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The monastery of St. Naum.
The monastery of St. Naum is located on the southeast side of Lake Ohrid, in the immediate vicinity of the Macedonian-Albanian border. Its building is linked to the name of St. Naum, the closest associate of St. Clement of Ohrid. Records about the life and work of St. Naum can be found in three literature works dedicated to his life. Also the Archbishop of Ohrid, Constantine Cavassila, wrote about him. In the Historical Archives of Ohrid there is a Chronicle written by a priest that lived in the second half of XIX century. It reveals a series of interesting details about the construction of the monastery, the estate of the church, and the lives of the monks. Among other things, there is a record about a disastrous fire that occurred on the night of 2nd and 3rd February 1875, when the largest part of the monastery compound was burnt to ashes.
Towards the end of his life St. Naum of Ohrid built the monastery St. Archangel where he was buried in 910. The church of Naum was similar to the monastery of Clement, St. Pantheleimon, and was built in a trefoil shape. In the course of the archaeological excavations carried out after the Second World War, only the foundations and part of the walls of that church were discovered. It is unknown when the church was ruined, but the assumption is that it happened before the arrival of the Turks.
During the Ottoman period (presumably XVI century), on the foundations of the original church the church that exists today was built in two phases. Today the church is cruciform in a square space with a dome supported by four pillars. A similar dome with a tall tambour was added onto the nartex. The tomb of St. Naum is located on the southern side, in a separate chamber. In the church there are no preserved frescoes from the time of St. Naum, nor have the excavations prove that there were any paintings in the beginning of X century. According to the inscriptions in the church, the frescoes were painted in the period of the priest Stefan, in 1806. They were painted by the fresco artist Trpo, son of the Master Constantine from Korcha, Albania.
Particularly impressive are the scenes from the life and miracles of St. Naum of Ohrid. They were painted in he second zone of the chapel above Naum's tomb. The five painted scenes were passed from one generation to another, and are deemed to be the miracles of Naum. These are: "Harnessing the Bear", "The Stupefied Monk Who Tried to Steal the Body of Saint Naum From His Tomb", "Healing of the Mentally Disturbed", "Horse Thief Who Was Caught at the Gates of the Monastery Church at Dawn" and "The Bucket Leaves Traces in the Rock". The belief that St. Naum was capable to heal the mentally disturbed predominates. According to some sources, a "hospital" was operating within the monastery in 1662. The iconostasis in the church was carved in 1711. The authors are unknown. They were influenced by the woodcarving traditions of Mount Athos and they created a genuine masterpiece. During the same year the artist Constantine painted the dais and the holiday icons. Most outstanding are the icons "Crucifixion" and "Entrance into Jerusalem". The icons of the iconostasis are treated as one of the best achievements from the first part of XVIII century.
Two Cyrillic and one glagolitic-cyrillic inscriptions dating from the period between the late X and XII centuries can be found on the pillars of the parvis. These inscriptions testify about the development of the oldest Slavic scripts, Glagolitic and Cyrillic, in the Ohrid region.
5 Coquet Street, Oamaru.
The first Oamaru Presbyterian church was constructed in 1865, but regular sermons had been preached from 1863 at the Hassells woolstore.
The first church was eventually demolished and the present church was built in 1875 over the existing foundations.
Inside the church are two memorial windows commemorating the world wars. The WWI memorial is a window in four lights in the west transept, while the WWII memorial is a two-light window on the west wall of the nave. In addition there are two extensive rolls of honour in the entrance porch.
St Paul's has a Heritage NZ Cat.1 listing.
So, here it is, the reason I drove across Norfolk: Trunch in all it's glory And it is glorious.
It has so many fascinating details, each one alone would be reason enough to visit, but together, in a fine village, next to the village pub, and with that font canopy, one of only four such in all of England, and one of two in the county.
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The oldest building in Trunch is St. Botolph's Church. It is mainly 14th. and 15th. Century but there are some fragments of stone in the walls which are believed to have been reused from an earlier Saxon church, which was recorded in the Domesday Book. There is much of interest in the church including a Rood Screen, a hammer beam roof and a rare Font Canopy.
trunchhistory.weebly.com/buildings.html
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The large village of Trunch is located about 5 miles from the north Norfolk coast. In the centre of the village, surrounded by a lovely collection of cottages and the more modern Crossroads Inn, is St Botolph's church. Much of what you see of the church is early 15th century, built upon earlier foundations.
Upon entering the church the first feature you will see is the font, which dates to the mid 14th century. Though the font is attractive, it is the carved and painted font canopy that really makes a visit to Trunch worthwhile.
This is a quite remarkable piece of woodwork, one of only four such canopies surviving in the entire country (the others are at St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, Durham Cathedral, and Luton). The canopy is supported on six beautifully carved legs. The carving detail is exquisite; with fanciful animal figures and foliage and a bit of political commentary, in the shape of a pig wearing a bishop's mitre.
In addition to the font canopy, Trunch features a superb 15th century hammer beam roof, a feature of many churches in Norfolk and Suffolk. Here the carvings of angels are beautifully performed. It is worth bringing along a pair of binoculars or a telescope in order to see the carvings properly.
Much easier to see are the medieval misericords (mercy seats) in the chancel. Each carving is unique; some represent angels, and others are more grotesque in nature. In addition there are some beautifully carved pew ends and a painted medieval rood screen that rivals many more famous churches in detail and colour.
There are 12 niches in the screen, each painted with a depiction of a single figure - 11 disciples plus St Paul. Much of the costume detail is well preserved, but the faces of the figures were destroyed during the upheavals of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.
www.britainexpress.com/counties/norfolk/churches/Trunch.htm
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William Earl Warren had the lordship of this town, (fn. 1) of which 3 freemen were deprived; one of them belonged to Herold, late King of England, another to Ralph Stalre, and the 3d to Ketel, who held 90 acres of land, and 14 borderers belonged to it, with 5 carucates among them; there was a church endowed with 10 acres, &c. 3 acres of meadow always valued at 30s. and there were also 5 freemen of Edric in King Edward's time, who had 34 acres of land, with 2 carucates, 2 acres and an half of meadow, always valued at 7s. 4d. (fn. 2)
This town also belonged to the Earl Warren's capital manor of Gimmingham, and paid suit and service to it. In the 34th of Henry III. Maud de Norwich granted by fine, to Richer, son of Nicholas, a messuage, 48 acres of land, a mill, and the sixth part of another in this town, Swathefeld and Bradfeld. In the 15th of Edward I. the Earl Warren claimed a weekly mercate, on Saturday, in this manor; and on the death of John Earl Warren, in the 21st of Edward III. the mercate was valued at 10s. per ann. the manor came after to the Earl of Lancaster, (as is before observed,) and so to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, and King Henry IV. and is still in the Crown, as part of the dutchy of Lancaster.
The tenths were 4l. 10s. deducted 15s.
The Church is dedicated to St. Botolph, and is a regular pile, with a nave, 2 isles, and a chancel covered with lead, and has a tower with 4 bells.
In the chancel, on a little monument,
Lancelotus Thexton cappellanus Regis Edw. VI. sacre theologie baccalaureus, et rector de Trunch obt. 25. Febr. 1588, and this shield of arms, quarterly, in the first and fourth a cross between four lions heads erased, gules, in the 2d and 3d, ermine, fretty, azure.
