Old St James Church Ruins and White Horse Inn, St James Street, Dover, UK

The ruins of 'Old' St James the Apostle Church, Dover, England, showing the west door entrance to the nave:


(Click this Old St James the Apostle Church text link to see the largest size)

This ancient house of religion was destroyed during World War II and is now a memorial to the people of Dover "who suffered between 1939 and 1945" (see below).

The remains of the north wall of the church's square tower are behind and to the right of the doorway.

On the other side of Hubert Passage to the left of the church is The White Horse Inn, ex-The City of Edinburgh public house. An information board once outside the pub stated:

Said to have been erected in the reign of Edward III (1312-1377). In 1365 the premises was occupied by the Verger of St James' Church which stood next door. With the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, the house was no longer connected to the Church.

The houses in the background front onto Castle Hill Road that leads up to Dover Castle.

The photo was taken from St James Street. Running along the bottom is Maison Dieu Road to the left of the junction and Woolcomber Street to the right.

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Old St James the Apostle Church (1)

St James' Church, known locally as 'the Tidy Ruin' was founded in Saxon times and is probably one of the Dover churches mentioned in the Domesday Book:


Georgian Woodcut Engraving of Old St James Church, Dover

Unitarian Church Listed Building at Sunrise, Adrian Street, Dover, Kent, UK

A post-sunrise view of the octagonal Georgian (1) Unitarian Church on Adrian Street seen from the A256 York Street central reservation at 6.53 am on Monday, 29th of August, 2011 (2):


(Click this Unitarian Church text link to see the largest size)

The A256 dual carraigeway runs between York Street roundabout to the left, and the Folkestone Road roundabout (fronted on the east by the Dovorian Restaurant and the Golden Lion pub) to the right. Ye Olde Bicycle in the bottom right-hand corner is mine!

Behind the church on the left are part of the Western Heights hills (below the Drop Redoubt and above Cowgate Cemetery).

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Abridged from the Dover Unitarian Church website (3)

The Unitarian & Free Christian Church in Dover has been Unitarian since 1828. Freedom of belief and the form of worship was unanimously agreed by the membership in 1916 and this liberal tradition is upheld today.

We meet as a group of friends seeking truth, freedom and tolerance in rational worship and fellowship on the first and third Sunday of every month at 3pm.

Dover Castle Keep

The Church was founded in 1643 by a dissenting group who refused to subscribe to unreasonable beliefs. They were persecuted and some were imprisoned in Dover Castle.

In the early 1800's these 'General Baptists' became Unitarian (asserting the Oneness of God). They questioned belief in a Trinity and considered the religion of Jesus (Love God and your neighbour) more important than a religion about Jesus. They rejected Original Sin, the Virgin Birth, and the condemnation of non-believers.

The first Sunday school in the town of Dover opened at this church in 1803. The present Chapel, built in 1820, is a grade II Listed building and participates each year in Heritage Open Days.

Oliver Cromwell 70013 Steam Locomotive, Dover Priory Rail Station, Kent, UK

The BR Class 7MT 4-6-2 no 70013 Oliver Cromwell Steam Locomotive venting steam on arrival at Platform 1 of the Victorian Dover Priory Railway Station, England:


(Click this Oliver Cromwell Steam Locomotive text link to see the largest size)

The photo was taken from the Folkestone Road road-bridge at 6.16 pm on Sunday, September the 3rd, 2011, after making a small detour from a cycle ride around town (1).

The 70013 Oliver Cromwell is a British Railways standard class 7 (also known as the Britannia class) preserved steam locomotive. The locomotive is notable as one of the four steam locomotives which worked the last steam railtour on British Railways (BR) in 1968 before the introduction of a steam ban (2).

Earlier this year:

The BR Britannia Class 7MT 4-6-2 no 70000 Britannia Steam Locomotive (3) and the 12-coach "Cathedrals Express" passed through Dover Priory Train Station at 5.47 pm on Thursday 7 April 2011.

