Samphire Hoe
| Samphire Hoe Country Park | |
|---|---|
Samphire Hoe
|
|
| Coordinates | 51°06′20″N 1°16′30″E / 51.1056°N 1.2750°ECoordinates: 51°06′20″N 1°16′30″E / 51.1056°N 1.2750°E |
| Area | 30 hectares (300,000 m2) |
| Created | 1997 |
| Operated by | White Cliffs Countryside Project |
| Visitors | 110,000 |
| Status | Open 7 days a week, dawn until dusk |
| Parking | Paid parking |
| Website | www |
Samphire Hoe Country Park is a country park situated 3 km (2 miles) west of Dover in Kent in southeast England. The park was created by using 4.9 million cubic metres of chalk marl from the Channel Tunnel excavations and is found at the bottom of a section of the White Cliffs of Dover. The site is owned by Eurotunnel Ltd., and managed by the White Cliffs Countryside Project.
It is accessible by the public via a single-track tunnel controlled by traffic lights, which crosses over the South Eastern Main Line running in a tunnel underneath. Visitor facilities are provided, including car parking, toilets and a tea kiosk.
Samphire Hoe is named after the wild plant rock samphire that was once collected from the Dover cliffs; its fleshy green leaves were picked in May and pickled in barrels of brine and sent to London, where it was served as a dish to accompany meat. A 'hoe' is a piece of land which sticks out into the sea.
The name was coined by Mrs Gillian Janaway, a retired English teacher from Dover, by way of a public competition.
The cliffs above the current park were blown up with gunpowder in 1843 to aid the creation of the Dover to Folkestone railway. In 1880 an attempt was made from the site to create a tunnel that would pass under the English Channel but it failed shortly afterwards. In 1895 a coal mine was sunk there but this closed in 1921 after being very unsuccessful. These activities were served by Shakespeare Cliff Halt railway station at the western end of the Shakespeare Cliff tunnel; the remains of the platforms can be seen from the road to the car park. A community of fisherfolk and others once lived at the foot of Shakespeare Cliff.
In the 1980s the site was deemed the most suitable of sixty proposed to dump chalk from Channel Tunnel excavations, and work began on it in 1988. As the 30 hectares that make up the park were totally reclaimed from the sea, the first job to be completed was the building of walls in the sea to create an artificial lagoon. It was completed in 1994 and opened by Queen Elizabeth II and President François Mitterrand. It opened to the public in 1997.
...
Wikipedia