The Kent History and Library Centre holds the county archives for Kent, one of the oldest counties in England, alongside an impressive collection of maps, photographs, manuscripts, and documents covering the history of the region from the medieval period to the present. The Centre at the Archives is the public-access branch of the Kent County Archives.
For visitors with a specific research interest — family history, local buildings, the history of particular towns or villages — the reading rooms are open by appointment and the collections are extensive. For casual visitors, the publicly accessible display areas show rotating exhibitions drawn from the archive holdings, covering topics in Kent's history including the Cinque Ports, the hop-growing industry, and wartime history. The building itself is a modern purpose-built archive facility near the town centre.