Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
Not got time to post individual photos at the moment, but here is a link to my Flickr account
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doverpast/sets/72157627836666953/Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
Tell a lie, I did take just one:
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
Can't be many eye-brows left on the battle field !!
Been nice knowing you :)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
great stuff paul and phil, you two never let us down.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Phil,Thanks for that,but that poor man did have a drink first,but I do not drink,and I would need more than water.But it was good to see how it was .
Guest 700- Registered: 11 Jun 2010
- Posts: 2,868
WONDERFUL PHOTOS, AND THE BLACK AND WHITE ONES ESPECIALLY, SO ATMOSPHERIC
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Lincolnshire Born and Bred
Guest 683- Registered: 11 Feb 2009
- Posts: 1,052
I would like to echo Howard's praise for Phil and Scotchie.
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
Thanks all
Time to start planning for next year's work and organising the main Open Weekend for 21/22 July 2012 !!
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
Thank you.
Things will now be going a little quiet from us for a while. As the bats begin to hibernate in the fort our work will be pretty much restricted to outside. Instead our next couple of workdays are planned in which we will be working with White Cliffs Countryside Partnership clearing plants in the moats - two community groups together.
Next year we are hoping to expand the tours, possibly with dedicated theme tours (Napoleonic / Wartime) if such an idea is of interest. We may also be looking to expand the Open Weekends to include more 20th century history.
Before we start planning ideas, what would YOU like to see? Suggestions most welcome.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
phil,the idea of having tours up the hieghts is a good one,but would they extend to st.martins battery as well.seeing that the whole area was used in both wars.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
cannot see anything that can be improved upon, the numbers attending each year seem to prove that.
something occurred to me back in the summer to do with the grand shaft.
we all read about the use of the staircases by officers and their ladies, sergeants and their wives and soldiers and their women!!!.
how about finding a couple that would dress up as the former group and parade at the top of the staircase every couple of hours?
i bet there are people among the re-enactors that would do it or know someone who would.
That sounds like a great idea Howard ,
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
I like it Howard. Picking a group, I expect we'll get an imbalance on one of the staircases, this being Dover. I'll let you decide which one.
I was chatting to a gentleman who interviewed a soldier from the Irish Guards who was stationed at the Grand Shaft barracks the other day . He told me that in 1940 the Grand Shaft was out-of-bounds to the rank and file and was reserved for officers only. Enlisted men had to march all the way up Military Hill. One poor private got a right dressing down as he hid in the Shaft during an air-raid as it was for 'officers use only'!
Happy days.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
the encouraging comments from sarah and phil have made me think more about the idea.
would have to be an officer in his dress uniform and a lady with a parasol, that is what people would expect.
how about them leading a small party of people down the staircase whilst sharing anecdotes that relate to the shaft i.e. the fellow that rode his horse up it for a bet and the many tales of drunken debauchery.
3 quid a throw seems reasonable and people end up at the bookshop at the entrance.
anyway just an idea, maybe the western heights brains trust could throw it up for discussion and make something workable stem from it.
i always feel that the shaft is a poor relation to the drop redoubt and some money could be made out of it.
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
Thanks Howard
Provided we can sort the manning we are hoping to open the Grand Shaft up on the 3rd Sunday of each month (maybe March to October) to coincide with the work parties, plus the two open weekends and Heritage Open Days. We have done work tidying up the guardroom so we would like to make the most of it
Been nice knowing you :)
Paul can I contact you off board re this ?
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
No probs - e-mail is on my profile
Been nice knowing you :)
Done
Guest 644- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,214
I like it Howard. I've gathered a few Victorian tales relating to debauchery and dearing-do at the Shaft and it would be fun to use them.
Guest 713- Registered: 19 Mar 2011
- Posts: 342
I could not get up there this week end,as I fell over the other day & hurt my leg,so I did not fancy walking up all those steps.
Shame as I do enjoy it so much. It is just a pity that there is no hand rails of some sort going up & down the long staris,after all not every body is fit enough walk up & down unaided. would it cost very much.
