Tuesday 22nd September – Dover, England

Just 5 minutes’ walk took us to the bus stop where we caught the 93 bus. Officially, the bus doesn’t stop at Dover Castle on the way into town but the driver very kindly dropped us off close to the entrance and pointed out the bus stop when we could catch the bus on the way home. We paid our entrance fee, reduced for seniors and further reduced because we arrived on public transport. Getting old is not all bad news! It still cost us over £20 each but there is a huge amount to see at the castle and it was very good value.
We entered over the very deep ditch and across the drawbridge at the Constable’s Gate. We explored the grounds and defences that have changed and expanded dramatically over the millennia since its origins as an Iron Age hillfort. One of the first places that we visited was the Church of St. Mary de Castro Church and the lighthouse. The church, built about 1100 pre-dates the castle but the lighthouse is Roman and is amazingly well preserved considering its age. The thin Roman bricks are very obvious in the lighthouse walls and there even seemed to be some of those bricks in the church. Perhaps they were taken from other Roman buildings? The preservation of the lighthouse can be explained by the fact that the building was reused as the bell tower of the church.

The wartime command tunnels where the defence of the English Channel was controlled, were closed for refurbishment – a great pity as I really wanted to see them. However, the tunnels used as a hospital in WWII were open and we joined a very good guided tour of them.

We then walked up to the Great Tower, the keep in the inner bailey of the castle. The Tower, built in the late 12^th century, has a well used to supply fresh water to the occupants, especially useful in times of siege. The well was sunk into the chalk of the hill and then continued in brick up through the tower. The guide in the well room threw some water down the well and we waited to hear when it hit the water below. I was quite convince that it had hit the side of the well but after 10 seconds there was a loud noise as it reached the bottom. The well is currently 300 feet deep but, when it was built, it was 400 feet deep. That was a very impressive bit of engineering for the 12^th century and I was very glad that I wasn’t the man digging the shaft that was less than 3 feet wide down through hundreds of feet of chalk and into the water below.

Photos: The Constable’s Gate; The Roman Lighthouse next to the church and with the Great Tower in the background; 19^th century graffiti in the Avranches Tower; Approaching the inner bailey and Great Tower; The well in the Great Tower.