Dover Castle
Dover Castle is situated in Kent and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history.
Early fortifications
Originally fortified (earthworks) by native Britons before the Romans invaded in AD43, It was built near the site of an 80 foot (24 m) high Roman lighthouse (or Pharos), which still survives.
Immediately next to the Pharos is the Anglo-Saxon church of St. Mary-in-Castro, which is about 1000 years old. It was placed in that spot so that it could use the Pharos as a bell-tower.
The first castle was probably a Saxon fort, but after the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror improved the fortifications, building a motte and bailey design castle.
Henry II's castle
It was during the reign of Henry II that the castle began to take recognisable shape. The inner bailey and the great Keep belong to this time.
The siege of 1216
Main article:First Barons' War
In 1216, a group of rebel barons invited Louis VIII of France to come and take the English crown. Canterbury, Rochester and London had already fallen to Louis, and King John's forces were besieged by Prince Louis at Dover. The constable of the castle, Hubert de Burgh had successfully defended the castle at Chinon in 1205 and he had a well-supplied garrison of men.
The siege began on 19 July. Louis' men successfully undermined the barbican and attempted to topple the castle gate, but De Burgh's men managed to repulse the invaders, blocking the breach in the walls with giant timbers.
After three months spent besieging the castle, Louis called a truce on 14 October and soon after returned to London. However the Dover garrison repeatedly disrupted his communication with France, and Louis returned to Dover to begin a second siege on 12 May 1217. However, with many of his men involved in the siege, he suffered heavy defeats in the Second Battle of Lincoln on 20 May 1217. After another defeat at the Battle of Sandwich, Louis gave up his claim on the English throne. Dover Castle had stood firm.
The secret wartime tunnels
Massive rebuilding took place at the end of the eighteenth century, during the Napoleonic Wars, which included the creation of underground tunnels to serve as troop barracks. Conditions in the castle itself had become too crowded with the new defences requiring large numbers of additional soldiers to be housed. The solution adopted by the Royal Engineers was to create a complex of 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 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).
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.
See also
- World Heritage Programme: Castle preservation Worldwide
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