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| Dover is
a giant among castles. It has the longest recorded history
of any major castle in Britain. Indeed Dover Castle
began before history itself, its earliest rampart defences
date back to the prehistoric Iron Age. Then the Romans
built a pharos
(lighthouse) here in the first century AD. The same
tall headland, already partially defended, was resettled
in the tenth century or earlier by the Anglo-Saxons.
They built a burh, a fortified town, of which St
Mary-in-Castro was the church. |
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The bulk of Dover Castle,
as we know it today, dates from a century after the
Norman Conquest. Soon after the Battle of Hastings,
in the autumn of 1066, William the Conqueror spent eight
days at Dover strengthening fortifications which had
only recently been rebuilt by the defeated Harold. Yet
neither William's works nor those of Harold are identifiable
today and, with the exception of the church
and pharos,
the masonry of Dover Castle dates from the twelfth century
or later. |
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Most monumental is the great square tower, or keep,
built in the 1180s for King Henry II (1154-89). Also
of the1180s are the walls of the keep's surrounding
court (the inner bailey),
as is a stretch of outer
curtain wall towards
the east. The remainder of this substantial outer curtain,
with its sophisticated gate houses and many flanking
towers, is chiefly the work of Hubert
de Burgh, Constable of Dover (1202-32), and his
successors under Henry III.
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After the thirteenth
century little of substance was added to the Castle
before the present barracks were built and the defences
remodelled, starting in the 1740s. It was then that
the Castle, after years of neglect, entered a new lease
of life. The Georgians
and Victorians stripped Dover bare, towers were
lowered to create positions for artillery and the outer
defences strengthened. |
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The Castle continued in use as a military base until
the second half of the twentieth century. The underground
tunnels cut into the cliffs
in Napoleonic times came into their own during the Second
World War as a bomb proof base for military command
in the area. After the war the barracks within the Castle
fell into disuse and some were demolished. However it
wasn't until the end of the Cold War that Dover's defensive
role finally came to an end when the Regional Centre
of Government, deep in the cliffs, which would have
been activated in the event of a nuclear war, was decommissioned.
The Castle is now a major
tourist attraction.
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