Kensington is located in Prince County in the western portion of Prince Edward Island, Canada, 15 km northeast of Summerside. It is a service centre for the surrounding farming areas.
The area was first known as Five Lanes End, as roads from five different communities converged at the point. In 1862, the town was renamed after Kensington Palace in London and it became a town after the Prince Edward Island Railway's mainline from Charlottetown to Summerside curved through the community.
Kensington has affectionately been dubbed the "Heart of Prince Edward Island," due to its status as one of the largest inland communities in the province. At the opening of the twentieth century, up to 22,000 Islanders were directly employed in the farming industry, almost a third of the population of the province at the time. But agriculture was more than just a job on the Island - it was an entire way of life. The family bond could not be separated from the farm, and land was passed from generation to generation as a birthright. Communities like Kensington also built themselves up on the fat of the land, as crop returns paid the schoolteacher's salary, helped build the churches, and bought goods in local shops.