In a window here, argent, a fess between two chevrons, sable.
On a gravestone
Hic jacet Magr. Robt. Cantell, quo'd. rector isti. ecclie, qui. obt. 1 Sept. Ao. Dni. 1480.
Gravestones
In memory of Thomas Worts, gent. who died November 13, 1693, aged 45, with his arms, three lions rampant, - - - — William Worts. gent. who married Elizabeth, daughter of Riches Brown of Fulmodeston, Esq. died August 25, 1694, aged 60, with the arms of Worts impaling Brown; two bars, between three spears heads, - - -
¶The patronage of the church was granted to the priory of Castleacre, by William Earl Warren, the first on his founding that priory. In the reign of Edward I. the rector had a manse, and 13 acres of land valued at 16 marks, Peter-pence 13d. and the prior of Castleacre had a pension or portion of tithe valued at 40s. the present valor is 10l. 13s. 4d. and pays first fruits, &c. the Norwich registers say that William, the second Earl Warren, granted the patronage, and Eborard Bishop of Norwich, confirmed it; and that Simon the Bishop confirmed the pension in 1268.
www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol8...
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Trunch is the largest of the villages between North Walsham and the sea; but as all the industrialisation and tawdry caravan sites are hard against the coast, and Trunch is several miles inland, it has avoided these excesses and retains a great rural charm. It has a magnificent church with lots of fascinating treasures, as well as a shop, a green, a pub run by an ex-professional footballer, and generally all the typical features you expect to find in a large village in deepest rural Norfolk.
The church is perhaps the most interesting of all round about; and, while the large village lends it an urban quality that lacks the charm of, say, the churches of neighbouring Edingthorpe and Crostwight, it has by no means the Victorianised sterility of those at Bacton or Happisburgh.
St Botolph is a big church, and its tight graveyard makes it rather hard to photograph. The whole piece seems to have been rebuilt in the early 15th century, although the chancel may be a little later, and there is a hint of Decorated about the nave. The tower is quite simple, even slight. It builds boldly enough, but at the top of the second stage fades into a simple bell stage, understated, elegant and probably intended. This is not a building that shouts at you. A curiosity is the massive priest porch surrounding the door in the chancel. These are very unusual, although there is another, smaller one at neighbouring Knapton.
The great treasure, of course, is the marvellous font canopy. It is particularly fascinating because of its date, coming in the early 16th century right on the eve of the English protestant reformation. Like all church furnishings at this time - the tombs at Oxborough, for instance - it gives us a hint of what the English renaissance might have been like if it had been allowed to flower. Here, the massive structure tumbles with intricacy; fruit and flowers, leopards and lions peep around the silvery oak of the six octagonal columns which are fluted with interlocking chains of detail. The glory is the massive crown of canopied niches, with the haunting ghosts of crucifixion groups still apparent on three of the faces. The whole thing is at once in perfect harmony with the west end of the church, but exists because it was believed to be beautiful rather than known to be useful.There is only one other font canopy in Norfolk, at St Peter Mancroft in Norwich; Outside of the county there is another at Durham Cathedral, and a fourth at the parish church in Luton - but that is it.
Above the canopy is a rich 15th century hammerbeam roof, by no means as dramatic as that at nearby Knapton, but more beautiful, I think. In the space beneath the tower there is what appears to be a gallery like the plough guild gallery at Cawston. This is not as elaborate, but its oak has silvered and it is painted beautifully with trailing rose foliage.
The benching, unfortunately, is pretty much all 19th century, but along with the font canopy and roof the medieval screen survives. Like the canopy, this is richly ornamented in relief, including a bold dedicatory inscription in diagonal ribbons across the top part of the dado. The twelve figures (11 disciples and St Paul) are boldly placed and coloured, but their faces have been completely vandalised by the 16th century reformers. Low down on the north side of the doorway is a rare surviving carved consecration cross, suggesting that this screen was already installed in the newly built church of the 15th century. The screen had detached buttressing running vertically at intervals in front of it, as at Ludham. They have been almost entirely destroyed, but you can still see the fixings between the panels. It must have been magnificent.
The return stalls in the chancel are pretty much all Victorian, but they retain medieval misericords, and also you can see quatrefoil holes set into a sounding chamber to amplify the singing. There is a very curious memorial above the priest door, featuring the instruments of the passion. I have no idea how old it is.
All of these features would be enough, but part of the attraction of St Botolph is the sense of harmony, the way everything works together. You can add to these the sedilia, the magnificent organ, and the modern design of the glass in the east window. It is a peaceful, inspiring space.
Cottages and houses hem in the graveyard, and in the corner is the modern pub. Incidentally, I don't really know if the bloke who runs it is an ex-professional footballer. But, like many rural Norfolk landlords, he seems to be a cheerful 40-something cockney who serves a decent pint and cheap food - a recommended stop for churchcrawlers.
Simon Knott, April 2005
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/trunch/trunch.htm
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And the pub is still good.
I started work in Poole over 45 years ago and I have seen many changes around the town. I saw what was then the Arndale Centre ( now known as the Dolphin Centre ) being built. The quay is one of the most beautiful places to visit. Poole harbour being one of the largest natural harbours in the world and Brownsea island being within this harbour is now the home of the thriving red Squirrel population and the home of Boy Scout movement in England. The Poole Harbour area has been inhabited for at least 2,500 years. During the Iron Age, Celtic people known as the Durotriges lived in Dorset, particularly around Wareham, five miles ( eight km ) to the west. In the 3rd century BC, these Celtic people moved from hilltop settlements, such as Maiden Castle and Badbury Rings on the chalk downs to the north, to the lower vales and heathland around the River Frome and Poole Harbour. This marshy area may have lent its name to the Durotriges, which means water dwellers. The Durotriges engaged in cross-channel trading at Poole with the Veneti, a seafaring tribe from Brittany. The earliest significant archaeological find in the harbour is the Poole Longboat, a 10 metres ( 33 ft ) boat made from a single oak tree and dating to 295 BC. During that time, the harbour was shallower than it is today and any settlement would now be under water.
Poole Quay is a visitor attraction to the south of the town centre lined with a mixture of traditional public houses, new bars, redeveloped warehouses, modern apartment blocks and historic listed buildings. Once the busy centre of Poole's maritime industry, all port activities moved to Hamworthy in the 1970’s as the Quay became increasingly popular with tourists. The Grade II listed Customs House on the quay-front was built in 1814 and now functions as a restaurant and bar. Nearby the Grade I listed Town Cellars, a medieval warehouse built in the 15th century on the foundations of a 14th century stone building, houses a local history centre. Scaplen's Court, another Grade I listed building, also dates from the medieval era. Poole Pottery has been redeveloped into an apartment block. Boats regularly depart from the quay during the summer and provide cruises around the harbour and to Brownsea Island, the River Frome and Swanage. Public artworks along the Quay include Sea Music – a large metal sculpture designed by Sir Anthony Caro, and a life-size bronze sculpture of Robert Baden-Powell created to celebrate the founding of the Scout Movement on Brownsea Island. At the western end of the quay near the mouth of Holes Bay is Poole Bridge. Built in 1927, it is the third bridge to be located on the site since 1834.
