Dover Castle: Britain's Light Tower Church in Dover

The Church on the White Cliffs of Dover

On the White Cliffs of Dover stands the oldest lighthouse in Britain, dating back to the second century. It is located next to the church dedicated to the Mother of Jesus that is called Saint Mary at the Castle. The church and the light tower stand on the Eastern Heights overlooking Dover and the Sea, the church situated along the East-West line of the sun.

The Light Tower

The pharos, as the Roman lighthouse is called, used to illuminate the port of Dover from the East, while another Roman pharos standing on Dover’s Western Heights illuminated the port from the West. In the thirteenth century the eastern lighthouse was in a state of decay, but, as it stands next to the church of Saint Mary at the Castle, restoration works were carried out with the aim of using it as the church’s bell tower.

The workers set about their task increasing the tower’s height and installing a platform for the bells, and in 1252 three bells cast in Canterbury were placed within the tower. This conversion of the lighthouse made it technically part of a church complex with a specific religious function, as every church is supposed to have one or more bells, these normally being mounted in a tower standing next to the church or built above the church’s roof.

The transformation of the pharos into part of the ecclesiastical compound confers on this church a unique status of historic and spiritual value, and no doubt accounts for the Roman tower’s survival. Indeed the other Roman lighthouse overlooking Dover’s port from the Western Heights has long ago disappeared, where-as the Eastern light tower was maintained owing to its religious function as bell tower. It is Britain’s highest Roman building and one of the three remaining light towers constructed by the Romans.

The Church: Celtic or Saxon?

Although officially considered a Saxon church, extensive research conducted in the nineteenth century at the time of its renovation concluded that the building is of Celtic origin, founded by the Christian Britons. Kent has two distinct roots of Christian foundation, one going back to the Celtic Britons, the other to the Saxons, and so it is plausible that the church was built by either the Britons or the Saxons.

The church was built on a man-made mound, the same on which the Roman light tower had been constructed. It was renovated during the nineteenth century, maintaining its original structure and building material comprising of stone and brick. Historical accounts from the chronicles of the Saxon Kentish kings tell of the presence of a chapel at the place where the church stands. Around the year 630, King Eadbald of Kent extended the chapel’s function into a college for secular canons.

It is possible to assume that the church dedicated to Saint Mary standing next to the Roman light tower, with which it forms one complex, at some time in Saxon history replaced the previous chapel and ecclesiastical college. It is equally reasonable to suggest that the present church is by and large the same structure which constituted the chapel that was standing in king Eadbald's days, and that it was built by the Britons possibly three centuries before Eadbald's reign.

Eadbald’s father, King Ethelbert of Kent, had converted to Christianity after marrying a Christian princess named Bertha, daughter of king Charibert of the Franks, and it was Ethelbert who consequently introduced Christianity to Kent. He had already founded a chapel for his Christian wife in Canterbury – Kent’s capital at that time – before the arrival of Augustine in 597. As in the case of Dover, this chapel in Canterbury may have been a pre-existing church built centuries earlier by the Britons.

Historic Reference to the Location of the Chapel in Dover

The chapel in Dover which King Ethelbert’s son Eadbald converted into a college for the secular canons, which was in the first half of the seventh century, is historically documented as being situated in Dover’s castle area. Historical research presents two theories as to where it may have stood. The first is that the chapel was constructed on the Eastern Heights next to the Light-tower in a fortified area. The second theory is that the chapel was built in the valley not far from present Market Square near a Roman fortification.

Archaeological excavations give credit to the first theory, as a Saxon burial site has been discovered in the area of the castle on the Eastern Heights that makes feasible the presence of a Saxon settlement there around the year 630, where-as the excavations which brought to light the foundations of some Roman buildings in the valley near the town-centre, including two forts and a structure known as the Roman Painted House, have not revealed the presence of any Saxon chapel. The conclusion is that the present light tower church is the same as the original chapel documented in the seventh century, possibly modified in a later Saxon period.

The area around the castle where it stands was home not only to an ancient Saxon settlement, but also to an even older British Bronze Age settlement. Pottery discovered on the Eastern Heights castle area dating back to 1850 BC can be seen in Dover Museum. As the British Bronze Age either was, or later evolved into, a Celtic society, and the Britons are the descendants of this ancient civilization, only an attentive archaeological research will be able to define whether the present church of Saint Mary at the Castle is of Celtic or Saxon origin.

Those who carried out the construction work of the church had intended that it should stand as one with the Roman light tower. Nowadays there are no bells within the tower, yet Saint Mary’s at the Castle and its Roman tower can be seen from far and wide, situated near the medieval castle and within the castle walls. The church and its light tower together form the oldest and most unique ecclesiastical structure in Britain, conferring upon Dover the biblical titles of Zion and Caesarea by the Sea.

Written by D. Alexander

The original article: Britain's Light Tower Church in Dover, is published on
www.suite101.com/

For the original article, see:
dimitri-alexander.suite101.com/britains-light-tower-church-in-dover-a261263

Read on to discover the cosmic alignment of the church overlooking Dover and the sea and to find its pathway to Christ's Church following the sun from East to West:

celticbritannia.blogspot.com/2011/10/christs-church-revealed.html