Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Dover Castle


Visited this historic castle today.
We started at the garrison church, definitely a Saxon building from 4th to 6th century. But it has Roman stones and there may have been Christian worship here from the second century.

The castle is Norman with a 12th century keep. It has been garrison from the 11th century to the 1980s. Its greatest moment was being the command centre for the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk. Getting over 300,000 besieged soldiers out of France was regarded as a miracle at the time. We saw the secret WWII tunnels which directed the efforts of all military services in the area as well as housing a hospital. In the Cold War they were to house the regional government after a nuclear attack.
Called at a vineyard on the way back to Canterbury and bought some excellent English wine, after sampling of course.

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