Secret Dover
Regular price
€19.99
The history of the ancient town and port of Dover goes back to the Roman times and beyond. Lying at the shortest crossing point to France and continental Europe, the port has long played an important role in the history of this country. In Secret Dover Jeff Howe reveals the hidden history lurking behind Dover’s streets, buildings and seascapes. Along with the more obvious landmarks, there was the Grand Hotel, which was bombed out in 1940, and in it at the time, an American reporter who documented what it felt like to be bombed. There is the Promenade Pier with its pavilion and many performers, including such international names as violinist Marie Hall, and the lesser-known The Musical Vagabonds and their ringmaster, Harold Montague. A book called Secret Dover wouldn’t be complete without mentioning heroes too: Louisa Stewart, matron of the Western Heights Military Hospital during the First World War; and Leonard Deverson, who died while shielding a woman he didn’t know from an air raid during 1940. Jeff also scrutinizes the evidence for a Roman quay in Dover – 2,000 years ago it was well inland – and for the first time is able to place two long-gone Tudor harbour towers onto a modern map. This book reveals all this and more, and will appeal to those with an interest in this most ancient and fascinating of towns.
Jeff Howe, B.A. (HONS), M.A. is a local historian having research interests in the history of Dover and is a founding member of Dover’s Western Heights Preservation Society and co-author of two books on the history of Dover. In 2018 he had an article published in Archaeologia Cantiana, the Kent Archaeological Society journal. This was about Dover’s 16th century harbour. Current research interests include Dover’s Sun Fire insurance policy holders in the town’s 18th century Pier District. Other interests include early 20th century art and artists, and early recorded sound.