District Profile

District 1120 is one of the larger Rotary Districts in the United Kingdom with 83 clubs and in excess of 2,500 members. Geographically District 1120 covers the counties of Kent and East Sussex and South East London, in the South East corner of England.

Areas

To help with the management of such a large number of clubs, the District is divided into eight areas. Each of these areas is assigned an Assistant Governor.

The County of Kent

Kent is the south-eastern most county in England. Kent has land borders with East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London, and a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames estuary. The ceremonial county of Kent includes the unitary authority of Medway, and the administrative county of Kent. Kent has a nominal border with France halfway through the Channel Tunnel. Its county town is Maidstone and its only city is Canterbury.

It's location between London and the continent has led to Kent being a front line of a number of conflicts, such as the Battle of Britain in World War II. The entire country relied on the county's ports to provide warships through much of the past 800 years, with the Cinque Ports during the 12th-14th centuries and Chatham Dockyard during the 16th-20th centuries being of particular importance.

Kent is known as the Garden of England due to its abundance of orchards and hop-gardens.

The County of East Sussex

East Sussex is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.

The ancient kingdom of Sussex has had separate county administrations since the 12th century, with the county town of the eastern division being Lewes. This situation was formalised by Parliament in 1865, and the two parts were given distinct elected county councils in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888.

In East Sussex there were three self-administered county boroughs: Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. In 1974 East Sussex was made a ceremonial county too, and the three county boroughs became districts within the county. At the same time the western boundary was altered, so that the Mid Sussex region (including Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath) was transferred to the county of West Sussex.

The London Borough of Greenwich (South East London)

The borough lies along the south bank of the River Thames between Deptford and Thamesmead. Because of the shape of the river, the waterfront is extremely long. Travelling south away from the waterfront, the ground swiftly rises: Shooters Hill in the east and the high ground of Blackheath in the west bookend the borough, Eltham to the south of these hills falls away slightly.

It was formed in 1965 by merging the former area of the metropolitan boroughs of Greenwich and most of Woolwich (with the exception of North Woolwich, north of the river, which became part of the London Borough of Newham). The name 'Charlton' was briefly considered for the borough.

Greenwich is one of five host boroughs for the 2012 London Olympics with events due to be held at the Royal Artillery Barracks (Shooting), Greenwich Park (Equestrianism) and the O2-former Millennium Dome (Gymnastics; Basketball).