Category: England

I haven’t done any formal study of British history, although I have a smattering of disjointed information from reading historical novels. Research before we left Australia included some audiobooks on medieval English history, but it is still a jumble I haven’t sorted out in my head. Nevertheless, I think I’m a lot more sorted on 1066. The Battle Abbey and Battlefield museum was excellent.

I have often wondered how the Normans were able to take England when they came over by boat but now I have a much better understanding, which I started trying to explain in this post. After a while I decided if you are as (weirdly) interested as I was (and why should you be?) you can google it.

William the Conqueror built an abbey at the site of the Battle of Hastings partly to atone for the terrible bloodshed which appalled even the people at the time who were used to such atrocities. Unfortunately, this was destroyed in the reign of Henry VIII by Cromwell.

I made a few wrong directions to Dover Castle. It took a while to get used to the roads in the South of England. Google maps and the car navigator weren’t as helpful as in other regions. Even the road signs worked against me. We saw brown road signs with a picture of a castle, so thought we’d follow this in preference to google. I realised after having trouble finding several castles, that the images were of sandcastles (signs to beaches).

Dover Castle is huge, well-preserved but not as pretty as other castles we have seen. The cliff on which it is situated (opposite France) has been used for defense since 800BC and the Romans built a lighthouse here in AD43. Dover Castle was built by the Normans in the 12th century and has been adapted since that time to new weapons and strategies of warfare, including secret war tunnels built in WWII. We did a tour through the war tunnels (built into the cliffs) and walked through the medieval tunnels built at the base of the hill.

We could have spent far longer than the three hours we explored Dover Castle. Derek (tired from the early start and the introduction to driving on the motorway) was persuaded by the National Trust volunteers to buy a guide book, despite not giving in to this pressure throughout Ireland.  I think a reasonable proportion of people in Perth must be from the south of England – there is a strong similarity in driving styles.

I have never seen a castle before this trip, so I didn’t understand it when people said they got tired of looking at castles. I understand it now and I’m relieved I think there’s only Edinburgh Castle to go. I felt over-whelmed with historical content as we went to museums and castles in England’s south. Imagining life in past times sometimes gave me a slightly disconnected feeling as though my own life was part of an apocalyptic futuristic novel /movie.

We arrived at Heathrow after a very early flight from Dublin, collected a car, and drove to Dover. Dover as a deliberate destination is apparently original and a source of hilarity to some of our English hosts. When asked about the places we have visited in England, we’ve found it best to be vague. This avoids a blank look, or even an incredulous. “You came to London and drove straight to Dover?” In Hexham, a delightful medieval city on Hadrian’s Wall, our host said, “I’ll dine out on this for weeks!”. I said she could stretch it as much as she wished so she said, “I’ll tell everyone you spent your nine weeks in Dover!”

Derek has long wanted to see The White Cliffs of Dover. Sometimes we hear about places in our childhood and they retain a place in our hearts. Our afternoon in Dover was interesting and with its iconic white cliffs, and fascinating Dover Castle, we are glad we included this destination. However, having subsequently been to Cornwall, Cotswolds, Snowdonia, Lakes District and Scotland, I’m very pleased we went to Dover at the start of our time in England, and not the end.