Pencester Gardens & Pavilion

Dover Town Council | Pencester PavilionPencester Gardens may never have been built if some of the proposed schemes for this area had come to fruition.

When Pencester Road was laid out in 1860, it was intended to build a street, to be called Neville Road, from Pencester Road to Eastbrook Place but this never happened. About 1880 the land was acquired with the intention of using it for a Dover station in connection with the Channel Tunnel, which was then being planned to run from St Margaret’s.

When that project failed it was suggested that it be used for building a new Town Hall, but in the end, facilities were improved at the Maison Dieu instead. Other plans included a recreation ground and a relief road to ease congestion in Biggin Street. In its later years the site was used as a timber yard.

In November 1922 the land was purchased by the Corporation and the new gardens were laid out. Pencester Gardens opened in 1924, as well as the usual lawns and flowerbed there was also a play area for children and a miniature golf course. The gardens have been a pleasant green space in the centre of the town since then, and have provided a venue for many fetes and funfairs.

In 2000, a pavilion for band concerts and other performances was built to commemorate the new Millennium. The Millennium Path, which runs around the pavilion, was completed in 2001. The path is made up of 100 flagstones each commemorating an event in Dover’s history, each one sponsored by a local resident or business.

Are you a band, local group or individual who has a talent or a message you would like to share with the community? To take advantage of this wonderful local facility or simply to discuss ideas, please contact Tracey Hubbard at Dover Town Council on 01304 242 625, or book now.

The Millennium Path Flagstones

YearEvent
120Two Roman Pharos lighthouses built
200Roman Painted House built
696St Martin-le-Grand founded
1050Cinque Ports formed
1066Norman Invasion – Dover sacked and burnt
1086William Fitz Godfrey – First Mayor of Dover
1130Dover Priory founded
1154King Stephen died at Dover Priory
1180Castle Keep begun
1203Maison Dieu founded by Hubert De Burgh
1213King John surrendered crown to Pope at Dover
1216Siege of Castle by Louis, Dauphin of France
1265Dover’s first MP elected
1278Confederation of Cinque Ports founded
1295St Thomas of Dover martyred
1348Black Death devastated town
1415Henry V landed at Dover after Agincourt
1416Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund landed at Dover
1460Warwick landed at Dover to lead Yorkist army
1496Fellowship of Cinque Ports Pilots formed
1498First artificial harbour built
1520Henry VIII left Dover for Field of Cloth of Gold
1532Composer Thomas Tallis working at Dover Priory
1535Dissolution of Dover Priory
1573Visit of Elizabeth I
1588Spanish Armada fled through Straits of Dover
1588Last Cinque Ports ship service performed
1605Shakespeare visited Dover, writing cliff into ‘King Lear’
1606Dover Harbour Board formed
1621First Huguenot refugees arrived
1642Civil War – Castle seized by Parliamentarians
1660Charles II landed at Dover for Restoration
1670Treaty of Dover
1671First Collector of Customs in Dover appointed
1680Earthquake damaged Castle walls
1684Edict of Nantes – Huguenots settled in Dover
1736Philip Yorke of Dover made Lord Chancellor
1746Isaac Minet & Peter Fector founded Minet’s Bank
1756John Wesley preached, starting Dover Methodist movement
1770Buckland Mill producing paper
1785Blanchard & Jeffries –  first cross-channel balloon flight
1789Dover Charity School founded (later St Mary’s)
1805Grand Shaft commenced
1815Duke of Wellington landed at Dover after Waterloo
1820Smugglers wrecked Dover Gaol
1828Duke of Wellington installed as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
1844Direct rail link to London established
1846Willard Sawyer founded Dover Velocipede Works, world’s first cycle factory
1846Dover Rowing Club established
1850Chamber of Commerce founded
1851Poet Matthew Arnold wrote ‘Dover Beach’
1852Charles Dickens lived in Dover
1858Dover Express established
1871Dover College founded
1875Captain Webb swam Channel
1890Kent coal discovered at Dover
1899Marconi sent first cross-channel radio message from Dover Town Hall
1900Dover Marquee Company founded
1907Prince Fushimi of Japan arrived at Dover for State Visit
1908First car carried across Channel
1909Louis Blériot – first cross-channel flight
1909The Duke of York’s Royal Military School moved to Dover
1909Admiralty Harbour opened by Prince of Wales
1910Charles Rolls - first return cross-channel flight
1918Dover Patrol Raid on Zeebrugge – St George’s Day
1919King Albert of the Belgians arrived by seaplane -first Head of State to visit Britain by air
1920Coffin of ‘Unknown Soldier’ taken via Dover to Westminster Abbey
1921Dover Royal British Legion formed
1921Dover Patrol Memorial erected
1922The Rotary Club of Dover established
1924Admiral Keyes unveiled War Memorial
1925Dover Rugby Football Club founded
1935Dover Life Guard Club founded
1940Dunkirk Evacuation
1944D Day (6th June)
1944Royal Hippodrome (Dover’s Front Line Theatre) closed by enemy action
1945Sir Winston Churchill installed as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
1945Dover’s first Labour MP elected
1953First Car Ferry terminal opened
1956Dover twinned with Split, Croatia
1959SRN1 - first cross-channel hovercraft
1960Dorothy Bushell, Dover’s first lady Mayor elected
1965First RORO ferry entered service
196969 Motorcycle Club formed in Dover
1971Roman Painted House discovered
1971Dover Lions Club chartered
1973Dover twinned with Calais
1974Dover District Council replaced Dover Corporation
1975Visit of Elizabeth II
1979Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother installed as Admiral & Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports & Constable of Dover Castle
1988Dover Counselling Centre opened
1990Channel Tunnel undersea breakthrough
1992Discovery of Dover Bronze Age Boat (c. 1550bc), the world’s oldest seagoing boat
1994Samphire Hoe opened
1995Dover Access & Mobility Group founded
1996Dover Town Council formed
1996Cruise Liner Terminal opened
1997Dover Cruise Welcome Group formed
2000Pencester Pavilion opened