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John Latter's conversations
Looking west along a large part of the eastern two-thirds of the pre-Napoleonic Earthwork that runs between the North Centre Bastion and the Outer Bastion on the Western Heights above the town of Dover in England.
The pre-Napoleonic mound comes in from the bottom between the leafless tree on the right and the dark area of the Upper Ditch on the left, and then veers towards the centre of the photo after passing beneath the patch of brambles.
After the clump of trees, the earthwork returns to the original course and then runs straight as a die until it almost reaches the East Moat of the Outer Bastion
Left of centre on the skyline is the low wedge-shape of one of the 'chocolate-bar segments' of the Outer Bastion.
The above photo is a 'zoomed shot' that has resulted in the centre section, which runs between the briar patch and the clump of trees, being fore-shortened.
I like the apparent, "Progression of Autumn" along the mound from the vibrant green of the trees in the top-left of the photo to the leafless tree at bottom right.
Standard information for the Pre-Napoleonic Earthworks:
Click on the Earthworks tag to see all photos of this location.
The apparent length of this east-west pre-Napoleonic mound and flanking ditches is about 275 hundred yards. It runs parallel to, and some 50 yards downhill from, the North Lines (or Moats) that connect the North Centre Bastion* (behind the viewer) to the Outer Bastion (in front).
On Google Earth (and on location) the earthwork can be seen to have been truncated to the west by the later construction of the Outer Bastion; the ground drops away on the other side of the Outer Bastion so the earthwork almost certainly once terminated within it confines.
Today's North Centre Bastion and Detached Bastion are a 'second edition' (built 1858 - 1867) with the earthwork now stopping well short of the Detached Bastion's west flanking moat. Before this mid-Victorian alteration, however, the earthwork extended much further to the east.
The original North Centre Bastion (built 1804 - 1815), for example, was constructed around the earthwork which created a dog-leg in the moat (or cross ditch) that seperated the Detached Bastion (as it was then) from the North Centre Bastion proper.
An 1859 map indicates the eastern end of the earthwork terminated near the Outer Bridge of the North Entrance, and that today's moat from the east side of the North Centre Bastion to the Outer Bridge may have replaced it.
As far as I am aware, this is the only pre-Napoleonic earthwork still identifiable as such on the Western Heights of Dover, Kent, UK.
I grew up in Westbury Road and Clarendon Place which lie below this part of the Western Heights and since childhood had vaguely assumed the earthwork was a First World War or Second World War construction.
The ditch above the mound is shallow ("Man-sized") while that below it is much deeper ("No Men here, thank you."). In other words, I thought it was a simple trench built to fill the gap between the North Centre Bastion and the Outer Bastion - it never occured to me that the construction dates might be the other way around!
The Wikipedia entry for the Western Heights states they were "First given earthworks in 1779" without giving any of their locations.
An English Heritage "Archaeological Investigation" (Report No. 7 - North Centre and Detached Bastions), on the other hand, specifically refers to the earthwork in the above photo, states how it existed before the first North Centre Bastion and was subsequently incorporated into it, etc., but also says it is only probable that it dates from the 1770s and 1780s.
Click to see a video of the North Centre Bastion.
Click to see a video of the North Entrance.
John Latter / Jorolat
Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town
This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.
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Click to see a satellite view of the Detached Bastion.
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Click to see a satellite view of the Detached Bastion.
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Click to see a satellite view of the Detached Bastion.
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Turn right at the top of Belgrave Road (actually a hill) and you're in Westbury Crescent; turn left and you're on grassland behind Clarendon Place and can choose from a number of pathways which then spread all over the northern slopes of the Western Heights.
This photo was taken from a short path which leads from the Belgrave/Westbury turning up to "The Dump" at the foot of the Detached Bastion Glacis*.
In the middle foreground, other paths run behind Clarendon Place until they eventually meet the North Military Road (aka "Military Hill) on its way to the North Entrance*.
On the distant skyline, and below the 12th Century Norman Keep, or Great Tower, of Dover Castle are the massive walls of the Inner Bailey, to the right of which are the Roman Pharos and Saxon church of St Mary-in-Castro.
Below the Inner Bailey are the Western Battlements, or Western Curtain Wall; Peverell`s Gate is clearly visible.
*The Detached Bastion is connected to the North Centre Bastion by the South Caponier and they, along with the North Entrance, are parts of an extensive Napoleonic and Victorian defense system embedded into the Western Heights.