Poole's Guildhall has played a varied part in the history of the town. A Grade II listed building, the Guildhall was built in 1761 at a cost of £2,250. The new building included an open market house on the ground floor and a courtroom and offices for the town council on the first floor and has also been used as a Court of Record, Magistrates' Court, Court of Admiralty and a venue for Quarter Sessions. Between 1819 and 1821 the building was consecrated as a Parish Church while the old St. James Church was pulled down and replaced with the present church. During the Second World War the building was used as a canteen and meeting room for American soldiers prior to the invasion of France. The showers and washing facilities installed at this time were later converted into public baths which were used until the 1960’s. The building was converted for use as the town museum between 1971 and 1991 but stood empty for the next 16 years. After a renovation project funded by Poole Borough Council, the restored Guildhall opened in June 2007 as a Register Office for weddings, civil partnerships and other civic ceremonies. Near to this is the Poole local history museum a modern looking building for so near older buildings but is hidden away in a corner of High Street. Inside it is Olde World appearance.
Catalog #: Iraq_00020
Collection: Edwin Newman Album
Album #: AL4-B
Page #: 6
Picture on Page: 3
Description : Foundations
Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
With a total of 117 houses and facilities, Jeju Folk Village has restored the scenes of the village to that of the 1890’s. Among them are Mountain Village, Hill-Country Village, Fishing Village and Shamanism Village. On land of more than 40 acres it has been reconstructed following long-term research and analysis of experts. Some of the extensive range of folk items on display are 1,627 woodenware, 1,046 bamboo ware, 1,699 earthenware, 1,544 porcelain ware, 765 wax candles, 921 ironware and 579 other items. The Jeju Folk Village is the island’s main tourist attraction where customs of the old days can be explored.
Since March 2006, Daejanggeum Mini Theme Park located at the Jeju Folk Village, offers various things for visitors to see. Many of the scenes from episodes 27 to 32 of the historical drama, in which Jang-geum learns medicine as a maid were filmed at Jeju Folk Village. In order to fit the theme of Daejanggeum, the separate locations have joined together, and are now open to tourists. Visitors can appreciate the amazing scenic beauty of Jeju as well as experience the traditional culture of Jeju at this theme park.
TOHUA - feestplaats - party and gathering place for meetings
The Marquesas Islands, UA POU, French Polynesia, Pacific ocean
Archeological site de MAVIA - - - TAAKA TRIBE
A mysterious island with many archeological ruins makes for a wide choice of spectacular outings: the “tohua”, the ancient Marquesan site of song, dance and feasting; impressive platforms called “paepae hiamoe”- the foundations of ancient dwellings; the majestic stone sculptured tiki; the maraes; places of worship called "mea'e" and close to 7,000 rock carvings.
www.tahiti-tourisme.fr/downloads/6/tp_nuku_fatu_eng.pdf
Ua Pou is een eiland in de Stille Oceaan en maakt deel uit van de Marquesaseilanden (Frans-Polynesië). Het ligt ongeveer 50 kilometer ten zuiden van Nuku Hiva, het grootste eiland van de Marquesaseilanden. Het hoogste punt van het eiland is Mont Oave, die 1232 meter hoog is.
Ua Pu is the third largest of the Marquesas Islands, in French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. It is located about 50 km south of Nuku Hiva, in the northern Marquesas. Until the beginning of the 1980s, it was the most populous of the Marquesas Islands, because when the other islands were being ravaged by diseases introduced by European explorers and traders, the Catholic priests on the island finally took to quarantining the remnant of the native population inside their churches whenever visiting ships approached the island, thereby reducing their exposure to external diseases.
The center of the island is characterized by four high basalt pillars that reach high above the surrounding mountains. The highest of these pillars, Mount Oave (Mont Oave), reaches to 1,230 m above sea level and is the highest elevation in the Marquesas.
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The first of a pair of baseboards under construction, ready for my next major project.
The main component is plywood.
This is the upper surface. Lying on top is the end member of the second board already fitted with it's alignment dowels to match the completed board.
Pontefract Castle
Pontefract (or Pomfret) Castle is a castle ruin in the town of Pontefract, in West Yorkshire, England. King Richard II is thought to have died there. It was the site of a series of famous sieges during the 17th-century English Civil War.
History
Model reconstructing Pontefract Castle
The castle, on a rock to the east of the town above All Saints' Church, was constructed in approximately 1070 by Ilbert de Lacy. on land which had been granted to him by William the Conqueror as a reward for his support during the Norman Conquest. There is, however, evidence of earlier occupation of the site. Initially the castle was a wooden structure which was replaced with stone over time. The Domesday Survey of 1086 recorded "Ilbert's Castle" which probably referred to Pontefract Castle.
Robert de Lacy failed to support King Henry I during his power struggle with his brother, and the King confiscated the castle from the family during the 12th century. Roger de Lacy paid King Richard I 3,000 marks for the Honour of Pontefract, but the King retained possession of the castle. His successor, King John gave Lacy the castle in 1199, the year he ascended the throne. Roger died in 1213 and was succeeded by his eldest son, John. However, the King took possession of Castle Donington and Pontefract Castle. The de Lacys lived in the castle until the early 14th century. It was under the tenure of the de Lacys that the magnificent multilobate donjon was built.
In 1311 the castle passed by marriage to the estates of the House of Lancaster. Thomas, Earl of Lancaster (circa 1278–1322) was beheaded outside the castle walls six days after his defeat at the Battle of Boroughbridge, a sentence placed on him by King Edward II himself in the great hall. This resulted in the earl becoming a martyr with his tomb at Pontefract Priory becoming a shrine.It next went to Henry, Duke of Lancaster and subsequently to John of Gaunt, third son of King Edward III. He made the castle his personal residence, spending vast amounts of money improving it.
Richard II
The ruins of Pontefract Castle's keep
In the closing years of the 14th century, Richard II banished John of Gaunt’s son Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, from England. Following the death of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in 1399, Richard II seized much of the property due to Bolingbroke. Richard then shared some of the seized property around among his favourites. The castle at Pontefract was among such properties which was under threat. These events aroused Bolingbroke to return to England to claim his rights to the Duchy of Lancaster and the properties of his father. Shakespeare's play Richard II (Act 2, scene 1, 277) relates Bolingbroke’s homecoming in the words of Northumberland in the speech of the eight tall ships:-
Richard III
Richard III had two relatives of Elizabeth Woodville beheaded at Pontefract Castle on 25 June, 1483 - her son, Sir Richard Grey, and her brother, Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers.
Tudor Era
In 1536, the castle's guardian, Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy handed over the castle to the leaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace, a Catholic rebellion from northern England against the rule of King Henry VIII. Lord Darcy was executed for this alleged "surrender," which the king viewed as an act of treason.
In 1541, during a royal tour of the provinces, it was alleged that King Henry's fifth wife, Queen Catherine Howard, committed her first act of adultery with Sir Thomas Culpeper at Pontefract Castle, a crime for which she was apprehended and executed without trial. Mary, Queen of Scots was lodged at the castle on 28 January 1569, travelling between Wetherby and Rotherham.
Royalist stronghold
The garrison handed over the castle to John Lambert on 24 March 1649. On his way south to London, King James rode from Grimston Park to view Pontefract Castle on 19 April 1603 and stayed the night at the Bear Inn at Doncaster.
