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Dover Castle: History and Stories
Commanding the shortest sea crossing between England and the continent, Dover Castle has a long and immensely eventful history. Known as the ‘key to England’, this great fortress has played a crucial role in the defence of the realm for over nine centuries, a span equalled only by the Tower of London and Windsor Castle.
Find out more about Dover Castle’s history below.
Key facts
- Dover Castle wasn’t the first structure high on the White Cliffs. There may have been an Iron Age hillfort here, and the Romans built a lighthouse on the hilltop to guide ships into the harbour below. The Anglo-Saxons added a church beside the lighthouse.
- William the Conqueror came to Dover and fortified it soon after the Battle of Hastings. But it was Henry II who, from 1179, began the building of the castle we see today, including the great tower and inner defences. His son John and grandson Henry III completed the royal castle’s defences and accommodation.
- In 1216–17 these defences were twice put to the test when the castle withstood epic sieges by French forces.
- After the Middle Ages, Dover was continuously garrisoned into the 20th century. Engineers remodelled the castle from the 1740s onwards to create a powerful artillery fortress.
- During the Second World War, the labyrinth of tunnels in the cliffs below the castle became a naval and later combined services headquarters. It was from here that Vice-Admiral Ramsay planned the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in 1940.
- The castle saw its final service during the Cold War, when the tunnels were equipped to serve as one of 12 Regional Seats of Government in the event of nuclear war.
Find out more
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History of Dover Castle
Learn about the long history of the castle, from its likely origins as an Iron Age hillfort, through its development as a great fortress, to its secret role in the Cold War.
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The Roman Lighthouse at Dover Castle
The Dover pharos is the most complete standing Roman building in England, and one of only three Roman lighthouses to survive from the whole of the former Roman Empire.
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The Angevin Empire
King Henry II, who built Dover Castle’s great tower, also created the largest European empire of his age, stretching at its height from Scotland to the Pyrenees.
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Thomas Becket, Henry II and Dover Castle
Discover why Henry II spent a fortune on Dover Castle – not to protect his kingdom, but to save face after the murder of Thomas Becket by Henry’s own knights ten years earlier.
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The Sieges of Dover
Read about the two sieges of Dover in 1216 and 1217 during King John’s reign, and the circumstances that gave rise to this attack.
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Eleanor de Montfort and the Siege of 1265
Caught up at the centre of a civil war, Eleanor de Montfort held Dover Castle against the king in 1265 after her husband and eldest son were killed in battle.
Dover in two world wars
Throughout the First World War, Dover harbour was one of the main links in the chain supplying Britain’s armies in Europe. Thousands of soldiers came to the area to defend the port at all costs, with their headquarters at the castle.
During the Second World War Dover was again on the front line, against attack from both air and sea. From 1939 the tunnels in the cliffs beneath the castle housed the command centre for naval operations in the Channel, and it was from here that the extraordinary evacuation of the British Army from Dunkirk was masterminded in May and June 1940.
Read more about Dover’s role in the Second World War – and watch this short film to see how English Heritage has restored an anti-aircraft gun used in the First World War and now at Dover Castle, where identical gun batteries were used to see off German Zeppelins.
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Fortress Dover and the First World War
Use our virtual tour to explore a building at Dover Castle that played a vital role in safeguarding Dover as a garrison and naval base in the First World War.
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Operation Dynamo: Things You Need to Know
Find out the key facts about Operation Dynamo, the near-miraculous evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940, which was controlled from Dover Castle.
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The Fall of France in 1940
On 22 June 1940 the French government surrendered to Hitler, just six weeks after the Germans’ initial advance westwards. Find out why France collapsed so quickly.
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D-Day Deception: Operation Fortitude South
In 1944, Dover Castle’s tunnels played a supporting role in an elaborate deception that concealed the true location of the D-Day landings from the Germans.
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Dunkirk on the Home Front
Read some of the personal stories of what it was like to work in the tunnels beneath Dover Castle in the gruelling, hot days of May and June 1940.
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Wartime Tunnels Collection Highlights
From weapons and technology to uniforms and personal possessions, these objects provide a glimpse into the lives of those who served in the castle’s tunnels.
More Resources
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Buy the Guidebook
Packed with plans, reconstructions and historic images, this guidebook tells the story of how the castle’s defences were adapted to meet the needs of modern warfare right up to the Cold War.
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Plans of Dover Castle
Download these PDF plans of Dover Castle to see how this great fortress has evolved over time.
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Dover on the Front Line
This guidebook tells the story of how a network of tunnels, first cut within the white cliffs during the Napoleonic Wars, played a vital role in Britain’s defences in the Second World War.
Dover Castle Timeline
800 BC - AD 43Iron Age Hillfort
Massive earth ramparts and ditches are constructed, which will provide the foundation for the medieval castle's curtain walls. Regular cross-Channel trading takes place.
115-40A Roman Lighthouse
The Romans build a lighthouse here to guide ships into the harbour, the base of the fleet patrolling the Channel.
