So things are slowly starting to get back to normal here in deepest Wales, work is once again starting to reer its ugly head, but before everyday life consumes me completely I sorted a few of my favourite explores out from Dover over the years.
I have a long family connection to Dover, going back to the 2nd world war, my grandparents owned a house in Winchelsea Terrace, they would always tell me stories from that era, what war time life in Dover was like, as a child it sounded frightening but exciting.
Over the years as a child we enjoyed many family trips to the area, we'd always stop at The Heights for lunch and a wander.
A visit to Dovers amazing castle was always the real highlight though, I think I must have been around 13/14 when i first went down the tour of the tunnels of Hell fire corner, a brilliant section of underground tunnels underneath the castle used during the 2nd world war.
As with many of these tours theres always a section not open to the public, it annoyed & frustrated me at the time, it was marked in yellow on the 3d model it looked more exciting than anything else we were allowed to see, it was named Dumpy level....
As soon as I could drive myself and a group of mates from Eastbourne would regularly head to Dover, we'd always head to the Western Heights, back then it was all wide open, we'd explore everything we could, then would end up in the drop fort for a joint on the top watching the hovercraft go in and out.
1990's Drop Fort cool explore, terrible hair.
We visited the Heights many times over the years & always seemed to find new bits to explore,.
The Grand Shaft always sticks in my mind as we very nearly got caught by the police, three coppers turned up and all ran into the same entrance, they had a choice of three, they choose wrong...
2006 myself & Jackal were regularly making the drive up to Dover, we were starting to find more bits now, including some cool underground tunnels, just a bit of a squeeze over a metal gate was all that was needed.
My daughter Jess in the Detached with myself & Jackal, I think she was 6/7... she's 20 this year :0
North Entrance
This was the fortified access point to the Western Heights.
Just an easy nut risking squeeze over a metal gate, is St Martins Deep shelter.
My first visit into a deep shelter
So we had alot of fun up the Heights, but our attentions were starting to turn to Dover castle, imagine if we could find away in to the castle and have free run of the place?
who knows what we'd uncover.
So we started exploring areas around the castle and it turns out there's quite abit to see.
We didnt know at the time but we'd accidentally found Spur, we headed back at night with a pick axe to dig the ladder out so we could explore the top levels, still hoping it may lead in to the castle.
We were starting to get to know a couple of other explorers from Dover by now and were regularly heading up at the weekends to meet up with them, things were really starting go get abit more interesting, and we had a common interest buried deep inside the castle.
Now this next lot I'm gonna lump into one section of pics.
plotting rooms & Deep shelters.
Z Rockets
Fan Bay deep shelter
Lydden Spout deep shelter
South Forelands Deep shelter
Nik emerges from Hougham plotting room
A plotting room.. maybe South Forelands
After the shelters & plotting rooms we went on the search for more random bits around Dover, everyweekend we'd have more to explore, it never dissapointed...
Noahs ark rd airraid shelter
The tunnel would have been able to accommodate approximately 850 people at a depth below ground level that varied from 30' near the entrances to around 100' under the highest point of the hillside.
1880s channel attempt
In 1880 under the direction of Sir Edward Watkin, Chairman of the South Eastern Railway, a new shaft (No. 1 shaft) was sunk at Abbot’s Cliff, between Dover and Folkestone
D.o.e
They would have been built to provide storage, and were linked to a section of the Oil Mills tunnels.
Within the main tunnels, steps lead down to a bricked up entrance to the harbour railway tunnel, beyond which a platform is believed to exist. The access passage was reputedly built during the Second World War to allow casualties to be clandestinely brought in from ships arriving from the continent.
Oil mills
These tunnels in Limekiln Street were most likely dug in the early to mid 19th Century to extract chalk for burning and turning into lime
Continued....