Royalists controlled Pontefract Castle at the start of the English Civil War. The first of three sieges began in December 1644 and continued until the following March when Marmaduke Langdale, 1st Baron Langdale of Holme arrived with Royalist reinforcements and the Parliamentarian army retreated. During the siege, mining and artillery caused damage and the Piper Tower collapsed as a result. The second siege began on 21 March 1645, shortly after the end of the first siege, and the garrison surrendered in July after hearing the news of Charles I's defeat at the Battle of Naseby. Parliament garrisoned the castle until June 1648 when Royalists sneaked into the castle and took control. Pontefract Castle was an important base for the Royalists, and raiding parties harried Parliamentarians in the area.
Oliver Cromwell led the final siege of Pontefract Castle in November 1648. Charles I was executed in January, and Pontefract's garrison came to an agreement and Colonel Morrice handed over the castle to Major General John Lambert on 24 March 1649. Following requests from the townspeople, the grand jury at York, and Major General Lambert, on 27 March Parliament gave orders that Pontefract Castle should be "totally demolished & levelled to the ground" and materials from the castle would be sold off. Piecemeal dismantling after the main organised activity of slighting may have further contributed to the castle's ruined state.
It is still possible to visit the castle's 11th-century cellars, which were used to store military equipment during the civil war.
Preservation
The ruins of St Clement's Chapel within the castle
Little survives of what "must have been one of the most impressive castles in Yorkshire" other than parts of the curtain wall and excavated and tidied inner walls. It had inner and outer baileys. Parts of a 12th-century wall and the Piper Tower's postern gate and the foundations of a chapel are the oldest remains. The ruins of the Round Tower or keep are on the 11th-century mound. The Great Gate flanked by 14th-century semi-circular towers had inner and outer barbicans. Chambers excavated into the rock in the inner bailey possibly indicate the site of the old hall and the North Bailey gate is marked by the remains of a rectangular tower.
The castle has several unusual features. The donjon has a rare Quatrefoil design. Other examples of this type of Keep are Clifford's Tower, York and at the Château d'Étampes in France. Pontefract also has an torre albarrana, a fortification almost unknown outside the Iberian Peninsula. Known as the Swillington Tower, the detached tower was attached to the north wall by a bridge. Its purpose was to increase the defender's range of flanking fire.
Wakefield Council, who own the site, commissioned William Anelay Ltd to begin repairs on the castle in September 2015, but work stopped in November 2016 when Anelay went into administration. The Council then engaged Heritage Building & Conservation (North) Ltd, who began work on the site in March 2017. A new visitor centre and cafe were opened in July 2017; but in April 2018 the council announced that they had terminated the contract with HB&C (North) Ltd, as no work had been done since mid-March, and they had not had any reassurances that the work would restart. On Yorkshire Day 2019, the restoration was completed, and the castle was removed from Historic England's "Heritage At Risk" list.
We saw no blue birds.
Yes, the White Cliffs of Dover, so revered they built a railway line down them to bring materials down when they built the eastern harbour arm, then abandoned the line.
That is the flat area to the left, what is left of an inclined plane from the top of Langdon Hole where a line went across the fields to join the main line at Martin Mill.
After the harbour was built, a tramway was to be built to serve a newtown to be built along the cliffs, but thankfully that plan never came to fruition, though I have seen the plans for terraced house all along our streets and the others up Station Road, and stretching halfway along to Ringwould.
I have no idea where those who would have lived in this new town would have worked.
Anyway, in the end money ran out and the war came.
We were here at seven in the morning looking for orchids before we went to Tesco.
Was bracing, but glorious, and well worth being out so early, and with no other people about too.
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In the 21st century, before anything is built, before a spade breaks the earth, a whole series of legal processes must take place to ensure that no one's point of view is not heard.
Our Victorian forebears had no such issues of course, if they saw that something needed to built, then whatever was in its way, it would be torn down so progress could be made.
Not always the best way to do things, but this attitude helped the track millage in Britain increase year on year in the 19th century. And then, with the dawning of the 20th century, no more main lines were built in Britain, until the CTRL.
But back to the matter in hand. Imagine, someone had an idea of defacing that great symbol of Britain, the White Cliffs of Dover, by building a ten metre wide shelf in them and running a railway up them, a railway which would only be open for a decade at most. Clearly there would be public uproar. Will it ever be built?
Well, it was built, the cliffs were scarred, the railway built, used and ripped up. The shelf, The Cliff Road, is still there, leading from under Jubilee Way up round the top of Langdon Hole. It is possible to look at Google Earth and see the trackbed crossing Reach Road, Deal Road before running alongside the Deal to Dover line, the line from the cliffs losing height until at Martin Mill, they had their junction.
Then, during WWII, rail mounted guns were needed to fire across the channel, the track was relaid, and new lines laid in arcs of fire, so the guns could recoil and make aiming easier.
After the way, the track was taken up again, bridges dismantled and mostly forgotten.
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At the cliff end of Athol Terrace, near Eastern Docks, Dover, a steep footpath leads up the cliff and then along Langdon Cliffs towards St Margaret’s. From the footpath, one can watch the daily activities of Dover’s Eastern Docks and Channel shipping beyond. On clear day, the coast France with the Strait of Dover, like a wide river, in between is quite a site. As one traverses the path, it becomes apparent that it was once a railway track.
The story begins in 1892 when Dover Harbour Board (DHB) accepted the tender of John Jackson (1851-1919) for the building of the Eastern Arm of the new Commercial Harbour - the Prince of Wales Pier. Four years later, in August 1896, the Undercliff Reclamation Act received Royal Assent. The Act was for laying out land on the South Foreland, near St Margaret’s, where a new ‘Dover’ was to be built.
The Parliamentary Bill had been sponsored by Sir William Crundall (1847-1934), thirteen times Mayor of Dover from 1886 to 1910. Crundall owned a construction company that had been founded by his late father, also called William. Both father and son were the prime movers in the development of Dover’s town planning:
- On the west side of the Dour cottages for the working class – Clarendon estate
- On the east side homes for the lower middle class i.e. Barton Road neighbourhood
- Below the Castle and nearer the sea, villas for the upper middle class i.e. the Castle Avenue estate.
The next part of their dream for Dover was to be a private estate on the South Foreland for the well-to-do upper classes.
Crundall had been appointed to DHB in 1886 and twenty years later, in 1906, he was elected Chairman of the Board. He was to hold the office until his death in 1934. Two other businessmen were involved in the proposed South Foreland scheme, Sir John Jackson, who had won the contract for building the Prince of Wales Pier. The third person involved in the South Foreland enterprise was the eminent construction engineer Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray. His company had tendered to build the proposed Admiralty Harbour, which would enclose the whole of Dover bay.
The three men decided that access to the South Foreland site was to be by a road starting from the shore by Castle Jetty, at the east end of Dover’s seafront. It would then run along the base of the cliffs before gently rising to South Foreland at St Margaret’s. To reduce anticipated opposition while the Undercliff Reclamation Bill was going through Parliament, the main purpose given was the prevention of sea erosion at the base of the cliffs. This was substantiated by Sir John Jackson calling an expert witness who proclaimed the necessity. Dover Corporation echoed this and showed that over the previous 25 years the encroachment of the sea had given rise to numerous cliff falls.
