Kent is one of the most diverse & interesting of all English counties Stretching into London at its north western extremity & 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 & coach services East Kent Maidstone & District & London Transport There had once been trams in Margate & Dartford for example & trolleybuses also in Dartford & well as in the county town of Maidstone The area around Chatham & the Thames estuary was heavily industrialised which provided much business for Chatham & District buses which replaced trams in the Medway towns & was a subsidiary of Maidstone & District But Kent is also deeply rural & Maidstone & District buses in their dark green & 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 & 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 & 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