Dover is a major channel port in the English county of Kent. At the 2001 census, the town of Dover proper had a population of 28,156 inhabitants, while the population of the whole urban area of Dover, as calculated by the Office for National Statistics, was 39,078 inhabitants. (External reference: [1]). The town is the administrative centre of the Dover district.
It is the closest English port to France and continental Europe being only 21 miles (34 kilometres) from the French port of Calais. The French name of Dover is Douvres, pronounced [duvʀ]. It is famous for its white cliffs, which are made of chalk. The cliffs gave Britain its nickname of Albion, meaning "white". The town's name derives from the Brythonic word for water.Due to its closeness to continental Europe Dover is one of the busiest cross Channel ports of the United Kingdom, with 18 million passengers passing through every year. Regular ferry and catamaran services operate from Dover to Calais and Dunkerque. A regular service to Boulogne-sur-Mer recommenced in May 2004. Hoverspeed also offers an Ostend service that combines its catamaran route to Calais with a bus to Ostend.
Maxton was once a rural parish to the west of Dover, and the terminus of the tramway system serving the town until its closure in 1938, and is now a suburb of the town.Dover has been an important port for millennia. In 1992, a waterlogged boat was discovered in a depth of 6 m that dates to the Bronze Age and is one of the oldest seagoing vessels ever recovered. It has been dated by the radiocarbon method to ca. 1550 BC. The Langdon Bay hoard, discovered in 1974 off the Dover coast contains bronze axes of a French type and may represent the cargo of a sunken vessel, thus demonstrating cross-channel trade already for the Bronze Age, if not earlier. Both finds are on display in the Dover museum in market square.
Dover Castle has a dramatic past, from here the French were rebuffed in 1216, and the evacuation of Dunkirk was masterminded in 1940. Today you can see displays centring on the Second World War. Visit the Old Town Gaol to experience prison life as it was during Victorian times.Dover also offers an excavated Roman fort, the extensive Western Heights Napoleonic fortifications, and the recently enhanced exhibition at the White cliffs experience.