It was agreed that in time an Undercliff marine road would be built on the inside of a seawall between Dover and St Margaret’s Bay but not in the foreseeable future. In the immediate future a road if built, they implied, would go over the cliffs. Thus the opposition centred their argument on this saying that if the over-cliff road were to go ahead, it would effectively put public land into private hands. This was dealt with by amendment to the Bill by giving the over-cliff road a lower priority than the Undercliff marine road … either way, the three men got exactly what they wanted!
Before the Bill had received parliamentary approval, excavations began. Initially, the men stated that 500 convicts from the then Langdon prison would be part of the workforce. However, Herbert Asquith, the Home Secretary, refused to comply! For the residents of Athol Terrace, permission for the compulsorily purchase of their front gardens was given and the road we see today was laid at their doorsteps.
The Admiralty Harbour, we see today, was given the go ahead by the government on 5 April 1898 when the contract was signed. Viscount Cowdray’s company (Pearsons) were the main contractors, Sir John Jackson was a subcontractor and Dover Harbour Board, under Sir William Crundall, was actively involved.
To build the Piers and the Breakwater of the new Admiralty Harbour, Pearsons used locally made concrete blocks and faced them with granite. The concrete blocks were made at two blockyards, one on Shakespeare beach in the west and the second on reclaimed land to the east of Castle Jetty, where the Undercliff marine road was proposed to start. To reclaim land the cliff face was blasted and the surplus chalk was removed by steam-navvies – locomotive driven excavators made by Ruston, Proctor & Co, Sheaf Ironworks, Lincoln. Soon a level platform, some 24½ acres (9.915 hectares), was created at the base of the eastern cliffs where the massive blocks were made and stored.
The blocks were made out of sand and shingle brought by ship from Stonar, near Sandwich and unloaded into trucks at the Castle Jetty. From there the trucks were manually pushed along a narrow-gauge track to the blockyard. However, the sea journey was subject to the vagaries of the weather and so it was decided to run a Standard gauge Light Railway line (engines could not go more than 25 miles an hour) from Martin Mill, the nearest station on the South East and Chatham Railway line between Dover and Deal.
The three and a half mile track was pegged out by June 1898. It ran from the Dover side of Martin Mill main line station parallel to the Dover – Deal line for about a mile. Crossing two roads on bridges made of brick abutments with supporting iron girders. Just before the main line Guston Tunnel the Pearson line veered south towards the coast and then along an embankment passing under the Dover-Deal road (A258) near the Swingate Inn. Past Bere Farm, West Cliffe, the line continued south-east crossing the Dover -St Margaret’s Upper Road by a gate. It then turned south-west, following the cliff contours, skirting Langdon Bay. Running west, it followed the edge of Langdon Cliff for about half a mile where metal frames were erected on the cliff edge to stop chalk falling on the works below.
Much of the land that the Pearson railway, as it was called, crossed, was owned by the Cliff Land Company the principal owner of which was Frederick George North, 8th Earl of Guilford (1876–1949) of Waldershare Park. Back in 1844, with the coming of the South Eastern Railway to Dover, the Guilford family had made an application to build 1,500 houses on land to the north of the Castle with an approach road from Castle Jetty. The family still had this dream and the 8th Earl made a deal with Pearsons to charge £25 per year ground rent with the option to buy the standard gauge line, once the lease had expired, for £3,000. It was planned that the Cliff Land Company would use the railway for a passenger service to the development. From Langdon Hole to East Cliff the land was owned by the War Office. They stipulated that the track was to be completed by December 1899. Further, that the Pearson railway was only to be used for carrying materials and the site had to be restored to its original condition.
At the end of the line was a chute down which the materials were fed to the block yard. This quickly proved a problem and was replaced by a funicular, down the cliff face, with side tipping skips to ease unloading. At the bottom, the skips were pushed by hand along a narrow-gauge track built on trestles to the blockyard and emptied into one of six lines of mixers where some 250 blocks were made at once. These were moved by blockyard goliaths – cranes with a span of 100-feet that could lift 50-tons.
The excavations were not without problems. In October 1898, fuses and explosives were taken and deliberately fired at the rear of the sea front East Cliff houses. In September 1899, Albert Knowler was killed during blasting and three months later, a fire in the East Cliff office burnt a man to death. Then, on 19 January 1900, as men were preparing to blast some more of the cliff face there was a massive explosion. Five men, George Jeffries, aged 24, – who later died – James Murton, Ernest Dutton, William Davies and Algenon Gibbs were all injured. In May 1900, labourer Bill Chadwick age-32, was killed by a lump of chalk during blasting at East Cliff.
Neither was the new railway line without controversy, much to the annoyance of the local tourist industry it caused the North Fall Tunnel, a pathway created by the Dover Chamber of Commerce in 1870 to provide a short cut from the beach to the Castle, to be destroyed. In its place, a new path with a steep gradient was excavated up to Broadlees, some distance east of the Castle. This path was expected to be extended in the direction of St Margaret’s Bay and eventually to become the over-cliff road, one of the two options that was envisaged to connected Dover with New Dover – the superlative estate that Crundall, Jackson and Cowdray planned to build at the South Foreland.
The actual building of the Eastern Arm was started in January 1901 and Crundall, Cowdray and Jackson applied for a Light Railway Order to extend the Pearson railway to the South Foreland. A Light Railway order would allow the trains to run on a standard track but at no more than 25 miles an hour, however, this the degree of regulation was less than that applied to main line services and therefore cheaper to set up, run and maintain. The proposal said that the line would run from Athol Terrace, up a 1-in-28 gradient along a 60-foot wide ‘road’ cut into the face of the cliff to Langdon Battery. It would then cross the fields to St Margaret’s to the proposed site of New Dover, before continuing to Martin Mill and joining the main line.
The application stated that it would be a tram/railway service powered by electricity - the local electricity company was then in private ownership and Crundall was the Chairman. There was also the stated intention of extending the line from the Eastern Dockyard, as it became to be called, along Dover’s seafront, Union Street, Strond Street and then to the Harbour station, on the western side of what became the Western Docks. There the proposed line would join the main South East and Chatham Railway line. Another line would go from the existing Deal line at Buckland and then via River to Bushy Ruff in the Alkham Valley.
In April 1902 a public inquiry, headed by the Earl of Jersey, was held into the application. It was agreed that the Company could lay down lines for a light railway in the Borough of Dover, but they could not exercise that power for two years. This was to give time to Dover Corporation, if desirable, to obtain the authority to extend their tramways. Further, on the proposed light railway to Bushy Ruff in the Alkham Valley, this was to terminate at River church and go no further. The application explicitly stated that the tram/railway would be a passenger service, which contravened the agreement with the Earl of Guilford. He immediately sought legal advice and eventually laid out his landholdings on the cliff top as a seaside residential resort.
Crundall, against considerable opposition, in 1907, gained permission to develop the area around the South Foreland. This would, claimed the local paper, Dover Express, turn the acres east of Dover into a ‘land flowing with milk and honey, with many noble marine residences.‘ In the meantime, the land from Bere Farm to Langdon Hole, owned by the Earl of Guilford and designated as a seaside residential resort, was taken over by the War Office.
