Dover Castle Adventure

What links World War 2, the Romans, the Normans and Coastlines? The incredible Dover Castle!

Last Thursday, the children in Year 5 braved the elements to explore this fantastic location in order to discover how important this site has been throughout history. They looked at the 1500-year-old Roman lighthouse and sheltered from the rain in the beautiful Norman castle they looked out over the 21 miles of sea to France and found out all about Operation Dynamo in the Secret War Tunnels.

As the children followed in the footsteps of Winston Churchill and Admiral Bertram Ramsey, they descended into the tunnels, deep in the chalk cliffs, to discover how the evacuation of Dunkirk took place. Over 338,000 British and Allied troops were evacuated from the beaches in 1940 thanks to the efforts of the military and civilian boat owners from the local area. The children even began to wonder why Hitler hadn’t bombed Dover Castle, when the town had been bombed 2000 times. Had Hitler wanted Dover Castle for himself?

In order to make the most of this great opportunity the children were wrapped up warm and walked up, down and around this amazing site to see everything that it had to offer. It was great visit fuelled by curiosity, appreciation of British History, resilience and chocolate brownies.

Many thanks to Mrs Giles, Mrs Everton and Mr Mackenzie for helping to make this trip possible.

Mrs Allen