THE new High Sheriff for Kent was officially nominated in London at a 1,000-year-old ceremony that dates back to Saxon times, before the Norman Conquest.

Richard John Oldfield, from Sittingbourne, will assume the office next year and take his place in history as one of the holders of the oldest continuous secular office under the Crown in Britain.

In one of the most ancient official ceremonies still practised in this country, judges and court officials gathered at London’s High Court on Monday wearing wigs and court clothing designed centuries ago to preside over the formal nomination of 51 High Sheriffs and their deputies from all over England and Wales.

Since before the days of the Norman Conquest, county sheriffs, or Shire Reeves as they were originally known,went to the King's or Queen's Court, known in Latin as the Curia Regis, to give account for the money they collected on behalf of the monarch.

High Sheriffs no longer collect money for the monarch, but their annual attendance at court has continued and has been used to mark the annual nomination of the new sheriffs.

See the Sittingbourne edition of the Kent Messenger on Friday for the full story.