The castle was then used for defence in WW1, from 1914-1918. As this was before radio communication became reliable, the only option was to use things such as naval flags. The Admiralty Lookout Platform was used for this during WW1.
From 1939-1918, during WW2, the castle was centre of communications through the war. It was also used as a base for British rescuee’s from Dunkirk. The military then remained stationed at the castle until 1958, and then it was handed over to the home office. The last role Dover castle had to play was when the casemate tunnels became the headquarters of one of the Eight Regional seats of Government in the 1960’s, to provide accommodation if there was a nuclear war. These were abandoned in 1984.
Present Day:
The castle is now used as a museum for educational and leisurable visits. Two out of the three wartime tunnels are open to the public; the annexe level is still to have work done to make it safe. Most of the medieval castle still stands aswell as the Roman lighthouse and Saxon church.
Features of Dover Castle
The most famous building at Dover is the Great Keep of Henry II. But this isn’t the oldest – The Roman Pharos is. The Romans originally started to develop Dover as a port, they placed one lighthouse in Boulogne, and two either side of Dover harbour. Only the one at Eastern heights still survives today. The Saxon Church of St.Mary-In-Castro has been around since 1000AD.
Henry II’s Keep:
Henry II became king in 1154. He spent about £6,000 on Dover castle between 1179 and 1188; most of this still survives today. The keep consisted of two upper floors which were residential, inside the building there was a well. Henry also built the surrounding curtain walls and started the walls of the outer bailey, which was continued by King John and then completed by Henry III.
The Inner Bailey:
The keep yard was protected by inner curtain walls. The keep yard accommodated monarchs, courtiers, ambassadors, soldiers and prisoners. The inner curtain wall has 14 square wall towers. Most of the walls date back to the 1750’s, back then they were built as barracks. Arthur’s Hall was built for Henry III to provide more modern accommodation than the keep in the 1240’s.
The Fore Building:
The fore building is a defensive entrance to the keep and has three towers. The towers didn’t have a roof so that defenders could fire down at enemies, but where then roofed in the 15th century.
The Well:
The well is an original feature, it is built up to the second floor just incase there was a siege and the basement was mined. The well was cut 122m, 400ft, deep just to reach water. The well also supplied piped water to the lower levels of the keep.
The Great Hall:
In the great hall the King would hole a court, talk with his officials, issue instructions, hear petitions and maintain justice. As this room is the main setting for banquets and entertainments, the room would be richly decorated with wall hangings. When the King wasn’t present the walls were bare, they only decorated it for when he arrived. The thickness of the outer walls around the bedrooms meant that there was enough space for guarderobes (toilets). Everyone ate, slept and lived in the main hall, only the King and monarchs had the privilege of privacy. There’s two bedrooms coming off of the great hall, both these rooms were modernized in the 15th century.
The Roof:
From on top of the castles roof you can see other fortifications; on the hill to the west you can see the earthworks of the Western Heights defences. You can also see barracks to the north of the castle which are part of Fort Burgoyne. The flat roof of the keep is from 1799 when it was constructed to hold heavy guns, you can still see some traces of the gun placements on the east side.
The Basement:
The basement was at ground level and was used for storage. It was mostly empty and rarely used. In the siege of 1216 it would have stored both provisions and munitions, eg: sacks of corn, dried food, ale barrels, firewood, arrows, long-bows and cross-bows. All these supplies were kept in the Keep until 1940. An oven was built at North-east of the keep and was used for bread making, this is the only evidence found for cooking going on within the keep, there was most probably a separate kitchen.
Tunnels
The Medieval Tunnels:
Because of the siege in 1216 some improvements were made to the defences of the castle. One of these improvements were the tunnels built by Hubert de Burgh, the stairs (built in the Napoleonic War) join a steep sloping passage built by de Burgh’s miners. The medieval tunnels were originally running through the castle bank then emerged into a short roofed passage which ended at St. John’s Tower. There is a short bridge leading to a tunnel on the North side of the tower, the medieval tunnels split into three here, but now two out of the three tunnels are blocked. The one surviving medieval passages leads to the Napoleonic guardroom.
The Wartime Tunnels (1790 – 1815):
These tunnels were built for defence against the French. Hellfire Corner was a weak position for England, because of Dover being so close to the French coast, the risk of attackers trying to gain England was at its biggest during the Napoleonic Wars. There was then investment in new defences to the castle, such as the Casemate Tunnels. As there was large numbers of men being drafted into the town, they all needed supplies and housing so British engineers built the casemate tunnels to accommodate them all, nothing like these tunnels existed anywhere else in Britain. There was no risk of attack from French warships as the tunnels were built safely underground, and too high up in the cliffs. In 1797 four more tunnels were constructed for soldiers’ accommodation, and then in 1798 two more tunnels were built for officers. The tunnels were brick lined so make sure they were stable, as chalk is a soft material.
The Wartime Tunnels (20th Century):
At the start of WW1 in 1917 the admiralty transferred their Port War Signal Station and wireless telegraph apparatus from Western Heights. Dover Castle was an important naval station as it was safe from attacks over sea and land. But in 1917 the tunnels were only in use for storage. When the Second World War broke out, Germany’s specialists tank forces had split the British and French army and the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) was trapped in Dunkirk. Vice-Admiral Ramsay planned to rescue the Allied forces; the plan was codenamed ‘Operation Dynamo’. He had arranged 15 passenger ferries at Dover and 20 at Southampton to go over to Dunkirk and rescue the troops. The harbour was filled with big ships, little ships, fishing boats and motor boats trying to lift off the troops. Overall 693 ships took part and 338,000 troops were brought back. Although this operation proved successful the had lost most of its heavy equipment, including 188 smaller craft, 8 passenger ships, a hospital ship, trawlers, minesweepers, a sloop and 6 destroyers. Whether this was a victory or defeat is an arguable point. But the whole thing had been planned sufficiently in 18th Century tunnels.
The Casemate Tunnel’s main use was as a communications centre, main military telephone exchange and the General Post Office Repeater (used to amplify telephone messages along land lines) station. These communication centres linked to a number of places, including; the admiralty, the war office, the air ministry, fighter airfields, anti-aircraft batteries, naval bases, coastal artillery and radar sites.
The Naval Headquarters for Dover Command, the Coastal Artillery Operations Room and the Anti-aircraft Operations Room were the three main headquarters situated within the tunnels. Additional tunnels were added as operations grew. One was built above Casemate, known as Annexe and one below Casemate known as Dumpy.
Annexe Level was mainly a Medical Dressing Station, which is where they dealt with injuries and wounds before the patients got transferred to proper hospitals. Its easy to spot the difference between the 18th Century tunnels and the 1940’s ones because the Casemate tunnels are large, with high ceilings and lined with brick, but the Annexe tunnels are much smaller, and lined with steel shuttering. Dumpy tunnel was used for a central operations room without disturbing the Admiralty Headquarters on the Casemate Level.
The tunnels took on a new role when the Cold War started; the navy had finally moved out in1958 and handed over the site to the Home Office. The intention was to use the castle in the advent of a nuclear attack. Large amounts of money were spent on modernizing Dumpy level by the Government. They brought new communications equipment, an air-filteration plant, improved generators and large stores of fuel and water. The concrete had a capping put on to help with the protection against nuclear contamination.
Three Eastern tunnels on Casemate Level were abandoned, but the contents were removed. The Western group were turned into dormitories and mess rooms.
Then in 1984 the Home Office abandoned the Dover tunnels, but again removing virtually removing all the equipment.