Dover (UK) - History, Education, Sport, Places of interest, Twin Towns, Location, Publications

51°08N 1°19E, pop (2001e) 104 500. Seaport in Kent, SE England, UK; principal cross-Channel port, the shortest link with France (35 km/21¾ mi); the largest of the Cinque Ports; railway; Dover Castle (13th–14th-c); 13th-c St Edmund's Chapel, the smallest chapel in England; Roman painted house (2nd-c AD).

For other uses, see Dover (disambiguation).

Dover is a major channel port in the English county of Kent. At the 2001 census, the town of Dover proper had a population of 28,156 inhabitants, while the population of the whole urban area of Dover, as calculated by the Office for National Statistics, was 39,078 inhabitants. The town is the administrative centre of the Dover district.

Dover is famous for its white cliffs, which are made of chalk.

Its closeness to continental Europe – it is only 34 kilometres (21 miles) from the French port of Calais – makes Dover one of the United Kingdom's busiest cross-Channel ports, with 18 million passengers passing through each year.

Dover is represented in Parliament by the Labour MP Gwyn Prosser.

Since 1836 the town of Dover (originally being the two parishes of Dover St. Mary's and Dover St. James) has incorporated the ancient villages and parishes of Buckland and Charlton.

Most of the western half of the town is in Hougham parish and a small part of the eastern section and Dover Castle are in Guston parish

Maxton was once a hamlet of Hougham parish to the west of Dover, and the terminus of the tramway system serving the town until its closure in 1936.

History

For events and history related to Dover Castle, see Dover Castle.

As the closest point in Britain to France, Dover has been strategically important, vulnerable to invasion and an important port for millennia.

The Langdon Bay hoard, discovered in 1974 off the Dover coast contains bronze axes of a French type and may represent the cargo of a sunken vessel, thus demonstrating cross-channel trade already for the Bronze Age, if not earlier. Both this hoard and the boat are on display in a new purpose-built gallery of the Dover Museum in Market Square.

Roman

In Roman times it became an important fortified port named Portus Dubris.

In around AD 50 the Romans built two lighthouses, one on either side of the then-river-estuary (now silted-up, one on the Western Heights whose few remains are now within the Drop Redoubt, and the other which still stands to its full height in the grounds of Dover Castle, making it one of the oldest buildings in Britain. 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.

Archaeological evidence suggests that a new castle was constructed near the Saxon church of St. Mary de Castro in what is now Dover Castle, rather than or as well as repairing the old burgh.

The Domesday Book of only 20 years later states that before the conquest Dover's value had been £18 but was now £40.

The Normans also built the churches of St Mary the Virgin, Dover (on the foundations of a Roman structure - it still stands) and of St. James the Apostle (as an aisleless nave with a short tower - perhaps on the site of a Saxon church partly destroyed in 1066 - destroyed in World War Two, ruins visible) and reconstituted the Saxon monastic church of St Martin le Grand, as well as founding a new Dover Priory on another site, also dedicated to St. Martin. Several surviving buildings and various ruins of Dover Priory have been incorporated in to Dover College

Medieval

St Martin le Grand dominated Market Square, being over 150 feet long.

In 1216, Dover was attacked by the French and successfully defended from Dover Castle by Hubert de Burgh - it was less lucky in 1295 when 10,000 French burnt most of Dover to the ground.

Medieval buildings:

Maison Dieu

Tudors

Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, both threatened by continental invasion,also made improvements to Dover's defences, both the castle and Moat Bulwark (making a personal visit to the castle to do so).

Stuarts

During the Civil War Dover declared for the king but was captured by the Parliamentarians without a siege.

Napoleonic Wars

Dover became a garrison town heavily defended against the threat of French invasion.

20th century

In the 20th century Dover became the centre of English Channel defense during World War I, as the base for the Dover Patrol. It was also bombed by airplanes and zeppelins (the first bomb to be dropped on England fell near Dover Castle on Christmas Eve 1914) and shelled by passing warships. A series of underground caves and tunnels in the cliffs were used as air-raid shelters (and as a military base, coordinating Operation Dynamo, whose ships landed at Dover) during the war and Dover became a wartime symbol as part of East Kent's 'Hellfire Corner'.

Education

See also Dover Grammar School for Boys

Sport

Dover Athletic F.C.

Dover Life Guard Club are Dover's competitive swimming club.

Places of interest

Dover Castle (Wikipmapia) Admiralty Pier Turret Dover Western Heights Fort Burgoyne North Downs Way Roman Painted House Saxon Shore Way

Other interesting places:

Dover Transport Museum Dover Museum, and Bronze Age Boat Kearsney Abbey Russell Gardens Samphire Hoe Nature Reserve Cowgate Nature Reserve Connaught Park Seafront promenade

Twin Towns

Huber Heights, Ohio Calais, France Split, Croatia

Location

Wikimapia

Publications

Statham, History of Dover, with a bibliography (London, 1899)