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Many of our friends told us we “must”go to see Dover Castle. Their advice has always been “brilliant”, as the Brits would say, so when we found that Dover was only about 1 ½hours from Chatham it was a “go”. We typically go quite slowly through places as we enjoy listening to the audio-tapes, walking around to see it all and take time to take photos so planned on getting down to Dover about the time they opened. Fortunately there is a good divided highway which got us there quite quickly. We are glad we did as it was a Sunday and even though a cold and windy day the sun was out so all the tourists were out too! Surprisingly we found that they didn’t have audio-tapes here at Dover so wound up traveling around on our own. The Dover Castle is a medieval castle founded in the 12
th century and is the largest castle in England. The fact that France is about 18 nautical miles (approximately 21 miles) from Dover might have something to do with this. As we drove into Dover the first thing you of course see is the “white cliffs of Dover”and then the castle high
on top of the cliffs. We found out another benefit of being members of the English Heritage was that we got to drive all the way to the top and through the castle gate to the parking lot at the very top of the hill. With all the walking we did today that was a nice bonus of membership!
There is evidence of fortification on this site dating back to the Roman occupation. The Port of Dover had been important since the founding of the Cinque Ports back in 1050 which may be one of the reasons William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 marched against the castle at Dover (which at this time was built of clay), burnt it to the ground and then paid for the repairs and took over control of the castle. It was during King Henry II reign from 1154-1189 that the present day castle took shape. The inner and outer bailey (defensive walls) and the keep (gate) were built to provide protection for the castle. With a breach to the wall in an attack from the French in 1216 the walls were fortified and additional gates were added.
Details of the Numbers
during Operation Dynamo during WWII During the Napoleonic wars in the 18
th century, major rebuilding took place to strengthen the towns’ defenses. Additional gun positions were added for heavier artillery, and with Dover becoming a garrison town, barracks were added as well as storerooms. These first barracks to be built here were unique in that they were a series of tunnels 15 meters (49 feet) below the cliff top. The first men to be housed here was in 1803. It was able to accommodate more than 2,000 soldiers.
The tunnels were used for barracks until they were taken over for coastal patrol for smuggling but that was only done until 1827. They then were abandoned for over 100 years. In 1939 during the Second World War they were used extensively. At first they were set up as an air raid shelter but then became the military command center and underground hospital. Operation Dynamo, the code name for the evacuation of French and British soldiers from Dunkirk in May 1940 was directed by Admiral Ramsey from these tunnels. From May 27th to June 4th 338,226 men escaped from France, including 139,997 French, Polish, and Belgian troops, together with a small
number of Dutch soldiers aboard 861 vessels (of which 243 were sunk during the operation). In 1941 a military telephone exchange was installed. These were used by the Navy to communicate directly with their vessels as well as direct air-sea rescues of pilots shot down over the Straits of Dover. Later the tunnels were set up as a regional seat of government in case of a nuclear attack, but this did not last long as they realized that the chalk of the cliffs would not provide sufficient protection from the radiation.
There are over 3 miles of tunnel within these cliffs. The original tunnels took between 1797 –1810 to dig, but other sections were added over time as needed for various purposes. A small section of these are open to the public, but no photos could be taken. A guide led our group in and provided an excellent audio and visual experience of what it would have been like to have lived and worked in the tunnels during the Second World War. There was an additional tour through the area that had been used as a hospital.
The Dover Castle has had a long
The Dover Harbor is A Busy One
with ferries going back & forth to the mainland regularly history of use from the time of King Henry II up through the Second World War and the Cold War. If you have a chance to only visit one or two castles when you are in the UK this should be one of them as it covers a wide breadth of history with the unique tunnel system to explore.
On our drive back to Chatham we decided to drive up to Deal to visit the Deal Castle. It is another English Heritage site and was built by King Henry VIII in 1539 in conjunction with two other castles to protect this part of the coastline from invasion from of course the French. It is billed as being one of the best examples of a Tudor artillery castle.
This Castle has a very different look from others that we have seen. As cannons became more powerful and more accurate, defensive structures needed to change dramatically. This castle is an excellent example of that change in design. Prior to the use of canons castles were fortified residences with walls which were very high and difficult to climb. With the development of the cannon large flat
surfaces were exactly what cannons were designed to destroy. The new design was built with lower walls and rounded surfaces in the hopes that cannon balls would bounce off rather than penetrate. Deal Castle has a central three-story citadel surrounded by six semi-circular lower towers and is said to resemble a Tudor rose. Six more semi-circular bastions surround this to create a secondary wall around the outside to provide added protection. It was surrounded by a dry moat which was protected by a number of gun ports. Some of the stones used in the building of this castle were re-used materials. Bricks and stones from nearby abbeys, which Henry VIII had closed down, made for easier, quicker and cheaper construction. Even though this location was thought to be ideal because the bay adjacent to it was used as an anchorage, it did not see any fighting until later in 1648 when it was finally surrendered during the Civil War. Modifications were made during the latter part of the 18th C. during the Napoleonic wars and finally during World War II when it was damaged by German bombs.
We started heading toward Chatham and in looking at the
map saw that Canterbury would not be out of the way. We had heard numerous times about the Cathedral here so figured we would at least take time to stop and take a quick look. It was Palm Sunday and a service was going on when we arrived, therefore we were only able to walk around the grounds and cloister. This is the Cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Church of England. It was founded in 597, but was completely rebuilt from 1070 –1077. It was greatly enlarged in the beginning of the 12
th century and the Gothic style came in with rebuilding after a fire in 1174. Large numbers of pilgrims visited the shrine of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (murdered in the Cathedral by friends of Henry II in 1170) forcing the need to enlarge the cathedral once again. Canterbury Cathedral was part of the Benedictine monastery up until the time Henry VIII dissolved all the abbeys and absorbed them into his ownership. We were able to walk around and see the old abbey buildings and cloisters. The outside of the Cathedral was impressive with us only imagining what the interior must have been
A View Toward the Harbor
hopefully showing you the height the castle is from the sea like. A side bonus however was that we were able to hear some of the angelic singing that carried well even outside the Cathedral walls.
This made for a very full day of sightseeing, but a very rewarding one. One advantage of having a rental car is you can cover a great deal of territory in a much shorter piece of time. If we had to do this all by public transport it would've taken us several days at least. We are glad that it worked out that we could see all three places during this one day trip.
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