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The Dour - Barton Path - June 2001.
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The Dour - Maison Dieu Gardens - June 2001.
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The river Dour is about four miles
long with its main source at Watersend, near Temple
Ewell. An estate map of 1774 shows a tributary coming
in from the Alkham Valley but all that now remains of
this stream are the lakes at Bushy Ruff, from where
the stream flows into the main river at Kearsney
Abbey. Sometimes though, at times of particularly
heavy rain, this stream runs again, flowing over the
fields to feed the Bushy Ruff lakes once more. From
Kearsney Abbey
the Dour flows on through the town until it reaches
the sea via the Wellington
Dock.
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It is to the Dour that
Dover owes its existence. The valley cut by the river
through the chalk cliffs provided shelter to the earliest
settlers. The discovery of the Bronze
Age Boat shows that the valley has been inhabited
for at least 3550 years. In Roman
times the wide estuary of the Dour made a convenient
harbour, and for a while the Roman
fleet in Britain was based here. The estuary was
quite wide up to the time of the Norman Conquest but
over the years it silted up and the harbour moved
to the west of the river's mouth. |
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The Dour - Buckland Bridge c.1900.
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It also seems likely that the town
and river take their names
from the same root, although the two have parted company
down the centuries as pronunciation and spelling changed.
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Chitty's Flour Mill - Charlton c.1920.
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The Dour has had an industrial use since at least
AD 762, when the first written record of a Dover corn
mill was made. This mill, probably at Buckland,
was also the first recorded mill in Britain. Over
the years the Dour has supplied the energy for thirteen
watermills, of which eight were corn
mills, the others producing paper.
The river has been a source of power or water for
other industries, including iron foundries, saw mills
and a tannery.
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