, gained permission to develop the area around the South Foreland. This would, claimed the local paper, Dover Express, turn the acres east of Dover into a ‘land flowing with milk and honey, with many noble marine residences.‘ In the meantime, the land from Bere Farm to Langdon Hole, owned by the Earl of Guilford and designated as a seaside residential resort, was taken over by the War Office.
At the western end of the harbour, the Admiralty Pier extension was completed in 1908 and South Eastern Railway Company, with representatives on the Dover Harbour Board, proposed to erect a grand new terminal station at the landward end. Early the following year, Crundall, as Chairman of DHB, invited tenders to widen Admiralty Pier for the possibility of a new railway station. The Lords of the Admiralty visited and discussed the proposals and on 9 December, Pearsons were given the contract.
The Admiralty Harbour was officially opened on the 15 October 1909 by the Prince of Wales, later George V (1910-1936) who unveiled a stone commemorating the event on the Eastern Arm. Two months before, on 9 August, the Dover, St Margaret’s and Martin Mill Light Railway Company (Light Railway Company) was formed. Crundall, Cowdray and Jackson owned 25 shares each and four others owned one share each. One of these shareholders was Richard Tilden-Smith who later became the main shareholder of Tilmanstone Colliery.
Later that month planning permission was given by Dover Corporation for the utilisation of the Light Railway Company line as a public tramway. The residents of East Cliff objected but their concerns were dismissed by the Corporation and John Bavington Jones, of the Dover Express.
Work started on 21 July 1910 to widen the shore end of the Admiralty Pier for the new railway station comprising of over 11 acres. Chalk for in-filling was taken from East Cliff excavated by the steam-navvy machines. The excavations also created a new road. However, because of the cliffs are so steep when the ‘road’ reached the top it had to be cut in a series of zigzags. This problem was expected to be dealt with later, when the rest of the road was nearing completion.
At the base of East Cliff, railway lines were used to transport the chalk to Castle Jetty where it was loaded onto barges and taken across to Admiralty Pier. In 1910, while the excavations were going on, Channel Collieries Trust was set up to purchase land near South Foreland. Their remit stated that they would build a residential estate, approached by a Cliff Road and the St Margaret’s Light Railway from Dover. The Trust syndicate was composed of … Crundall, Cowdray and Jackson! The road from the excavations was started on 21 July 1910.
The last coping stone on the Admiralty Pier extension was laid by Crundall on 2 April 1913. A month later work started on building the Marine Station, the foundations having been filled in by 1 million cubic yards of chalk from the eastern cliffs.
Two months before, in February 1913, DHB chaired by Crundall, filed a Parliamentary Bill to make changes to the Tidal Basin at the Western Docks. As a supplementary, the Channel Collieries Trust sort consent to replace the western half of the seafront and beach with a 5.75 acre dock and terminus for a Light Railway Company. This went down badly in Dover and a petition was raised followed by a poll that took place on 20 May 1913. Of those eligible to vote, 2,265 voted against the Bill’s Supplement and 1,508 for it. The Supplement was withdrawn.
On 13 April, a closed meeting of the Light Railway Company was held when it was announced that Cowdray and Crundall had sold their shares, by transfer, to the Channel Collieries Trust. The four holders of the single shares in Light Railway Company were not invited to the meeting – the first they heard about it was when they read the national newspapers. A bitter legal battle ensued with Richard Tilden-Smith unsuccessfully trying to seek redress. In the event, Sir John Jackson and two nominees owned the controlling shares in the Light Railway Company.
At the time, the East Kent coalmining industry was taking off. Arthur Burr, a mining entrepreneur and major shareholder of several companies with interests in the Kent coalfield, was the leading light. One of these companies was Kent Coal Concessions. Arthur Burr had formed it in 1896 with the purpose of buying potential underground coal fields but not surface land. The intention was lease the coalfields for a share of the royalties. By 1906, the company had secured coal mining rights in East Kent sufficient, it was said, for 20 collieries.
East Kent Colliery Company also was part of Burr’s portfolio and its holdings included, Shakespeare and Snowdown Collieries. Shakespeare Colliery was sunk in 1896, but had not proved viable and was finally abandoned in December 1915. However, Snowdown, north of Dover, saw the first commercial East Kent coal raised on 19 November 1912. About that time, Burr announced the intention of floating a new company, as a subsidiary of Kent Coal Concessions, to ‘exploit undeveloped areas of East Kent.’
A previous similar floatation had not been a commercial success and the Company Board were not happy. The situation came to a head at a meeting on 31 July 1913 when Burr, along with his son, Dr Malcolm Burr, were ‘retired’ from the Board. The remaining directors consolidated Kent Coal Concessions with allied companies including Kent Collieries Ltd that had extensive mineral rights and had been undertaking mineral exploration. Towards the end of 1913 the giant steel firm, Dorman Long, in which Cowdray was involved, reported that they held 30,000 shares in the Channel Collieries Trust Company, whose holdings included the East Kent Colliery Company, part of the Burr portfolio. Borings had confirmed the existence of iron stone. Dorman Long also had interests in Kent Collieries Ltd.
Just prior to World War I (1914-1918), in May 1914, Burr attempted to raise £77,000 in debentures and £800,000 in income bonds for his East Kent Colliery Company. However, little interest was shown and the holdings were handed over to Kent Coal Concessions, by the Official Receiver, with the remit to consolidate. Following consolidation the company held mineral rights under some 20,000 acres of East Kent. In December 1917, Burr was declared bankrupt with debts amounting to £53,176 but he died in September 1919 age 70.
At Dorman Long & Co.’s AGM held in August 1917, it was reported that their investments, through the Channel Collieries Trust Ltd, were a satisfactory £877,304, even though the War had stopped any further excavations. Albeit, with the consent of the Treasury, a fusion of the different East Kent coal interests was agreed with the two chief companies, Kent Collieries Ltd and the Channel Collieries Trust put into voluntary liquidation. Out of this, the Channel Steel Company was formed with a capital of £750,000. It was reported to the assembled shareholders that it was the existence of a large deposit of ironstone in East Kent that had provided the name of the new company.
Sir William Crundall – Chairman of Dover Harbour Board;
Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray – whose company, Pearsons, had successfully tendered to build the Admiralty Harbour,
Sir John Jackson who had been involved in the building the Admiralty Harbour. The railway line was generally known as the Pearson Line.
The railway line was generally known as the Pearson Line.
The company had applied, in 1914, for the renewal of their powers to carry coal through the streets of Dover with a view to extending the line from the Western docks to the Eastern Dockyard. The Town Council opposed this, but due to outbreak of World War I (1914-1918), the case was deferred. In order to carry explosives to war-ships berthed in the Camber, at the eastern Dockyard, the War Office decided to build a Sea Front Railway, using the powers that were likely to have been awarded to the Light Railway Company.
Pearson’s successfully tendered and work on what was to become the Sea Front Railway was eventually started in 1918. Single-track and running the length of the promenade from the Prince of Wales Pier to the Eastern Dockyard, the lines that had been used for the Pearson Line and belonging to the Light Railway Company, were taken up and used. It had passing loops and catch points so that trains could run in both directions but soon after the line was laid an accident occurred so a low fence was erected on each side.
Following the death of Sir John Jackson, in December 1919, the Light Railway Company was taken over by the Channel Steel Company. They applied, in 1920, to run a line from the Sea Front Railway at New Bridge, along Camden Crescent, then Liverpool Street (now the rear of the Gateway flats), and following the base of the cliffs to Eastern Dockyard. It was expected that the cliff side residences of East Cliff and Athol Terrace would be demolished.
