack at holding a world title, then the good news is there's still time to enter this year's event - due to take place on Saturday, June 18.

While we're talking pies, did you also know the school dinner classic, the gypsy tart originated right here?

The super sweet concoction - made with evaporated milk and muscovado sugar in a pastry base - originated on Sheppey.

Apparently, a woman keen to feed some malnourished Romani/gypsy children looked in her cupboards and came up with the tart. Blood sugar levels have never been the same since.

Get fruity

It will come as a surprise to precisely no-one that Kent is a major player in the UK fruit market. But did you know it is also home to the world's largest fruit collection?

The Brogdale Collection is home of the National Fruit Collection.

Set in over 150 acres of farmland on the edge of Faversham, it boasts 4,000 varieties of fruit trees from apples, pears, quinces and plums to cherries and plenty more besides.

In addition, the very first cherry tree planted in the UK was just down the A2 in Teynham, near Sittingbourne in the 16th century on land presented to him by Henry VIII.

The King had tried - and needless to say - liked them while in France so appointed his very own fruiter - Richard Harrys from nearby Conyer. He was given 105 acres of land where he cultivated cherries and a range of other fruits for the royal table.

Oh, and while we're talking fruit, the majority of strawberries served up at Wimbledon each year come from the county - courtesy of Hugh Lowe Farms in Mereworth. They have been providing the tennis tournament with the fruit for the last 25 years.

Royal titles

Talking of the royals, just over 200 years ago, King George IV - who ruled between 1720 and 1830 - was so taken by Ramsgate Harbour, which he frequently used as a departure and arrival point to the Continent - he gifted it royal assent.

It has remained the only royal harbour in the country ever since.

On the other side of the county, Tunbridge Wells likes to remind anyone who listens that it's actually called Royal Tunbridge Wells.

It is one of just three towns in the country to carry the royal prefix - the other two being Leamington Spa in Warwickshire and Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire.

FA Cup winners

Each year the county's football teams set out on the road to glory in English football's premier domestic cup competition. All dream of reaching the hallowed turf of Wembley in the spring sunshine and lifting the FA Cup.

And, remarkably, one actually has.

No, Gillingham didn't somehow achieve it without anyone noticing, but it's not far from the team that did.

The Royal Engineers was a team comprising of those serving in the Corps of Royal Engineers - commonly known as the Sappers - of the Army based in Chatham. And they were pioneers of the beautiful game.

Noted for working as a team and passing the ball - previously it was a case of booting it up the field and then chasing it down like you do when you're nine - they enjoyed considerable success around the time the modern game came into focus.

They reached the very first FA Cup Final - played in front of 2,000 fans at the Oval in London in 1872. They lost, mind you, to Wanderers from London. Two years later, they reached the final again...and lost again.

But, in 1875, at the third time of asking, they lifted the trophy after first drawing against Old Etonians before going on to beat them in the replay 2-0.

They played one more final, in 1878, losing again against Wanderers.

The professional game was formed shortly afterwards and a Kent side has not reached the final since.

On the frontline

There are far too many links between the county and its role during wartime to list here. From being the home of Second World War leader Sir Winston Churchill (in Chartwell, near Sevenoaks), to the numerous key roles played by the likes of Dover Castle (it housed an underground barracks during the Napoleonic Wars and was a military command centre during the 1939-1945 conflict).

But did you know that tunnels in Ramsgate were used to house the town's residents during air raids with beds and shops set up as many families sought to seek refuge there during the aerial attacks during the Second World War? The tunnels are today a popular tourist attraction.

The town also played a pivotal role in Operation Dynamo - the incredible mission to save hundreds of thousands of British and allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk after they found themselves surrounded by the invading German forces in 1940?

The celebrated fleet of little ships requisitioned from across the south of England gathered in Ramsgate before embarking on their daring rescue. The first of which, coincidentally, arrived on the French coast on May 28 1940 - almost 82 years to the day.

Or that Folkestone turned from popular tourist destination to the exit and entry point for troops heading to the battlefields of France and Belgium during the First World War? As a result, it was the last place many men would stand upon the soil of the country they would lose their life trying to defend.

Raise a glass

The fact that Shepherd Neame is Britain's oldest brewer - the Faversham firm traces its roots back to 1698 - is not news to many. It is, after all, one of the company's main marketing slogans. But did you know that its Bishop's Finger beer, created in 1958, was created by a signpost that apparently once pointed the way to slain Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket's tomb in Canterbury?

Or that the Neame family only took a stake in the company in 1864 when Percy Neame, a 28-year-old hop farmer, joined the firm as a partner, prompting the name change?

