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Lock and Key of the Kingdom

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Pencester Gardens
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Pencester Gardens may never have been built if some of the proposed schemes for this area had come to fruition.

When Pencester Road was laid out in 1860, it was intended to build a street, to be called Neville Road, from Pencester Road to Eastbrook Place but this never happened. About 1880 the land was acquired with the intention of using it for a Dover station in connection with the Channel Tunnel, which was then being planned to run from St Margarets.

When that project failed it was suggested that it be used for building a new Town Hall but in the end facilities were improved at the Maison Dieu instead. Other plans included a recreation ground and a relief road to ease congestion in Biggin Street. In its later years the site was used as a timber yard.

In November 1922 the land was purchased by the Corporation and the new gardens were laid out. Pencester Gardens opened in 1924, as well as the usual lawns and flowerbed there as also a play area for children and a miniature golf course. The gardens have been a pleasant green space in the centre of the town since then, and have provided a venue for many fetes and funfairs.

In 2000 a pavilion for band concerts and other performances was built to commemorate the new Millennium.

The Millennium Path, which runs around the pavilion, was completed in 2001. The path is made up of 100 flagstones each commemorating an event in Dover's history, each one sponsored by a local resident or business.
 

Image:  Pencester Gardens in the 1930s. Compare this view with the modern view (below) from the same standpoint in 2001.
Pencester Gardens in the 1930s. Compare this view with the modern view (below) from the same standpoint in 2001.

Image:  Pencester Gardens May 2001. The spire of the new Millennium Pavilion almost exactly replicates the spire of new St James's Church, which was destroyed during World War 2.
Pencester Gardens May 2001. The spire of the new Millennium Pavilion almost exactly replicates the spire of new St James's Church, which was destroyed during World War 2.

Image:  A flagstone from the Millennium Path.
A flagstone from the Millennium Path.

 


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