England: Dover Castle and the White Cliffs
England: Dover Castle and the White Cliffs
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Dover is a giant among castles. It has the
longest recorded history of any major castle in Britain. Indeed Dover
Castle began before history itself, its earliest rampart defenses date
back to the prehistoric Iron Age. Then the Romans built a pharos
(lighthouse) here in the first century AD. The same tall headland, already
partially defended, was resettled in the tenth century or earlier by the
Anglo-Saxons. They built a burh, a fortified town, of which St
Mary-in-Castro was the church.
The Castle continued in use as a military base until the second half of the twentieth century. The underground tunnels cut into the cliffs in Napoleonic times came into their own during the Second World War as a bomb proof base for military command in the area. After the war the barracks within the Castle fell into disuse and some were demolished. However it wasn't until the end of the Cold War that Dover's defensive role finally came to an end when the Regional Center of Government, deep in the cliffs, which would have been activated in the event of a nuclear war, was decommissioned. |
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The White Cliffs of Dover:
The chalk cliffs of Dover were mentioned by
Julius Caesar in his account of the Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC.
Shakespeare too makes reference to them in 'King Lear'.
The cliffs were formed in the Cretaceous Period (Mesozoic Era), which commenced about 136,000,000 years ago, and are essentially marine in origin, probably originating in deep, open sea. They consist mainly of upper, middle and lower chalk, i.e. white, soft pure limestone composed of countless shells. |
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| Dover Castle Exterior | |||
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| Castle Keep: The monumental keep, built by Henry II's great architect, Maurice the Engineer, in the 1180s, stands at the heart of a concentric ring of defenses. The keep was designed to serve many functions: as a storeroom, occasional residence of the monarch and his court, and perhaps most importantly, as a stronghold. Throughout, the internal arrangement of the keep is ingeniously designed. Its three-towered fore-building, carrying the entry staircase and two chapels, is an elaborate and magnificent approach to the main apartments. The upper chapel, richly decorated and reserved for the royal family's use, is especially fine. The former royal apartments are still most impressive in their monumental scale, despite having lost most of their original decoration. | |||
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Secret Wartime Tunnels: The
first tunnels under Dover Castle were constructed in the Middle Ages to
provide a protected line of communication for the soldiers manning the
northern outworks and to allow the garrison to gather unseen before
launching a surprise attack. During the Napoleonic Wars, this system of
tunnels was greatly expanded to fortify the Castle in readiness for a
French invasion. Seven tunnels (running with damp and prone to collapse)
were dug as barracks for the soldiers and officers who were filling both
castle and town to overflowing. These were capable of accommodating up to
2,000 troops. They are the only underground barracks ever built in
Britain.
In May 1940, as France fell before the German advance, the tunnels became the nerve center for 'Operation Dynamo' - the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and French troops from Dunkirk's beaches. Admiral Ramsay and his staff worked round the clock for nine days. On 26 May some 400,000 troops were awaiting rescue on the beaches of Dunkirk. The best estimate was that only 45,000 could be brought back. Yet, by 4 June, nearly all were evacuated. In total, 338,000 men came back: the BEF and 139,000 French soldiers. In the Cold War the tunnels were further expanded to form a Regional Center of Government in the event of nuclear war. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 the need for this facility decreased and in the early 1990s it was decommissioned and areas of the tunnels opened to the public.
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St. Mary Church and Lighthouse: In the
late Saxon period when the church of St Mary-in-Castro was built the
already ancient pharos became a free standing bell tower. The
church was built in the late tenth or early eleventh century and reused
much Roman brick in its construction. Cruciform in plan with a central
tower and aisle-less nave, it was considerably altered in the thirteenth
century by Henry III. After the mediaeval period the church fell into ruin
and was restored first in 1862 and then again in 1883 when the mosaics on
the wall of the nave were added.
The Roman pharos or lighthouse was probably built in the first century A.D. A similar lighthouse was built on the Western Heights and at night guided Roman ships into the port of Dubris. |
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| Sunset: Sunset over Dover Castle taken from the White Cliffs. | |||
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