Kent has also become synonymous with the boom in English wine. It is home to both the single biggest vineyard and winery in England - Chapel Down in Tenterden - and its very own indigenous vine, Wrotham Pinot.

First spotted growing up a stone wall in the village in which it takes its name in the 1950s, the wild vine is thought to be a descendant of the Pinot Noir vines the early Romans brought to the country 2,000 years ago. It is now being used by some vineyards to produce wine.

And while the debate over Kent's oldest pub continues over a pint and packet of scratchings, one venue is beyond dispute. Yes, if you want to visit the world's biggest Wetherspoon pub then head down to Ramsgate where you will find the Royal Victoria Pavilion.

Size not important

While we've got an enormous Spoons, we also have the smallest town in Britain.

Fordwich, near Canterbury, has around 400 residents. Which is considerably fewer than Birchington, in Thanet, which calls itself a village yet has more than 11,000 residents and, as a consequence, is among those areas laying claim to being one of the biggest villages in the nation.

Talking of which, while it seems every inch of spare land is being transformed into the latest housing estate, it's worth noting that, according to Kent County Council, a minimum of 75% of the land in each of its 12 districts is undeveloped. Medway comfortably fits that bill too.

In fact, the bulk have far more. Ashford, for example, the centre of so much housing development has, according to figures released by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in 2019, just 5.9% of its land developed. The highest is in Dartford which has developed close to a quarter of its land.

So the county, despite popular belief, remains a green and pleasant land for the most part.

And in case you were wondering, Kent has a land area of 1,368 square miles, just over 350 miles of coastline and a population (as of mid-2020) of 1.59 million people. Medway, as a unitary authority, has just over 279,000.

Kent remains the country's largest non-metropolitan county.

The largest population is in Maidstone - which has around 173,100 residents, while Gravesend has the least with 106,900.

Given the developed land statistics mentioned earlier, Dartford was the most densely populated local authority district (with 15.7 people per hectare) and Ashford the least (2.3 per hectare).

Fossil finds

In this era of soaring costs, if you're looking for a day out with the kids which won't cost a fortunate and comes under the 'educational but fun' category, then there are plenty of places where the past can literally be found lying on the ground.

Courtesy of its chalk and clay constitution, the county's rock formation over the years has allowed the creatures which once swam in the tropical oceans which lapped over our countryside to be covered by the sediment necessary for fossils to form.

Folkestone, Sheppey, Herne Bay, Thanet and Dover all offer rich pickings for today's fossil hunters - see our full guide here.

The most notable finds in Kent are significant too. Did you know, for example, that the first skeleton of the dinosaur known as Iguanodon was found here?

In 1834, some workmen working in a quarry near Maidstone blew up a slab of rock and stumbled across an historic discovery.

Referred to by the Natural History Museum as the 'Maidstone Slab' the dinosaur's fossilised skeleton was revealed in remarkable detail. It allows experts at the time to work out how the animal would have looked.

Remarkably, the term dinosaur wasn't used until several years after the skeleton was revealed.

Today, the find is reflected in the County Town's coat of arms which features the dinosaur.

Take a spin along the M2 to Herne Bay and the seaside town lays claim to the discovery of the earliest horse fossil. Discovered in cliffs in Studd Hill in 1838, the 'dawn horse' - the name given to a long since extinct breed that were the first known horses - is believed to have been 54 million years old.

Power of progress

While fossils are undeniably fascinating, Kent has plenty of claims to being a springboard to the progress we now take for granted in the modern era.

Sheppey, for example, is worthy of many pages in the history of aviation in this country.

While the Wright Brothers flew the first powered aircraft in the US in 1903, the Short Brothers were keen to follow in their wake.

After being given a contract to build six of the Wright Flyers, used for the pioneering flight in the US, they set up the first aircraft manufacturing facility in the UK on Sheppey - testing the aircraft on marshland between Leysdown and Shellness.

Meanwhile, back on the ground, the air experiments came several years after a motorist in the county became the first in the UK to get a speeding ticket for going too fast in his car.

Walter Arnold, from East Peckham, near Paddock Wood, was hurtling along behind the wheel of a 'horseless carriage' in January 1896 reaching speeds of 8mph. Yes, 8mph. Which, it should be said, was four times the then-legal limit of 2mph. Be faster to walk.

The policeman who spotted him had to chase him down on his bike before pulling him over.

Appearing before Tonbridge police court, he faced three additional charges of using a locomotive without a horse, having fewer than three people in charge of the vehicle and for not having his name and address on the vehicle.

As well as breaking the speed limit Mr Arnold failed to have a man with a red flag walking ahead of the carriage which was required after the Red Flag Act of 1885.

He was fined the equivalent of £260.