Dover Castle and many locations on the Western Heights are English Heritage sites.
John Latter / Jorolat
Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town
This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.
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Details of the Remembrance Day Service held at the Dover War Memorial on Sunday, 8th of November, 2009, are on this Dover Town Council webpage.
After the service there was a Parade from the War Memorial to the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Cannon Street via Biggin Street.
Information on the figure of Youth statue can be found in the caption to the Dover War Memorial Maison Dieu House photo (first and third entries) and at The War Memorial. The inscription on the statue reads:
The building in the background is Maison Dieu House which was built in 1665, and according to Dover Town Council, is possibly the oldest domestic building in the town:
The Town Hall is to the left of Maison Dieu House.
Dover in World War Two: 1942 (1) is a ten minute British Ministry of Information film, released by the US Office of War Information, and narrated by the American journalist, Edward R. Murrow.
(1) Original titles: Dover (1942) or Dover Front Line.
Also see Dover's Indian Mutiny War Memorial (1857 - 1859).
John Latter / Jorolat
Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town
This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.
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An Autumn 2009 view of Plum Pudding Hill taken from near the North Centre Bastion (1) on the hills almost directly above Belgrave Road.
The area in shadow on the left is part of the northern slopes of the Western Heights (1).
The road entering from the bottom centre of the photo is Westbury Crescent which only has houses on its left-hand side at this western end.
The 6 houses forming a "T" with the end house of Westbury Crescent are a relatively new development occupying what was once Buttercup Meadow.
To the right of Westbury Crescent, but at a lower level, the double row of houses belonging to Westbury Road disappear into the bottom right-hand corner.
There are three blocks of houses above the 'white house' on the left-hand side of Westbury Road: I used to live in the middle block, in the corner house nearest to the camera (77 Westbury Road).
To the right of Westbury Road is Longfield Road (2). At right-angles to Longfield Road are, from right to left, Church Road (2), Malmains Road (2), and Lascelles Road who all join Folkestone Road (parallel to Longfield Road, but not in view).
Elms Vale Road (2) arcs around behind Plum Pudding Hill on the centre right-hand edge of the photo; Whinless Down is above Elms Vale Road.
Click to see a view of Plum Pudding Hill from the Outer Bastion.
The Dover War Memorial Project website states:
The WPA Film Library has some footage whose caption reads:
The 1892 History book, "Landmarks in Ancient Dover, New Hampshire" by Mary Thompson, says:
I had to smile at the use of 'ancient' in the book title, but I do like the idea of some long-forgotten emigrant from this Dover looking at a hill in New England and saying, "This reminds me of home..."
(1) More specifically, the above photo was taken from the outer moat encircling the North-West Caponier, part of the Detached Bastion which is connected to the North Centre Bastion proper by the South Caponier. The North Centre Bastion is part of an extensive Napoleonic and Victorian defense system (an English Heritage site) embedded into the top of the Western Heights. The eastern end of a pre-Napoleonic Earthwork is close to where this photo was taken from.
(2) The Streets of Dover website has the following entries:
Church Road:
Elms Vale Road:
Longfield Road:
There appears to be no other reason for this name than there may in years gone by have been a meadow here under the hills, which was known as the Long Field. A little further on behind Maxton and Farthingloe the hill is known as Long Hill.
Malmains Road:
John Latter / Jorolat
Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town
This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.
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Ralf_G., on November 16th, 2009, said:
Thank you for your comments, Ralf :)
Your photo of the nutrias is very good - and I'm very impressed that you provided an interesting caption in both German and English!
Greetings from Dover, England,
John Latter
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A Western Heights view of Plum Pudding Hill taken from near the Outer Bastion (1) and the Second World War pillbox (2) above what used to be the Buttercup Meadow end of Westbury Crescent and Westbury Road.
Folkestone Road (3) runs through the Maxton district from left to right across the bottom of the photo (Dover is to the right).
To the right of the allotments behind the small terrace with the orange roof (bottom centre) is Lascelles Road and then (most of) Malmains Road (3).
Above Malmains Road, Elms Vale Road (3) arcs around the far side side of Plum Pudding Hill. Just below the distant skyline, Whinless Down, with its flattened Round Barrows out of view to the right, looks down on Elms Vale Road.