The LNER A1 Class 4-6-2 no 60163 Tornado Steam Locomotive called at at 5.47 pm on Saturday, June the 18th, 2011.

The Spitfire and The Hop Picker tour (Shepherd & Neame) (4)

After a pre-event transfer from Southall WCRC (West Coast Railway Company) to Kensington Olympia with headcode 5Z81, the scheduled itinerary for the Oliver Cromwell was as follows:

Night Panorama of Dover Priory Rail Station from the Western Heights, Kent, UK

A night-time view of Dover Priory Rail Station taken on Sunday, October 17th, 2010, from the Western Heights:


(Click this Dover Priory Rail Station at Night text link to see the largest size)

The Victorian Dover Priory is also referred to as Dover Priory Train Station and Dover Priory Railway Station.

The two columns of orange blobs on the left-hand side of the photo are reflections from off the carraige roofs of trains parked in the freight area of the station.

Below the centre of the photo a covered foot-bridge (approx. 350 yards away) joins platforms 2 and 3 on the left to platform 1 and the Booking Hall on the right. Platform 3 is the outermost of the detached platforms and has a silver-topped train parked alongside it.

Trains to Deal, Ramsgate, Canterbury East, and London Victoria leave Dover Priory through the tunnel at the top of the photo.

Trains to Folkestone Central, Ashford International (Channel Tunnel, Chunnel), and London Charing Cross leave the station through a tunnel beneath the Western Heights.

To the right of the Booking Hall is Priory Station Approach Road with the Priory Hotel (pub) on the other side (with light trails).

Golden Panorama of the Victorian Waterloo Crescent at Sunrise, Dover Harbour, Kent, UK

A post-sunrise view of the Victorian (1) Waterloo Crescent on Dover's seafront esplanade, opposite the western end of the beach and harbour, taken at 6.11 am on Tuesday, 16th of August, 2011:


(Click this Waterloo Crescent text link to see the largest size)

As sometimes happens when out and about on a morning cycle ride (2), transitory light conditions can transform familiar sights into something extraordinary. On this occasion, the entire sky was clouded over with the exception of a ragged oval across which the rising sun was slowly moving. The resulting "golden glow" reflecting off of Waterloo Crescent - and every other white object - was really quite breath-taking in its intensity (note how the Western Heights trees in the background on the right are still in shadow - its as if a gigantic torch-beam were being played across the landscape.)

Waterloo Crescent, built between 1834 and 1838, is a Grade II Dover Listed Building consisting of three sections. From left to right these are the western section (originally 5 houses), the central section (originally 19 houses), and the eastern section (also originally 5 houses).

Because this is an oblique view, the divisions between the overlapping sections are perhaps easiest identified by looking at the side view of the roof on the right-hand section and then looking for two other occurrences of the same "truncated pyramid" shape further to the left.

Harbour House and the Tonkin Liu Artworks at Sunrise, Dover Seafront, Kent, UK

The white Harbour House and the Tolkin Liu sculptures imbued with the golden glow of a rising sun at 6.59 am on Thursday, 1st of September, 2011 (1):


(Click this Dover Harbour House text link to see the largest size)

Harbour House

Waterloo Crescent

Dover Harbour Board's Harbour House, occuping the western section of Waterloo Crescent, is a Grade II Dover Listed Building designed by the architect, Philip Hardwick and built between 1834-1838 (2). Click on the link or thumbnail for the full listing text.

Harbour House is located on Marine Parade at the western end of the seafront promenade, or esplanade.

Information leaflets about the cruise ships calling at the Admiralty Pier in the Western Docks can be obtained from reception. DHB also operate the Eastern Docks (the ferry terminal).

Full postal address: The Port of Dover, Harbour House, Marine Parade, Dover, CT17 9BU.

The flag flying above left-hand end of Harbour House carries the logo for the Port of Dover.

