2024- England- Kent – Deal & Walmer- “Veni, Vidi, Vici” & “they shall not pass”!

In April 1985, our family upped sticks, left Nairobi, Kenya and headed for our new life and eventually citizenship in New Zealand. Four decades and many exchanged Christmas letters later we catch up with some great friends from our time in Kenya, who had subsequently retired to this lovely part of the County of Kent .

We have our own connection with Kent as Sue had 3 years teacher training in Dartford and whilst I, an Essex boy, visited occasionally we never reached this part of the Kent coast except to catch a ferry from Dover to the Continent. Back then ( early 1970’s) just one twin lane Dartford tunnel went under the Thames. Today two twin tunnels go south to north and one multi lane Queen Elizabeth Bridge , north to south, taking constant streams of traffic under and over the River Thames.

But before we arrived in Deal & Walmer – Julius Caesar and Henry VIII both preceded us and left much bigger footprints than we did, and not just there of course!!

August 27th 55 BC – Julius Caesar lands at Deal & Walmer, his ships damaged in a Channel storm, and he left this concrete plaque and quite a lot more as a reminder!!

With “Infrastructure” being such a key issue for many of the world’s elections currently underway, its good to see the longevity of the Romans approach to such:-

The town of Deal and its neighbour Walmer sit just north of the cross Channel ferry port of Dover. Connected to Dover by road and the South Coast Walkway along the “White Cliffs”, Deal and Walmer both have Henry VIII initiated Castles in the shape of the Tudor Rose. The Deal Castle is quite plain but Walmer Castle is wonderful, beautiful gardens and a home within the original castle walls that was added to accomodate the Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports. Sadly we were not allowed to photograph any of the inside of the castle.

These Lords Wardens included the Duke of Wellington, post Waterloo, and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother amongst others. The Cinque ports , so named are Sandwich, Dover,New Romney, Hastings and Hythe. They were a trading group of ports formed under a Royal Charter in the 12th century.

Fortunately Walmer Castle is just a 20 minute walk along the coast path from our friends house, so we head there to explore the Castle and its grounds. Walmer Castle today is not quite as close to the sea as it was in the 16th century, when it was first constructed with its then cannons covering and protecting the coastal seaway. It and its counterpart in Deal were part of the defence of the realm ordered by Henry VIII and its construction was completed in 1540. Today the Castle, the accomodation block within its walls and lovely gardens are a joy to visit. And not forgetting an excellent couple of cafes, one in the castle itself and the other a part of the kitchen garden, and nice clean visitor toilets.

It would have been remiss for us to visit this area without going to check out the, ”White Cliffs of Dover”. To get to our friends in Walmer from our previous stay in Dorset, we had driven through Dover town in bright sunshine, passing up the “White Cliffs” on the loop over bridge roadway. We decided to have a look down at Dover port from the England Coastal Path,(Saxon Way), as it winds along the cliffs above. We set off from above St Margarets Bay to the north also in full sunshine crossing fields of cereals, past the National Trust South Foreland Lighthouse and out onto the Path.

But that’s when the sea mist started to roll in, first the sea, then the ferries and Dover communication masts disappear from view. Ferry fog horns commence, echoing against the cliffs, its quite cool and an eerie feeling is in the air. We can see little of the cliffs and nothing of Dover Port itself. As the mist comes and goes multiple foghorns sound and it seems that the cross Channel ferries are getting stacked up waiting to come into port. Abandoning our attempts to see Dover we return to the South Foreland Lighthouse and its excellent cafe, for lunch!!

Our time in the area is limited but we get to walk through Walmer and into Deal and a bit of a peek at the town, its architecture and a bit more history. Our friends help to run the Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club – beautifully tended grass courts almost too pristine to play sport on! Signs of Dutch architecture can be seen in the buildings. And Deal has its own pier jutting out in the English Channel, from a very stony shingle barefoot unfriendly beach.

Across from the beach and pier is the “Time Ball Clock”, which falls at 1pm exactly every day triggered by an electronic signal from the Greenwich Royal Observatory. It stands on the Timeball Tower, which originally was part of the telegraph line between the Admiralty in London and the Naval Yard in Deal in the late 1700’S. The Time Ball was installed in 1855 and mirrors its Greenwich counterpart.

We have had a fascinating few days on this piece of the English Coastline. Catching up with old friends is such a very special time, but this area just drips with history through the ages. It’s been wonderful to learn all that we did. As a final piece of our family history we learn that my father’s “best man”, a bachelor all his life, and a regular Sunday Lunch visitor to us in Brentwood, Essex (with sweets for the 4 kids!), retired down here to Walmer, his final resting place, and a fine one at that.

Next stop it’s France.