At the Vanguard of History: a Day at Dover Castle by Greg Cook
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A visit to Dover Castle and its wartime tunnels is more than just a day out, it’s a journey through two thousand years of English history. And with a two million pound facelift recently completed, there’s never been a better time to immerse yourself in its fascinating story.
Over the last two millennia, these 93,000 square-miles of stranded rocks we have now come to call the British Isles have been assailed by a litany of invaders. Some came here to settle quietly; others came to conquer and expand their empires. Plenty were successful, and their cultural influences changed our society forever. Many have been successfully repelled throughout the centuries, right up until the last, but all share one fundamental point in common – they have created the events that shaped our history.
As the closest crossing point to and from continental Europe, the coastal shores of Kent and East Sussex resonate, maybe more than anywhere else in Britain, with the history of our invasion. Take even a cursory stroll along any of the sand and shingle beaches ranging the perimeter of these two counties, and you are likely to stumble across concrete pillboxes left from WWII, or the stubby turret of one of the 74 remaining Martello Towers constructed at the turn of the 19th century to defend against a potential attack by Napoleon’s army. In east Kent, you may visit even earlier fortifications at Reculver or Richborough – both constructed by a newly arrived Roman Empire.
All of these historic remnants delineate the continued importance of this coastline as the obvious beachhead for invasion and the vital strategic importance of its defense. At the historical and geographic heart of this fascinating stretch is mighty Dover Castle. A sprawling complex straddled across the shoulders of those iconic white chalk cliffs and encompassing two-thousand years of history, it was with good reason this imposing fortification was dubbed “Guardian of the Gateway to England.”
With the busy port of Dover still bustling below, the castle stands astride the cliffs behind, crowning the scene and exuding the same air of solid implacability that has seen it through sieges and assaults throughout the centuries. In fact, its own stoic survival is what now makes a trip to Dover Castle such a rich and rewarding experience. Nowhere else in Britain could you visit a Roman lighthouse (or Pharos) directly adjacent to a Saxon chapel, surrounded by 18th-century barracks and set in front a magnificent 12th-century keep, built by Henry II. It is also the largest of its kind in the country – all surrounded by a medieval outer curtain-wall containing no less than 20 separate towers laid out over an area that was already a major fortified earthwork as far back as the Iron Age.
It’s no surprise then that the castle complex is one of English Heritage’s flagship sites, a perennially popular attraction enthralling over 300,000 visitors a year and a responsibility that the body takes extremely seriously, not only in terms of preservation, but also in the context of providing visitors with the richest experience possible. Long gone are the days when visiting a medieval castle amounted to another soggy tramp around an old pile of stones, and to that end, the Heritage have just spent two-million pounds on refurbishing the site.
In term’s of ‘retro’ interior design, this is probably the last word, as a team of experts, including historians and skilled craftspeople, have collaborated to meticulously recreate living conditions inside the keep, including kitchens, an armoury, royal furnishings and all the trappings of pomp and pageantry that would have accompanied the occasion of a royal visit around 1184.
Throughout Europe, Henry II was regarded as one of the greatest castle builders of the age, and the Great Tower itself was designed and constructed primarily as lavish quarters for the king to accommodate and entertain important guests. Visitors will have the opportunity to tour newly presented rooms over three floors, dressed and re-displayed to authentically represent a suite of rooms including the King’s Hall, the King’s Chamber, the Great Hall, where the King and his entourage would have taken their meals, and the Guest Chamber, where important guests would have slept.
Dr Edward Impey, Director of Research and Standards at English Heritage explains, “We are attempting a representation feat never tried before. The age, status, size and historic fabric of the rooms make this a real challenge, and we are very lucky to have the help of so many talented people. A research programme delving into the material culture of northern Europe in the 12th century, from table linen and wall hangings to door knockers and armoury, has been amazingly fruitful. Through it we are bringing the best of scholarly thinking to inform the design of the individual pieces of furniture and artefacts and the complete re-dressing of the rooms, bringing a medieval palace back to life and hope to give visitors a surprising and delightful glimpse of the Middle Ages.”
There’s no doubt that the interior of Dover Castle will soon be delivering a visual experience to equal the spectacle it cuts against the skyline. However, what makes this complex special for so many visitors is a facet hidden, quite literally, below the surface. Although iconic cliffs on which the castle stands seem solid enough, behind their implacable bone-white faces a centuries-old secret is concealed:
A honeycomb network of tunnels burrowed from the soft chalk over centuries, puncture the rock below the fortress on three interconnecting levels, and the story of their clandestine purpose is every bit as enthralling as the history of the castle above.
First dug during the middle ages, the earliest tunnels were intended as a protected line of communication between the castle and soldiers manning its most distant northern perimeter defences. However, it wasn’t long before these excavators realised that widening the tunnels would allow for troops to gather below ground in preparation for a surprise attack upon the enemy. This concept was grandly elaborated on during the Napoleonic Wars at the end of the 18th century by the military engineer William Twiss, who was also charged with improving the castle’s over-ground defences.
With Dover overflowing as a major garrison town preparing itself as the front-line for possible French invasion, the necessity arose for extra barracks and storerooms. Twiss and his Royal Engineers solved the problem by expanding the tunnels and digging a whole new level fifteen metres beneath the surface, where, by 1803, some two-thousand troops with their equipment were garrisoned and ready to ambush invading French soldiers. The attack never came, and descriptions of life lived below ground in dark and damp conditions under the threat of frequent cave-ins probably account for why these were the only underground barracks ever to be built in Britain.
However, this was by no means the end of the story for the tunnels. Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the history of this subterranean realm is its most recent – a role played within living memory as the base of operations for Admiral Ramsay’s coordination of the British Expeditionary Force’s evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk. Operation Dynamo, as it was christened, had its nerve centre deep within these tunnels, where Ramsay and his staff worked unceasingly for nine days.
Initial estimates placed the best outcome at returning a little over 10 percent of the near 400,000 strong body of troops sent over to France. Yet, by the fourth of June, a total of 339,000 had been rescued, including 138,000 French soldiers. One of the greatest potential allied disasters of the Second World War was not only averted but actually became a propaganda victory, with tales of “The Dunkirk Miracle” galvanising the nation at large.
Tours down here take place daily but are limited to a thousand visitors per day to preserve the integrity of the tunnel’s fabric, so it pays to get here early. Once inside, visitors are set on a path following the plight of a fictitious pilot shot down over the coast, and the rush to save his life provides the opportunity for visitors to immerse themselves in what it must have been like to have lived and served in this complex during those dark hours, as they are swept further and further into the bowels of the rock past perfectly recreated dormitories, canteens and washrooms to a makeshift operating theatre, sparsely efficient and equipped exactly as it would have been at the time.
Onwards from here is the nerve centre for coordinating the protection of Allied ships, the plotting room, which has been restored using photographic reference of the time in such immaculate detail it feels like the personnel who staffed this room may have exited only moments before you entered – their voices still seeming to echo amongst the tables, charts and telephones
It should come as no surprise that, with such a uniquely expansive historical provenance, Dover Castle is one of English Heritage’s most popular attractions – a nationwide favourite alongside landmarks such as Stonehenge and Osbourne House. As such, it has recently been given a well-deserved two-million pound government grant, which, along with two-and-a-half million pounds of the Heritage’s own money, will be used over the coming months to make the day that can be so easily spent here an even richer experience.