A county famed for its quaint villages and glorious coastline has lost its place in a popularity league table.
Kent has been toppled from its position as the "Garden of England" with North Yorkshire taking the crown as most beautiful county.
Congestion, the Eurostar, litter and "chavs" are all cited as factors in Kent's fall from grace.
The study commissioned by UKTV Style Gardens asked a panel of gardening experts including Diarmuid Gavin, Tommy Walsh, Chris Collins and Charlie Dimmock to assemble a shortlist of the 12 most beautiful counties in England.
The completed shortlist was subsequently put to a poll of 4,000 people to find the real and rightful "Garden of England". Key criteria included breathtaking countryside, undiscovered treasures, traditional English villages and the variety of wildlife.
The survey showed that North Yorkshire, for centuries lauded by its own proud inhabitants as "God's own county", was cited as Britain's most beautiful region with an overwhelming 31.1 per cent of the total vote.
The county lies comfortably ahead of Devon, its nearest rival on 21.7 per cent while Derbyshire the home of the Peak District, takes third place, with one out of ten naming it their favourite county.
North Yorkshire was praised for its breathtaking countryside, which includes the rugged splendour of the Yorkshire Dales, a lack of litter and the variety of scenery within the county.
Despite Kent still making an appearance in the top five most beautiful counties, those polled felt that it was slipping down the ranks due to congestion, pollution and the adverse effects of too much building.
The much derided "chav" phenomenon has also had an impact on Kent's standing - it is claimed that Kent is the spiritual home of the "chav" with the name said to derive
from the Kent town of Chatham - and 29.4 per cent felt this has damaged to the county's reputation.
Six in ten respondents felt that the county had lost some of its original charm due to the thousands of residents commuting into London each day.
Over expansion of buildings is cited by a similar number (61.6 per cent) who believed that vast areas of countryside had become swamped with new homes, leading to a reduction in the green spaces for which Kent was once so famous.
Over half the respondents felt that the secret nooks and crannies which once delighted millions of visitors to the county have now become over-exploited by the tourism industry.