Port of Dover (3)

The Port of Dover is the cross-English Channel port situated in Dover, south-east England. It is the nearest English port to France, at just 34 kilometres (21 miles) away, and one of Europe's largest passenger ports, with 14 million travellers, 2.1 million lorries, 2.8 million cars and motorcycles and 86,000 coaches passing through it each year, with an annual turnover of GBP 58.5 million a year. (3)

The port has been owned and operated by the Dover Harbour Board, a statutory corporation, since it was formed by Royal Charter in 1606 by James I (James VI of Scotland). Most of the board members are appointees of the Department of Transport.

Canterbury Tornado 60163 Steam Locomotive, Dover Priory Rail Station, Kent, UK

The LNER A1 Class 4-6-2 no 60163 Tornado Steam Locomotive venting steam while stationary at Platform 1 of the Victorian Dover Priory Railway Station, England:


(Click this Canterbury Tornado 60163 Steam Locomotive text link to see the largest size)

LNER stands for "London and North Eastern Railway".

The steam is partially obscuring The Priory Hotel on the far side of Priory Station Approach Road. The houses to the right of the pub front onto Priory Gate Road, the western border to Dover College. The flat-roofed white building towards top-left is the Dover Priory Booking Hall.

The photo was taken from the road-bridge on Folkestone Road at 5.47 pm on Saturday, June the 18th, 2011, during an evening cycle ride around town (Robsons Yard - Eastern Docks - Prince of Wales Pier - Robsons Yard).

The Canterbury Tornado is shown part-way through a Willesden - Canterbury - Willesden (Brent, London) round-trip railtour calling at the train stations listed below:

Night View of the Unique St Edmund's Chapel, Priory Road, Dover, Kent, UK

A view of St Edmund's Chapel taken on Saturday, January 8th, 2011, from above the chapel forecourt on Priory Road:


(Click this text link to see the largest size)

This 13th century building, some 28 feet by 14 feet, may not be the world's smallest church but it is the only one dedicated by one English saint, St. Richard of Chicester, to another English saint, St. Edmund of Abingdon (Edmund Rich, or Eadmund of Canterbury, consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury on 2 April 1234).

The chapel was consecrated by St. Richard of Chicester on March 30th 1253, dissolved in 1544, and was subsequently put to various uses "including a victualling store for the Navy, a store room, and a (blacksmith's) forge".

St. Edmund's Chapel was restored during 1967-1968 and Saturday morning Eucharists are held there.

The pathway on the right is "St Edmund's Walk" which connects Priory Road to the shopping precinct in Biggin Street.

Two Priory Road houses in front of the chapel were hit by shell-fire in 1943 during the Second World War (World War II) and demolished. One of the buildings used to be "Bicknell's" (H. R. Bicknell), a newsagent and tobacconist.

A plaque in the forecourt of St Edmund's Chapel states:

Dover Police Station CT16 1DJ in Ladywell from The Park Inn, Dover, Kent, UK

Dover Police Station is situated on the south-eastern side of Ladywell between the houses of Park Street on the left and Ladywell Carpark at the rear of the Town Hall to the right:



In the foreground, the River Dour runs from left to right under the road and emerges on the other side of the bridge parapet before making its way to the Bowling Green, Pencester Gardens, and the sea at Wellington Dock.

The photo was taken on Sunday, September 26th, 2010, from in front of The Park Inn (my local pub!) in Park Place.

The Kent Police Museum, based at The Chatham Historic Dockyard, has a small Second World War photo showing the damaged front right-hand corner of Dover Police Station. The caption reads:

Dover Police Station, Ladywell, after cross channel bombardment. The station had only been open a few months.

It was surprising to read it was shell rather than bomb damage because the front of the police station faces away from the Cape Gris Nez area of France where the German long-range guns were located - perhaps the shell entered through the back of the building and blast damage exploded out of the front.

