Now comprising west Kent, Rochester is the second oldest English see, founded by King Æthelbert of Kent in 604, with Justus as first bishop. Paulinus, the former missionary to Northumbria, expelled in 632, was bishop of Rochester (635-44). Despite its vulnerability to the 9th-cent. Danish invasions, it survived intact. The medieval bishopric had a small population but in the 19th and 20th cents. it became densely inhabited. The cathedral, alongside the 12th-cent. castle, has an impressive late Norman nave, completed in 1130 with additions (1179-1240).




