Dover

From Dover to Calais is the shortest distance across the English Channel between England and France. Consequently, there is evidence of Dover being used as a port for thousands of years.

Above today’s cross channel port, the famous white cliffs is a strategic position where the Romans built a lighthouse.Later, the Normans built a castle which was extended and improved up until the mid-20th century. Of particular interest are the secret war time tunnels that played a pivotal role in the defence of the UK during the Second World War.The Operation Dynamo exhibit tells the story of the evacuation of Dunkirk which was co-ordinated in the tunnels.

Close to Dover castle is the Drop redoubt, an abandoned fortress built in the late 1700s early 1800s. It was built to defend against the threat of invasion from the French under Napoleon Bonaparte.

A 10 minute drive from the town centre is the Battle of Britain Memorial. A memorial to whom Sir Winston Churchill described as ‘the Few’.The few being the pilots of fighter command that desperately defended the United Kingdom against Nazi Germany’s planned invasion in the summer and early Autumn of 1940.