At the Eastern Dockyard it was envisaged that a railway station would be built and the previously cut road would become a railway track that through a newly constructed tunnel, would join the track of the old Pearsons line. This would then be extended Sea Street, St Margaret’s where another station would be built. The line would then cross the countryside to join the Dover-Deal railway line at Martin Mill.
The new proposal was given outline approval by Dover Corporation with the preference for the construction to be a road not a railway track. This was due to the continuing rise in unemployment in the town – a situation that was prevalent throughout the country at the time – more men could be employed to build a road then a railway. If, however, the company were mindful to create a railway then, the Corporation said, their preference was for the facility to be a tramway, similar to that, which already existed in Dover at the time. Finally, whatever the company decided, colliery trucks could only be used on land purchased by the company and the track could not go through the town.
The Company chose the road option following the route given in the outline proposal. It was to be 50feet (16 metres) wide with a 15-feet (5 metres) wide pavement on each side. The estimated cost was £43,000 and it was expected to provide employment for up to 300 men. The council suggested that Pearsons paid one third, the Corporation a third and it would be expected that the government’s Unemployment Grants Committee would pay the remainder.
In the autumn of 1922, Pearsons joined forces with steel makers Dorman Long, to form Pearson & Dorman Long Company and take over most of the rights from the Kent Coal Concessions. The latter company had been set up by Arthur Burr, the East Kent mining entrepreneur, in 1896 with the purpose of buying potential underground coal fields but not surface land. By 1906, the company had secured coal mining rights in East Kent sufficient, it was said, for 20 collieries. Burr’s large portfolio of mining associated companies in East Kent were consolidated in 1913 under the name of Kent Coal Concessions. The giant steel makers, Dorman Long held 30,000 shares in the consolidated company as borings had confirmed the existence of iron stone. In 1917, a partial consolidation had created the Channel Steel Company and included Snowdown Colliery. Although Kent Coal Concessions did retain some mineral rights, due to the economic depression no one was interested in leasing them and in 1925, the company folded.
Having amalgamated the newly styled Pearson Dorman Long company immediately started the preliminary work on what resulted in Betteshanger Colliery. However, as they did not own the surface land they were unable to sink the pit. Albeit, through the subsidiary, Channel Steel Company, they proposed building a steel works between Dover and St Margaret’s adjacent to the proposed new road and Dover Corporation gave their approval.
The council applied to the Unemployment Grants Committee stating that the cost for the new road was £56,000. The Committee asked for the plans to be modified and suggested that the Ministry of Transport and Kent County Council (KCC) should contribute towards the costs. While these applications were being made the road was put on hold. During the winter of 1923-24, the revised estimate had increased to £129,000 but government financing was not forthcoming.
On 29 September 1923, the Admiralty formerly handed the port over to the Dover Harbour Board (DHB), still headed by Sir William Crundall. This included the Sea Front Railway line but the Eastern Dockyard was retained by the Admiralty and let on lease to Stanlee Ship-breaking Company. The Camber was retained for Admiralty purposes.
During spring and summer of 1924, Dover’s Mayor, Richard Barwick, and the Town Clerk, Reginald Knocker, visited various government departments laying before them the urgent need for unemployment relief. The Ministry of Transport relented and sanctioned the borrowing of £45,000. In the autumn of 1924 sites near Kingsdown were put on the market through Protheroe and Morris of Cheapside, London. Channel Collieries Trust held the mineral rights under the property and the sites were bought by Pearson Dorman Long – at last, they could sink Betteshanger Colliery.
Unemployment continued to rise and in 1925 DHB applied to Parliament to close Dover harbour’s Western entrance. They wanted to run a railway line along the Southern Breakwater to load Kent coal onto ships for export from there. However, the disparity in exchange rates between the UK and the Continent meant that the country was importing coal and the application came under a lot of criticism.
On the subject of Exchange Rate parity and the negative effect it was having on British industry, Sir Arthur Dorman made a powerful and well reported speech (Economist 19.12.1925). He begged the government for equal parity in the exchange rates but the response was: ‘a strong £ was the sign of a strong country.‘ Pearson Dorman Long wrote to the council saying that they could no longer afford to contribute to the cost of the road.
Cheap imports of coal continued to affect the domestic industry but in February 1926, the government did give a grant of £2m to the Kent coalfields. However, at midnight on 3 May saw the beginning of the General Strike. In October, that year, the council finally heard from the Unemployment Grants Committee through a letter sent to the town’s Member of Parliament (1922 -1945), Major the Hon. John Jacob Astor. The Committee had declined to provide a grant for the East Cliff Road, the reason given was that ‘unemployment in Dover was not sufficiently exceptional to warrant relief.’ It was generally felt that the refusal was retaliatory because East Kent miners had joined the national strike.
Richard Tilden Smith, who had been involved in a bitter legal action against the Dover, St Margaret’s and Martin Mill Light Railway Company in 1913, bought Tilmanstone Colliery from the Official Receiver in November 1926. At the same time an application was made by Tilmanstone (Kent) Collieries Ltd for the right to carry an aerial ropeway for a distance of 6½ miles (this was stated in the original application) from their colliery. This was to include a tunnel being cut through the cliffs to the Eastern Dockyard. The proposed course extended over land owned by 18 different personages one of which was Southern Railway. Although permission was granted, Southern Railway, and the Pearson, Dorman Long’s Channel Steel Company appealed but this was overturned and works started.
In 1927 Weetman Dickinson Pearson, 1st Viscount Cowdray, died. Under the 1896 terms of agreement between the War Department and Pearsons, the line from East Cliff to Langdon Hole had to be restored to its original condition. In May 1929, the War Department took legal action forcing Channel Steel Company to pay £1,300 compensation for the breach of covenant. The next month, the same Department sold the land to … the Channel Steel Company!
At the same time, Tilden Smith leased 24 acres of land at Langdon Hole from the War Department for cement works that would utilise chalk from Dover’s white cliffs. He also planned steel and brick works nearby – that was to be part of his plan for East Kent to become the New Industrial Eden. While on 17 March 1927, Southern Railway sought permission to carry coal on the Sea Front Railway and along the Eastern Arm of the Eastern Dockyard to specially built giant bunkers.
Tilden Smith’s, now 7½ mile, aerial ropeway from Tilmanstone colliery to the Eastern Arm was formerly opened on 14 February 1930. The ceremony was simple as Tilden Smith had died suddenly in the House of Commons on 18 December 1929. The tunnels, through which the ropeway ran to the Eastern Arm, can still be seen.
Bunkers were built but in August 1928 a huge coal staithe to be installed at the end of Eastern Arm, was commissioned by Southern Railway. It was built of ferro-concrete by the Yorkshire Hennebique Construction Company and held 5000-tons of coal. The Staithe was fitted with electronic discharging mechanism that enabled a vessel to be loaded with 500 tons of coal an hour and cost £22,000.
DHB withdrew its proposal to close the Western entrance and focused on increasing the number of coal sidings at the Eastern Dockyard. It was clear that this was to enable the export of coal from Pearson Dorman Long’s Snowdown and Betteshanger collieries. The electronic coal staithe officially started operating on 19 April 1932. The first ship was Dover’s steamer Kenneth Hawksfield, which was loaded with 2,450 tons coal from Snowdown Colliery.
