The first weekend of our Kent holiday
Kent Was our destination for the week, a converted dairy on the nearest farm to France! (So the war time history said) It was in fact in Reach Court farm in the village of St Margarets-at-Cliffe, Dover. Within a few minutes walk of the famous white cliffs.
Having had a good journey, only 130 miles, we settled into our cottage and took ourselves on an exploration of the area, by foot of course.
This was our home for the week. You can just see our red door on the right.
This area around Dover has a large amount of history associated with the second world war in particular, but being close to France, previous invasion attempts as well. We passed numerous reminders of this history on our way to the cliff top/ walk, in the form of posts and notices reminding us of the legacy of the great conflict.
We arrived at the cliff edge and were treated to spectacular views of the coast line including the entrance to Dover harbour, just along the coast.
Part way along the walk we came to South Foreland Lighthouse. As a national Trust property we had free access, today being an open day - lucky us! Our guide was very knowledgeable and passed on a lot of information, not only of this lighthouse, but an insight into the life of lighthouse men in general through the ages.
This particular lighthouse was the first one anywhere in the world to use electricity to power its light. Prior to this, it had gone from a fire on the top of a tower (1635 possible), to oil fired lamps (1793) using whale oil, and onto using a similar oil as Rapeseed oil. The first electric light was simply a spark jumping between two carbon rods before moving onto the primitive early bulbs in the early 20th century. The electricity was first generated by a steam generator which had to be specially built. This was in the days before mains electricity.
The need for a lighthouse here is mainly due to the Goodwin Sands, notorious for its many shipwrecks.
Sunday dawned very dull so we did not travel very far before lunch. We booked sunday lunch in the village at the White Cliffs pub and it was a great roast beef lunch. Then we headed a short distance along the coast to Deal to see if I could get a hot water bottle, as I was very cold last night! No joy, but by this time the misty cloud was beginning to lift so we headed back to St Margarets Bay to take a few images and see if a walk along the cliff top would produce any butterflies. Rosey managed to find one that she had not photographed before, which was worth the walk.
Some properties were a bit more humble!
Some a bit more elegant
Some of the properties built along this cliff are amazing, and the view! - well amazing in all weathers, I would expect.
We ended our walk here, by the Dover Patrol Monument. The Dover Patrol Monument is a war memorial designed by Sir Aston Webb to commemorate the Royal Navy's Dover Patrol of the First World War. Two identical granite memorial obelisks, 75 feet (23 m) high, were erected near Dover and Calais in 1921 and 1922. A third was erected in Brooklyn, New York, in 1931. The UK monument became a Grade II listed building in August 1966, promoted to Grade II* in August 2015.
The Dover Patrol was formed in July 1914, around a nucleus of the 12 Tribal class destroyers. Through the First World War, a variety of craft served in the patrol—cruisers, destroyers old and new, submarines, mine-sweepers, armed trawlers and drifters, armed yachts, motor launches and other coastal craft—as well as a variety of aircraft - flying boats, aeroplanes, and airships. From time to time, French destroyers were included in the patrol.
he patrol covered the southern part of the North Sea and the eastern portion of the English Channel, including the Straits of Dover. Its duties included escorting merchant ships, hospital ships and troop transports; anti-submarine patrols; sweeping for German mines, and laying British minefields and anti-submarine nets; and bombarding German land forces on the coast of Belgium and northern France. It was commanded by Admiral Reginald Bacon from 1914 until his retirement at the end of 1917, and then by Vice-Admiral Roger Keyes. Six members of the patrol were awarded the Victoria Cross in a single action on 22–23 April 1918, for their part in the Zeebrugge Raid to block the entrance to the port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and so prevent German vessels from leaving port.
Some 2,000 members of the patrol lost their lives during the war. A committee was formed in November 1918 to raise a public subscription for the erection of a monument in memory of the patrol. Over £45,000 was raised, including £1,000 donated by King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians
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