Deal.

Location: On the extreme East coast of Kent overlooking the Goodwin Sands.

See:

Deal - General Information
Deal Castle
Deal - St. Leonard's Church and The Time Ball Tower
Some pictures and history by Dick Barton.

...and additional information about the area:

The Cinque Ports
The Deal Boatmen

Denton.

Location:The Village straddles the A260 to Folkestone about a mile from the turn-off on the A2 Dover Road.

The village of Denetun is first mentioned in a charter of 799 A.D. and then later in the Domesday Book as Danetone where it is recorded as already having a church. This would mean that there was originally a Saxon structure on this site although the majority of the present church dates from the 13th Century. Denton boasts two well-known residences, Broome Park to the North and Tappington Hall to the South. Broome Park, designed in the 17th Century by Inigo Jones, was once the home of the Oxenden family and later became the home of Lord Kitchener. It is now a Hotel. Because Broome Park was once a large estate and employed a considerable number of labourers, genealogists researching some of the local parishes might take time to search the Denton records if they are missing connections. I have found some very interesting baptisms here because, I believe, employees of the estate probably felt obliged to bring some of their offspring to be baptised at the Church where their employers regularly worshiped.

Tappington Hall was once the family home of an individual that features fairly regularly through these pages, Richard H. Barham. The Hall lays in the Valley on the right hand side of the road as you leave Denton on the way towards Folkestone about half a mile outside of the Village. It is meant to have its own ghost of one, Sir Giles, who is supposed to have murdered a guest at dinner one night by poisoning him. The ghost is supposed to have the unfortunate habit of taking off with men's breeches or trousers!

Click on this picture
for a larger version

The Village is a small collection of half-timbered and tile-hung cottages with a small village green and on the opposite side of the road is the 'Pub', The Jackdaw.

See also:

The Church of St. Mary Magdalene

Dover.

Location: On the coast in the extreme South East corner of Kent.

See:	Pages about Dover
See also:	The Cinque Ports
	Dover Castle as a place to visit

Dungeness.

Location:Located at the very tip of The Romney Marsh. Drive through New Romney to reach it or catch the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Light Railway from Hythe, Dymchurch or New Romney.

The "Old" Lighthouse

Dymchurch.

The Martello Towers at Dymchurch
Click on the picture for more information.

There is no main line railway station at Dymchurch but if you come here by using the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway from Hythe you can see the Church spire of SS. Peter and Paul across the fields as you start to slow to enter the Dymchurch station. This is the Parish Church of the character, Doctor Syn or 'The Scarecrow', made famous by Russell Thorndike and the Walt Disney movie. Doctor Christopher Syn is fictitious, although events that are depicted are certainly based on real happenings in the area. In addition, there is a story of either a Vicar or Doctor from the Marshes that is buried alongside his coachman indicating the same close association that Doctor Syn had with his companion, Sexton Mipps. In the same way that at one time it was difficult to know where solid ground in the Marshes gave way to quagmire, it is difficult to know where truth ends and fiction begins.

At the edge of the Romney Marshes, Dymchurch was a town that was extensively frequented by the smugglers and at one time troops had to be quartered here. The public house, "The Ship" which is just behind the sea wall, is known to have had many tunnels and hiding places for the movement of smugglers and contraband. Russell Thorndike, originally born in Rochester, Kent, subsequently moved to Dymchurch, and used to be a regular visitor to the "The Ship" where, no doubt, he heard many of the tales upon which he based his books.

Around Dymchurch and along the coast down to Dungeness are many cottages/chalets, call them what you like, made of old railway carriages. It seems that a Canadian businessman bought a number of these carriages at one time and moved them to Romney. He then ran out of money for whatever he intended to do with them and consequently, they were sold and there they sit to this day. Several of them were bought and used as storage sheds by a local builder but it's the ones that serve as homes that draw most attention in their incongruous locations.

See also: SS. Peter & Paul's Church, Dymchurch.

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