Although it was suggested that a rail link would be built through a tunnel from the Eastern Arm to join the Deal railway line at Kearsney, until such time the Sea Front railway was to be used. It was anticipated that the railway would be in use 14-hours a day and would carry 800,000tons of coal a year together with scrap iron and oil for refuelling ships. The coal was transported on the Sea Front Railway.
The first train from Snowdown Colliery at 09.00 and in the next 23-hours, 18 trainloads of coal was carried on the Sea Front Railway line choking its whole course with dust. 17,000 Dovorians signed a petition that was sent to the House of Lords. Parliament restricted the use of the Railway to carrying a maximum of 500,000 tons of coal a year and only during day light. In 1933, Parliament approved a DHB Bill for a 1.75-mile railway line from the Kearsney junction, on the Deal line, through a tunnel to the Eastern dockyard. Although this would have obviated the need of the Sea Front Railway to carry coal, with the death of Sir William Crundall, the Chairman of DHB, in 1934, the scheme was abandoned as too expensive.
On 1 April 1934, Dover Borough municipal boundaries were extended bringing in to the Borough, Eastern Dockyard and Arm but the cliffs overlooking the area remained part of the Rural District. That same year, the council resurrected the idea of finishing the Cliff Road to St Margaret’s utilising the earlier Light Railway Company’s permit. This had been renewed every year and was given added impetus in 1937 when, due to war preparations and the shortage of scrap iron, the remaining track of what had once been the Pearsons line was lifted.
Following the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), the War Office instigated the building of the Martin Mill Military Railway, operated and manned by the Royal Engineers and using diesel locomotives. The line followed the original Pearsons route from Martin Mill to a point called RDF Junction, about 900 feet ( 275 metres) past the then Dover-Deal road bridge. Here it divided, with the ‘main line’ turning north-east to service the guns, Winnie and Pooh. Passing beneath Winnie’s gun barrel it crossed the St Margaret’s – Martin Mill Road to Pooh’s position.
A second line, from the RDF Junction, went straight ahead for about half a mile, then in a north-east direction for another half a mile. This served the Wanstone and South Foreland Batteries. The battery close to the Dover Patrol Memorial, Point at Leathercote Point, was served by a branch line from Decoy Junction – this was named after a dummy Winnie, on the ‘main line’.
Winnie and Pooh were two 14-inch ex-naval guns manned by the Royal Marines and were capable of firing their missiles across the 21-mile wide Dover Strait to France. Winnie was installed during the Battle of Britain, in 1940 on St Margaret’s golf links and was soon after joined by Pooh, located along the Kingsdown Road.
In August 1942 Jane and Clem, two 15-inch guns, came into operation overlooking Fan Bay Battery, an emergency battery with three six-inch guns. Jane was originally designed for HMS Repulse and named after a Daily Mirror cartoon character. Clem was said to be named after the Labour leader Clement Attlee (1883-1967) or Winston Churchill’s (1874-1965) wife Clementine (1885-1977)! These were wire wound guns made of a composite of steel and steel wire. The construction was introduced in the 1890’s to deal with the increased pressures in the barrel caused by the use of the then new propellant – cordite. Radar was installed and linked with the guns that proved successful.
There were also three 13.5-inch calibre railway guns manned by Royal Marines and called Gladiator, Piecemaker and Sceneshifter. During periods of inaction, these guns were normally hidden in the Guston tunnel but sometimes in tunnels at Shepherdswell and Martin Mill.
The Battery at South Foreland was equipped with four 9.2-inch guns, while near the Dover Patrol Memorial was the Bruce gun. An experimental, hypervelocity gun built by Vickers and weighing 86-tons. The barrel was 60 feet long and could fire a shell weighing 256lbs over a distance of 100,000 yards – 57-miles. However, it was never fired in anger due to the enormous pressure affecting the shell fuses causing some to explode prematurely in mid-flight. All the real guns were hidden under camouflage netting, while dummy ones were partially concealed on the cliff top site, which accounts for the reason why the cliff top is pitted with craters.
By late 1944, the operational use of the Martin Mill Military Railway was declining, only being used to move stores and equipment. Following the end of hostilities, the Light Railway Company resumed management and some of the track was sold for export to Tanganyika as part of the ill-fated Groundnut Scheme (1947-1951). However, beyond that and seeking repeated extensions, nothing else happened and in 1952, the company officially ceased trading.
By that time, the route across the cliffs had become a favourite walk but in the spring of 1954, due to the Cold War, the military began erecting a 5-foot chestnut fence on either side of what had been the 6-foot wide track. Vigorous protests were made and the military agreed to remove the fence from the seaward side except where it enclosed military installations. Three years later the Big Guns – Jane, Clem, Winnie and Pooh were dismantled and uprooted from their reinforced concrete emplacements. The smaller guns were also removed.
About 200 acres of land, which had been commandeered by the military between Dover and St Margaret’s, was de-requisitioned following the stand-down of Coastal Artillery in 1956. Much of the remaining railway track was lifted although the rails and bridges at the Martin Mill end were still in situ in 1960. At that time, the Ministry of Transport was considering using the track for a motorway approach to Eastern Docks.
Finally, during the post-war period, Marine Parade was widened and the Sea Front Railway safety fence was removed. In order to tell tourists to remove their parked cars off the track, a man with a red flag walked in front of the trains! Robert Eade, Dover’s Mayor in 1961, was one. By that time freight traffic, using the service was declining and the last train – a diesel locomotive pulling three wagons, ran on the 31 December 1964. The lines were eventually covered with tarmac.
doverhistorian.com/2013/11/07/dover-st-margarets-and-mart...
45EPIC Antelope Canyons Fine Art Landscapes: Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape and Nature Photography! Upper Antelope Canyon Light Beams and Canyon Glow!
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Greetings flickr fans! Many more uploads soon! I have been busy writing, traveling, and shooting! I finished my books on the Tao of Epic Landscape Photography and the Golden Number Ratio Principle! I oft incorporate the golden ratio in my landscape compositions, and you'll also see it in the design and proportion of the 45surf clothes and surfboard and gun logos (More golden ratio information at my facebook page facebook.com/goldennumberratio). Message me on facebook for free review copies of my books here: facebook.com/mcgucken ! :)
I'm working on a book on photographing epic goddesses too! What should I title it? :)
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Full titles: The Tao of Epic Landscape Photography: Exalt Fine Art with the Yin-Yang Wisdom of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching.
And: The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography: An Artistic and Scientific Introduction to the Golden Mean !
I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them! :)
Enjoy the epic landscape and goddess and photography and note the golden ratio overlays in some of the photos, as well as the golden ratio in the Birth of Venus painting by Botticelli!
I've been on the road shooting landscapes in Zion, Yosemite, the Eastern Sierras, Big Sur, and more!
Many of you have seen my physics formula dx4/dt=ic for Light Time Dimension Theory on a lot of the 45surf clothing and in the fine art landscape logos. I finally finished the first book of many on the foundations of photography's best friend--light:
Light Time Dimension Theory: The Foundational Physics Unifying Einstein's Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.
All the best on your epic hero's odyssey!