The Kent Police Museum also has some interesting notes on the early history of policing in Dover:

Charles Lightoller of the Titanic and the Spanish Prince blockship of Dover Harbour, Kent, UK

The Georgian 8 East Cliff, also known as Elizabeth House and a Grade II Dover Listed Building, is the left-hand four-storey house of the block with "1834" on the parapet:


(Click this Georgian 8 East Cliff Listed Building text link to see the largest size)

In 1899, Charles "Lights" Lightoller went to Liverpool and thought he had signed on as third mate to the Knight Bachelor only to find himself "shanghaied" into serving in the far less desirable Knight Companion instead (1):

I still had malarial fever in my veins, and well I knew it on the train journey down and across London. I arrived at Tilbury Dock feeling like the complete West African dishcloth. All I wanted was to get my head down, and forget I was alive. I had, in my subconscious mind, all the comforts that one associates with the Royal Mail. A nice airy cabin, a bunk with clean white sheets, a boy to attend you, and practically every wish anticipated. Doctor, stewards and all the rest of it.

Arriving at Tilbury Dock, I asked a porter wearily where the Knight boat was lying. He replied, "Oh, just near by, sir. Over the bridge," and suggested he should put my baggage on a truck and run it over. "Right," said I, my one anxiety being to get to my cabin, and try to forget this damnable fever. We trudged along, I simply following the porter, conscious of little but a terrific temperature.

Suddenly the porter stopped. "Well," I said, "why have you stopped?" "Here is your ship, sir." I looked up. What a horror! About the dirtiest thing I'd ever clapped eyes on. Her rusty iron sides streaked with the horrible overflow from the cattle she had evidently been carrying. Smelling like nothing on earth. "But this isn't the Knight Bachelor, surely?" I exclaimed. "Oh, no sir, the Knight Bachelor sailed last week; this is the Knight Companion." Had I had the strength she would certainly have been no companion of mine. However, I was just about at the end of my tether, and thought, "Come, let's get on board, and between some blankets."

...I have often grinned over the way I got shanghaied into that wretched ship.

Funeral Locomotive of King George VI, Dover Priory Railway Station, Kent, UK

A view of the BR Britannia Class 7MT 4-6-2 no 70000 Britannia Steam Locomotive hauling the 12-coach Cathedrals Express as she passed through Dover Priory Railway Station at 5.47 pm on Thursday 7 April 2011:


(Click this BR Britannia Steam Locomotivetext link to see the largest size)

For many years, Britannia had her cab roof painted white. This was to commemorate her pulling the funeral train of King George VI - of "The King's Speech" film fame - from Norfolk to London following his death on the 6th of February 1952 at Sandringham House, Norfolk.

This visit to Dover was part of the Britannia's debut Main Line railtour after two test runs - and she was right on time! The route was from Oxford - Canterbury - Oxford, calling at the following stations:

Outward Journey (Headcode 1Z71 )

Oxford depart 09:22
Reading 10:08
London Kensington Olympia: 11:26
Maidstone East 12:53
Ashford Int 13:24
Canterbury West arrive 13:45

Return Journey (Headcode 1Z73 )

Canterbury West depart 16:51
Minster 17:14
Deal 17:28
Dover Priory 17:47
Folkestone Central 18:01
Ashford Int 18:17
Headcorn 18:28
Paddock Wood arrive 18:39 (water)
Paddock Wood depart 18:54
Tonbridge 19.13
Seven Oaks 19.23
Orpington 19.35
Bromley South 19.53
London Kensington, Olympia 20.42
Slough 21.19
Reading 21.47
Didcot Parkway 22.10
Oxford 22.45

Panorama of Dover Priory Railway Station from the Western Heights, Kent, UK

A view of the Victorian Dover Priory Train Station taken from the Western Heights:


(Click this Dover Priory Rail Station text link to see the largest size)

Also referred to as Dover Priory Rail Station and Dover Priory Station.

The Booking Hall is on the right-hand side of the covered walkway crossing the railway tracks.

To the right of the Booking Hall is Priory Station Approach Road on the other side of which is the Priory Hotel pub.

Western Docks at Night

Dover Priory, originally Dover Town, opened on 22 July 1861 as the temporary terminus of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR). It became a through station on 1 November 1861 with the completion of a tunnel though the Western Heights to gain access to the Western Docks area, where LCDR created Dover Harbour station.

