Registrar Clare Caless, left, and collections officer Sam Harris with the Lambeth Bible at Maidstone Museum

by Angela Cole

It's not as well known as The Hungry Caterpillar, but it's one of the finest examples of a book anywhere in Kent.

As hundreds of youngsters prepare to celebrate reading during World Book Day next Thursday, housed in Maidstone Museum is one of the most expensive and oldest books in the county – the Lambeth Bible, written entirely in Latin, and worth around £1 million.

Kept in a glass case at the St Faiths Street building, staff must turn the pages regularly so they are not exposed to too much light.

An unpaid scribe – possibly a monk – would have laboured for several years over the perfect writing back in the mid 1100s, although even today the marks showing how he kept the lines straight are still visible if visitors look closely.

Its pages are made of vellum, a type of animal skin, rather than paper and the red dye used in some of its details may have been made with cochineal, otherwise known as beetle blood.

Collections officer Samantha Harris said: "It is a really beautiful book. At the time this was written very few people would have been able to read or write so this person would have been considered highly educated, although they would not have been paid."

It is the second volume – the first is housed in Lambeth Palace Library – and the illuminated manuscript would have once stood on a church lectern, with a priest reading from it to his congregation, who would not have been able to read it themselves.

It has been linked to Faversham Abbey as it is believed it was produced for King Stephen and Queen Matilda.

It was brought closer to its current home when it was resident at All Saints’ Church in Mill Street, Maidstone, in 1716.