River Dour, Kent

River Dour
River Dour within Dover
Basin features
Main source	Temple Ewell
River mouth	Dover Harbour
Physical characteristics
Length	over 4 mi (6.4 km)

Coordinates: 51°07′25″N 1°18′52″E / 51.12350°N 1.31440°E / 51.12350; 1.31440

The River Dour is a chalk stream in the county of Kent, in Dover, England. It flows from the villages of Temple Ewell and River, through the village of Kearsney. It is roughly 4 km long.

It originally had a wide estuary on the site of modern Dover, although today it flows into the Dover Harbour through a culvert. The estuary was a natural harbour for the Bronze Age settlers and traders in the area. The remains of a Bronze Age seagoing boat (from 3,500 years ago), was found in 1992, and it can be seen in Dover Museum.

The Dour Estuary was then used as a port for the Roman town,as a natural harbour for the Roman fleet. But this was silted up in the medieval period, necessitating the construction of various artificial harbours for Dover instead.

The river has been used since AD 762 to power various watermills along its route. These included eight Corn Mills and five paper mills. Buckland Mill near Buckland Bridge was one of the earliest corn mills, but has since been converted into flats. Crabble Mill is now a fully restored corn mill and museum, and the Old Mill in Kearsney is now a private house, the others have been converted for various uses.

Other industries on the river included, iron foundries, saw mills (demolished) and a tannery (also converted).