Opposite the building with the orange roof are the first few houses of Maxton Road (3) before it disappears from view beneath the straw in the immediate foreground
The Dover War Memorial Project website states:
The WPA Film Library has some footage whose caption reads:
The 1892 History book, "Landmarks in Ancient Dover, New Hampshire" by Mary Thompson, says:
I had to smile at the use of 'ancient' in the book title, but I do like the idea of some long-forgotten emigrant from this Dover looking at a hill in New England and saying, "This reminds me of home..."
(1) The Outer Bastion (an English Heritage site) is part of an extensive Napoleonic and Victorian defense system embedded into the top of the Western Heights. The western end of a pre-Napoleonic Earthwork abuts a flanking moat of the Outer Bastion, close to where this photo was taken from.
(2) The pillbox has Monument No. 933173 on English Heritage's Pastscape website.
(3) The Streets of Dover website has the following entries:
Elms Vale Road:
Folkestone Road:
Malmains Road:
Maxton Road:
John Latter / Jorolat
Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town
This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.
more »
Background: looking east towards the Drop Redoubt and Dover Castle from the northern slopes of the Western Heights directly above Westbury Crescent.
Foreground: to the right of the tree standing just right of centre there's a black line that wanders down to the bottom of the photo which is, of course, the path I'm standing on.
To the left of the tree an apparently similar black line first arcs into, and then goes under, the brambles in the bottom left-hand corner.
This second black line is a shallow ditch flanking a low mound to its left that runs for some distance both in front of, and behind, the viewer. Unseen on the other side of the mound is a second, deeper ditch.
The mound and two ditches are pre-Napoleonic earthworks - older than the Drop Redoubt, North Centre Bastion, Grand Shaft, Citadel, and all the other related structures on the Western Heights that Dovorians may be more familiar with.
The Pre-Napoleonic Earthworks on the Western Heights, Dover, Kent, UK photo is taken from on top of the mound and gives a clearer view of both the mound and its flanking ditches.
Click on the Earthworks tag to see all photos of this location.
This is an abridged version of the caption that accompanied the first photo of the Pre-Napoleonic Earthworks to be uploaded:
The apparent length of this east-west pre-Napoleonic mound and flanking ditches is about 275 hundred yards. It runs parallel to, and some 50 yards downhill from, the North Lines (or Moats) that connect the North Centre Bastion* (in front of the viewer) to the Outer Bastion (behind).
On Google Earth (and on location) the earthwork can be seen to have been truncated to the west by the later construction of the Outer Bastion; the ground drops away on the other side of the Outer Bastion so the earthwork almost certainly once terminated within it confines.
Today's North Centre Bastion and Detached Bastion are a 'second edition' (built 1858 - 1867) with the earthwork now stopping well short of the Detached Bastion's west flanking moat. Before this mid-Victorian alteration, however, the earthwork extended much further to the east.
The original North Centre Bastion (built 1804 - 1815), for example, was constructed around the earthwork which created a dog-leg in the moat (or cross ditch) that seperated the Detached Bastion (as it was then) from the North Centre Bastion proper.
An 1859 map indicates the eastern end of the earthwork terminated near the Outer Bridge of the North Entrance, and that today's moat from the east side of the North Centre Bastion to the Outer Bridge may have replaced it.
As far as I am aware, this is the only pre-Napoleonic earthwork still identifiable as such on the Western Heights of Dover, Kent, UK.
I grew up in Westbury Road and Clarendon Place which lie below this part of the Western Heights and since childhood had vaguely assumed the earthwork was a First World War or Second World War construction.
The ditch above the mound is shallow ("Man-sized") while that below it is much deeper ("No Men here, thank you."). In other words, I thought it was a simple trench built to fill the gap between the North Centre Bastion and the Outer Bastion - it never occured to me that the construction dates might be the other way around!
The Wikipedia entry for the Western Heights states they were "First given earthworks in 1779" without giving any of their locations.
An English Heritage "Archaeological Investigation" (Report No. 7 - North Centre and Detached Bastions), on the other hand, specifically refers to the earthwork in the above photo, states how it existed before the first North Centre Bastion and was subsequently incorporated into it, etc., but also says it is only probable that it dates from the 1770s and 1780s.
Click to see a video of the North Centre Bastion.
Click to see a video of the North Entrance.
John Latter / Jorolat
Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town
This is the Images of Dover website: click on any blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.
more »