The British 3-inch gun, the only working example of just six left in the world, was built in 1915, and was one of the early guns specifically developed to combat the new threat of aerial warfare. After months of restoration work, it has been installed at Dover Castle as part of an authentically recreated 1915 anti-aircraft emplacement, where regular weekend firing demonstrations will be given by a specially trained team of costumed English Heritage volunteers.

Visitors will be able to first experience the gun being fired on the 1-2 August, at the castle's ‘1915 – Dover at War’ event. This comes almost exactly one hundred years after the first successful hit on a Zeppelin by an identical anti-aircraft gun, controlled from Dover Castle’s Fire Command Post.

The building housing the Fire Command Post and Port War Signal Station has now been conserved and re-presented. With a panoramic view over the Straits of Dover, these command and control centres were crucial in protecting the harbour and approaches, controlling the guns around the coast and monitoring the thousands of naval and merchant ship movements in the Channel.

Visitors will now be able to experience what it might have been like to live and work here via a range of replica and original artefacts. They can try communicating in Morse code, learn semaphore and how to spot enemy or friendly ships.

Paul Pattison, Senior Properties Historian for English Heritage said: “Dover Castle was critically important to the defence of Britain during the First World War, standing guard above the English Channel and helping to defend the nation from the new threat of aerial warfare. This project brings to life the story of the soldiers who manned this front line, monitoring the channel and firing newly developed anti-aircraft guns.”

Stuart McLeod, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund South East, said: “The story of Dover and its castle, which was used as a fortress and key site for British troops during the First World War is relatively unknown but of crucial significance. Thanks to National Lottery players, this project will bring its story to life and show, for the first time, what happened there during this world changing conflict. By restoring some of the castle’s historic First World War features and creating a first-class volunteering and learning programme, people of all ages, from near and far will be able to fully appreciate Dover’s wartime heritage.”

The Dover area was officially designated as a Fortress during the First World War, containing a garrison and training camps for over 10,000 men, and this £490,000 project has recruited local volunteers to help tell the story of this important chapter in the town’s history. It has been made possible, thanks to National Lottery players, by a grant of £272,600 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and aided by support from The Friends of Dover Castle.

The event, ‘1915 – Dover at War’ takes place on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 August 2015 at Dover Castle, and will feature First World War cavalry and falconry displays, an Edwardian dancehall, and plenty of activities for kids, including the chance to sit in a replica biplane. The event starts at 10am, tickets are available on the door or in advance from www.english-heritage.org.uk

Notes

In 1905 the obsolete Hospital Battery above the southern cliff in Dover Castle was converted to a Fire Command Post by the Army to control all the coast defence guns around Dover harbour. In 1914 the Admiralty moved its Port War Signal Station to new quarters immediately above it and played a fundamental role in controlling the shipping entering and leaving the new 610 acre Admiralty harbour below the castle.

When Dover became the target of the first recorded bombing raid on Britain from a German aeroplane (on 21 December 1914), very few anti-aircraft guns and searchlights protected the town and harbour. The anti-aircraft defences developed only slowly in 1915, when one searchlight was placed on the roof of the great tower and two anti-aircraft guns were placed near St Mary-in-Castro. The great tower itself was used as an armoury, and part of Constable’s Gate became a military hospital. Vacant land around the castle was used for cultivating vegetables after 1917, when food became scarce.

In the Second World War, the Fire Command Post and Port War Signal Station were commissioned again, and the whole building given its surviving concrete cover, to protect against air attack.

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