| |
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Dover
|
|
|
(34,000 in 1991)
Seaport on the south coast of England, in Kent, which is the nearest English town to the mainland of Europe. As such its history has been much tied up with the crossing of the *Strait of Dover. In modern times this has included its role as the main embarkation point for Channel ferries, as a starting point for attempts at *swimming the Channel, and as a terminal of the *Channel tunnel. But in the past it meant being a first line of defence against invasion.
|
|
|
|
|
A Bronze Age ship, dating from about 1000 BC, was discovered in 1992 some 7m/23m below the present ground level in the centre of Dover; about 15m/50ft long, and one of the oldest surviving boats in the world, it probably sank in an estuary which long ago silted up.
Julius Caesar landed here in 55 BC, and in later centuries Dover developed as the Roman town of Dubrae or Dubris; a Roman lighthouse is still incorporated in the castle (mainly Norman in origin but much altered).
|
|
|
|
|
The profusely ornamented large cannon aiming out to sea from the castle (more than 7m/23ft long and known as Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol) was given to Henry VIII by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. The town's strategic position caused it to become the chief of the *Cinque Ports. The famous white cliffs of Dover, a gleaming wall of chalk in places 114m/374ft high, have acquired great symbolic status as the last and first glimpse of England; they were the subject of one of Vera *Lynn's most popular songs during World War II.
|
|
|
|