Background Information

Known as 'The key to England', the great fortress of Dover Castle has played a crucial role in the defence of the realm for over nine centuries.

Commanding the shortest sea crossing between England and the continent, Dover Castle boasts a long and immensely eventful history. Its spectacular site above the famous 'White Cliffs' was originally an Iron Age hill fort, and still houses a Roman lighthouse, one of the best-preserved in Europe. The Anglo-Saxon church beside it was once part of a Saxon fortified settlement.

Here, soon after his victory at Hastings in 1066,William the Conqueror raised the first Dover Castle in earth and timber. From then on the castle was garrisoned uninterruptedly until 1958, a continuous nine-century span equalled only by the Tower of London and Windsor Castle. During the 12th and 13th centuries Henry II and his successors reared the mighty stone castle, creating here the first 'concentric' fortress in Western Europe. Dover hosted royal visits by Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Charles I's Queen Henrietta Maria: and from 1740 until 1945, its defences were updated in response to every European war involving Britain.

The Secret Wartime Tunnels The most intriguing of these developments took place deep beneath the castle, within the 'White Cliffs' themselves. To counter the threat of invasion from Napoleonic France, in 1797 a network of tunnels was begun, housing secure underground barracks for over 2,000 soldiers. This threat never materialised, but at the beginning of World War II the tunnels were recommissioned and later extended, becoming a bomb- proof nerve-centre for the defence of Dover and the coast.

The Finest Hour It was from these tunnels, in May 1940, that Vice-Admiral Ramsay inspired and directed 'Operation Dynamo', the evacuation of British and Allied troops from the Dunkirk beaches. Some 338,000 troops were eventually evacuated, allowing Britain to continue the war against the enemy across the Dover Straits. From June 1940 the castle was a frontline fortress, provisioned to withstand a six-week siege in the event of German invasion, and witnessing the air and sea battles which named this area 'Hellfire Corner'. The tunnels finally took on yet another role between 1962 and 1984, becoming the Regional Seat of Government which would have controlled the region in the event of nuclear war.

Today you can tour the Secret Wartime Tunnels and experience life as it was lived by the 700 personnel based here in the worst days of World War II. You can see the Command Centre where Sir Winston Churchill viewed the Battle of Britain, and relive the drama as a surgeon struggles to save the life of an injured pilot in the underground hospital. Sounds, smells and film clips from the time realistically recreate the atmosphere of wartime Britain. The cliff-top Fire Command Post, from which Dover's coastal guns were directed for the vital defence of the harbour and Channel approaches, also played an important role in both World Wars. Now furnished as it was in 1918, it enables visitors to imagine a soldier's life in the castle towards the end of World War I.

The Stone Hut, originally built in 1912 for the Royal Garrison Artillery, is being used as an archaeological store for the South East.On the first Friday of every month (or by pre-arranged booking), visitors can view changing exhibitions of treasures from across the region, including artefacts from both World War II and the Cold War.

The Medieval Castle Dover Castle is above all a great medieval fortress, the creation of King Henry II and his successors. Renowned for his demonic energy and violent rages, Henry ruled an empire stretching from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees. He strove to defend these vast domains by raising numerous castles, often of advanced design. The strongest and most impressive of all these 'bones of the kingdom', as a contemporary called them, was Dover Castle.

At its core stands the mighty keep or 'Great Tower', 83 feet (25.3m) high and just under 100 feet (30m) square, with walls up to 21 feet (6.5m) thick. Designed by 'Maurice the Engineer' and built during the 1180s, it houses three floors of rooms, the topmost being 'state apartments' for the monarch himself. As the ultimate strongpoint of the castle as well as an occasional royal palace, it could only be entered via a heavily fortified 'forebuilding': this also contains two chapels, the richly decorated upper chapel being dedicated to St Thomas Becket.

For all its strength, the Great Tower was not intended to stand alone. Around it Henry built a powerful curtain wall with fourteen square towers and two gateways, the earliest example of this type of fortification in Britain. Still more revolutionary was Henry's decision to begin an outer curtain wall, surrounding the inner wall. These three mutually-supporting lines of defence - Great Tower, inner and outer curtain walls - made Dover the first 'concentric' fortress in Western Europe.

Continued by Henry's son King John, Dover's defences were severely tested during the epic sieges of 1216-17 - the castle's other 'Finest Hour'. Standing almost alone in southern England against a powerful invasion force led by Prince Louis of France in support of rebel barons, the fortress resisted ten months of bombardment by siege engines, undermining by tunnels and eventually hand-to-hand fighting. Its survival literally saved Plantagenet England from becoming a province of France. Following the siege, John's son Henry III added three powerful new gatehouses and a fortified spur extension. These completed Dover Castle as the strongest fortress in medieval England, well worth a whole day's exploration.

The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johanssen; Zeffirelli's Hamlet, starring Mel Gibson; and To Kill a King, starring Dougray Scott.