"Priory Steps" are to the right of the rail tunnel entrance, above the carpark. To the right of Priory Steps are the grounds of Dover College (a co-educational independent boarding school).

Folkestone Road can be seen through the trees where it crosses over the railway tracks at the bottom of the photo.

Charles Dickens and the Victorian Camden Crescent, Dover Seafront, Kent, UK

Numbering from left to right, a post-sunrise view (the buildings are actually white) of 1 to 4 Camden Crescent at 6.34 am on Monday, 29th of August, 2011 (1):


(Click this Charles Dickens at Camden Crescent text link to see the largest size)

The photo was taken from Marine Parade on the seafront promenade above the beach of Dover Harbour.

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Camden Crescent Architecture (2) (3)

Camden Crescent is now a Listed Building and runs from the Indian Mutiny War Memorial in New Bridge (the buildings behind the tree on the left) to Wellesley Road (by the Gateway Flats, out-of-shot to the right).

The following extract is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under the terms of the Click-Use Licence (PSI licence number C2010002016) (4):

Waterloo Crescent

Originally a complete crescent similar to Waterloo Crescent, but the other houses have been demolished.

Built in 1840. 4 storeys and basement with area. Yellow brick, the ground floor stuccoed and rusticated.

Parapet above 3rd floor, cornice above 2nd floor, stuccoed stringcourse above lst floor. Continuous iron balcony with hood on the 1st floor.

No 1 has a curved front. 3 windows to each house with restored glazing bars.

The full "Listed Building" entry for Victorian - or Georgian - Camden Crescent is appended below.

Dover Castle under Snow, Winter 2009, from the Western Heights, Kent, UK

This panoramic view, taken on December 22, 2009, is a 'winter edition' of the autumnal Dover Town and Dover Castle from the Western Heights photo uploaded on November 5th of that year:



Left of centre on the snow-covered skyline is the Norman Keep, or Great Tower (night view), of Dover Castle; further left are three masts (originally four, now reduced to two) of the Second World War early-warning Swingate Chain Home radar station.

Right of centre on the skyline are the Pharos (a 1st Century AD Roman watchtower, or lighthouse) and adjacent Saxon church of St Mary-in-Castro.

Just below the skyline towards the right-hand edge of the photo is an end view of the Victorian Officers' Mess (or Officers' New Barracks).

Stretching across the lower half of the photo is the row of large terraced houses of Victoria Park, to the left of which lies the southern entrance to the Zig Zags park; if you know where to look, the West Wall of Old St James Church is also visible (bottom right, in a line under the end houses of Victoria Park).

Within 5 to 150 yards of where this photo was taken from are: Cowgate Cemetery Nature Reserve, the Court's Folly, the 64 Steps, and the Drop Redoubt.

Many of the above-named locations are Victorian.

Filming of the 2009 North Entrance video began here. See:

Victorian Chancel of St. Mary the Virgin Parish Church, Church of England, Dover, Kent, UK

Dover's Church of St Mary the Virgin from the east showing the Chancel/Apse and surrounding graveyard:


(Click this St Mary's Church text link to see the largest size)

St. Mary the Virgin is Church of England and located in Cannon Street (ex Canon Street), Dover. It is a Norman church built between 1066 and 1086 and then restored in Victorian times, 1843-1844.

St Mary's was probably built on the site of a Saxon church, but was certainly built on top of an even earlier Roman structure.

The 'Lady Chapel' is in the right-hand aisle, the Organ in the left. The graveyard (churchyard, cemetery) was closed for burials in 1854.

St Mary's Passage runs along the south side of the church (to the left) and Dieu Stone Lane along the north side (to the right). The photo was taken from Church Street.

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Excerpt from the "History of St Mary's Church" (1)

The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin has shared to the full in both the spiritual and civic life of the ancient town and port of Dover. It is situated in the centre of the town in the main street (Cannon Street) and close by the old Market Square, for centuries the hub of activity, and still at the centre of the town's life. The Church has been increased in size three times, and excavations under the floor near the font have shown that it is built on the site of Roman baths.