The Famous White Cliffs of Dover
The Romans
The first recorded description of Dover describes the scene that
Julius Caesar saw in 55 BC when, with two legions of soldiers he
arrived off Dover looking for a suitable landing place and 'saw the
enemy's forces armed, in position on all the hills there. At that
point steep cliffs came down close to the sea in such a way that it
is possible to hurl weapons from them right down to the shore. It
seemed to me that the place was altogether unsuitable for landing.'
(Extract taken from Caesar's Commentaries Book lV.)
But they did land just along the coast
in Deal and a year later a full scale invasion followed. As an aid
to navigation for the Roman ships, two lighthouses, Pharos, were
built on top of the cliffs. One is on the east cliff and stands
adjacent to the church of St. Mary, in Dover Castle and is today in
an excellent state of preservation. A second Pharos was built on
the Western Heights, its remains were called in the 17th
century the Bredenstone and by some, the Devil's Drop of Mortar.
During excavation work for further fortifications of the site in
1861 the foundations of the tower were discovered and left exposed
in the wall of the Officers' Quarters.
The Defence of the Nation
The east cliff with its commanding
view over the channel is a position of natural strength and has
been the site of fortification since the Iron Age. The Castle dates
back to the 11th century but additions and alterations
have been made up to and including the twentieth century. Looking
up at the cliffs from Townwall Street, on the approach to the
Eastern Docks, you can see signs of massive tunnelling works at
various levels in the cliff below the Castle. The upper level of
excavation took place in Napoleonic times to provide cannon ports
and were used during World War I as an hospital. In World War II
this level was used to billet troops during the excavation of
Dunkirk. The lower levels housed the operations room for Channel
Command during the Battle of Britain and the rooms that Winston
Churchill used as his personal war-time headquarters.
It was at Churchill's insistence that
superior artillery positions were maintained along the White
Cliffs, leading perhaps inevitably, to the first gun installed
being called ' Winnie' . There were gun batteries along the cliffs
at St. Margaret's Bay, Langdon Bay, St. Martin's Battery and the
Citadel (the Western Heights) and at Capel near Folkestone. The
counterbombardment and anti-aircraft gun fire was directed from a
control room in the cliff complex.
On the west cliff, known as the
Western heights, are two Napoleonic forts linked by miles of
ditches. Construction of these began in 1804 and was not completed
until the 1860s. The Drop Redoubt, the smaller detached fort,
housed a team of Commandos in World War II. Their task would have
been to sabotage the port in the event of Dover falling to German
forces.
The White Cliffs in Song and
Literature
Vera Lynn
Mention the White Cliffs of Dover and
most people will think of the tune made famous by Vera Lynn.
(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs Of Dover is
one of the most famous of all the second world one-era pop
classics. It was a huge hit in 1942, summing up perfectly the
feelings of all the Allies towards the British people in their
brave fight against Hitler.
The words were written by Nat Burton
and the melody by Walter Kent - Burton was an American who had
never been to Dover, and is why he pictured the (unlikely) scene of
bluebirds flying over the cliffs!
Shakespeare
Perhaps the most famous reference to the
White Cliffs is the reason why Shakespeare Cliff is so called. In
King Lear, Act IV, Scene I, the Earl of Gloucester having asked
Edgar ' Dost thou know Dover?' says,
' There is a cliff, whose high and
bending head
looks fearfully in the confined deep:
Bring me to the very brim of it ...'
Edgar fools the blinded Gloucester
into thinking he is at the Cliff edge and describes the scene:
' Here's the place! - stand still
- how fearful
And dizzy 'tis, to cast one's eye so low!...
...half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire: dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.'
Shakespeare's mention of samphire
gatherers prompts a diversion from literature to an example of the
plant life which abounds on the chalk grasslands and even on the
cliff face. The Rock Samphire, a native perennial with small yellow
florets, was once a favourite vegetable, the leaves and stalk were
cooked and eaten like asparagus. Samphire gatherers collected the
plant by attaching themselves to a rope suspended from the cliff
top. In 1768 a highwayman escaped from confinement in the Castle by
way of a rope left by a samphire gatherer at the top of the Castle
cliffs.
Not all apprehended thieves got away
so easily though. In medieval times the cliff overlooking Snargate
Street called Sharpness Cliff was a place of execution. The
prosecutor had to double as executioner and throw the thief off the
cliff.
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnolds famous poem
- Dover Beach was published in 1867.
' The sea is calm tonight,
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits:- on the French coast, the light
Gleams, and is gone: the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.'
Elizabeth Taylor
The American writer and poet Alice Duer Miller (1874-1942) also
wrote a long poem called The White Cliffs.
The White Cliffs Of Dover is the title of a 1944
black-and-white film starring Irene Dunne and a young (and
uncredited) Elizabeth Taylor. The beginning of this second world
war film features aerial shots of the cliffs, as Susan and her
friend Sam approach England by sea.
World Cup Rugby
For the rugby World Cup NikeTown, in Oxford Circus, dedicated an
entire window display to their latest rugby advert. An epic
panorama captured the white cliffs of Dover towering high over the
Channel. Posted at intervals along the edge of the cliffs were
several England players in full kit. They looked stoically out to
sea like sentinels facing France.
Rolf Harris
Rolf toured the South East for Made in England, where he
undertook a journey of inspiration by visiting places that
were new to him to gain a new perspective on England. At the end of
the programme Rolf produced a painting influenced by the sites,
people and places he encountered on his journey.