Dover Castle
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Dover Castle is situated at Dover, Kent and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history.
History
Roman
The site was probably originally fortified with earthworks in the Iron Age or earlier, before the Romans invaded in AD43 - this is suggested on the basis of the unusual pattern of the earthworks, which do not seem to be a perfect fit for the medieval castle, although archaeological excavation at the Castle has found no evidence of prehistoric activity.
The site also contained one of two 80 foot (24 m) high Roman lighthouse (or Pharos), which still survives.
Saxon and early Norman
After the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, William the Conqueror and his forces marched to Westminster Abbey for his coronation. They took a roundabout route, via Romney, Dover, Canterbury, Surrey and Berkshire. From the Cinque Ports's foundation in 1050, Dover has always been a chief member - it may also have been this that first attracted William's attention, and got Kent the motto of Invicta. In the words of William of Poitiers:
- Then he marched to Dover, which had been reported impregnable and held by a large force. The English, stricken with fear at his approach had confidence neither in their ramparts nor in the numbers of their troops ... While the inhabitants were preparing to surrender unconditionally, [the Normans], greedy for booty, set fire to the castle and the great part of it was soon enveloped in flames...[William then paid for the repair and] having taken possession of the castle, the Duke spent eight days adding new fortifications to it'.
Henry II's castle
It was during the reign of Henry II that the castle began to take recognisable shape. The inner and outer baileys and the great Keep belong to this time.
The siege of 1216
In 1216, a group of rebel barons invited Louis VIII of France to come and take the English crown. He had some success - breaching the walls - but was unable ultimately to take the castle.
Post 1216 improvements
The vulnerable north gate that had been breached in the siege was converted into an underground forward-defence complex (including St John's Tower), and new gates built into the outer curtain wall on the western (Fitzwilliam's Gate) and eastern (Constable's Gate) sides.Tudor
By now, the defences themselves had been superseded by gunpowder. They were improved by Henry VIII, who made a personal visit, and added to with the Moat BulwarkCivil War
During the English Civil War it was held for the king but then taken by a parliamentarian trick without a shot being fired (hence it avoided being ravaged and survives far better than most castles) in 1642.Napoleonic
Massive rebuilding took place at the end of the eighteenth century, during the Napoleonic Wars, with barracks added and the defences improved (including the eastern redan) as Dover became a garrison town. All this required large numbers of additional soldiers to be housed and conditions in the castle itself had become too crowded. The solution adopted by the Royal Engineers was to create a complex of barracks tunnels about 15 metres below the cliff top and the first troops were accommodated in 1803. At the height of the Napoleonic Wars, the tunnels housed more than 2000 men and to date are the only underground barracks ever built in Britain.At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the tunnels were partly converted and used by the Coast Blockade Service to combat smuggling. This was a short term endeavour though and in 1826 the headquarters were moved closer to shore. The tunnels then remained abandoned for more than a century.
The secret wartime tunnels
The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 saw the tunnels converted first into an air-raid shelter and then later into a military command centre and underground hospital. In May 1940, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsey directed the evacuation of French and British soldiers from Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo, from his headquarters in the cliff tunnels.
A military telephone exchange was installed in 1941 and served the underground headquarters. The switchboards were constantly in use and had to have a new tunnel created alongside it to house the batteries and chargers necessary to keep them functioning. The navy used the exchange to enable direct communication with vessels, as well as using it to direct air-sea rescue craft to pick up pilots shot down in the Straits of Dover.
Later the tunnels were to be used as a shelter for the Regional Seats of Government in the event of a nuclear attack. This plan was abandoned for various reasons, including the realisation that the chalk of the cliffs would not provide significant protection from radiation, and because of the inconvenient form of the tunnels and their generally poor condition.
Tunnel levels are denoted as A - Annexe, B - Bastion, C - Casemate, D - DUMPY and E - Esplanade. Annexe and Casemate levels are open to the public, Bastion is 'lost' but investigations continue to gain access, DUMPY (converted from WW2 use to serve as a Regional Seat of Government in event of an atomic war) is closed, as is Esplanade (last used as air raid tunnel shelters in WW2). DUMPY is an acronym for Deep Underground Military Position Yellow.
The castle today
The castle, secret tunnels and surrounding land are now owned by English Heritage and the site is a major tourist attraction. The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is officially head of the castle, in his conjoint position of Constable of Dover Castle, and the Deputy Constable has his residence in Constable's Gate. December 22nd 2002 saw Yvette Fielding and the Most Haunted Live team investigate the castle.Churches and chapels within its walls
Royal chapel
Within the keep, dedicated to Thomas BecketSt Mary de Castro
Saxon church, rebuilt in the Victorian era.
References
- Goodall, John, "[Dover Castle and the Great Siege of 1216]", Chateau Gaillard v.19 (2000) (the online version lacks the diagrams of the print version)
- Jeffrey, Kate, "Dover castle", Published by English Heritage, 1997
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