Louis Bleriot Memorial
Another site which we came across by accident. We'd driven past it on the way to find Wanstone Battery, and while you can see the woodland below from the battlements of Dover Castle, you'd never know there was a memorial here unless you were on the other side of them.
Pure chance led us here, and now its our job to spread the word on this hidden gem.
Louis Bleriot was a French aviator who became the first person to successfully complete a flight over the English Channel.
On Sunday the 25th of July 1909, Bleriot landed his plane on the incline just below Dover Castle. He was awarded £1000 by The Daily Mail as a prize for the feat and it was a job well done in an aircraft of his own design. Turns out Louis was more than just a pilot, he was an inventor and and engineer as well!
The plane he had skilfully crafted for the journey was powered by a three cylinder engine and had a wingspan of a little over 25 feet. That makes this plane a tiny aircraft, just imagine 25ish footlong subways!
Bleriot's trip took him 36 and a half minutes and although the aircraft was damaged during his landing, Louis remained unhurt and won the prize offered by the newspaper. The landing spot has since been immortalised with a granite outline of Bleriot's plane and a historical sign detailing the history of the site for visitors who are unaware, just like us.
Now the site is easy enough to get to, it isn't far past the pedestrian entrance to the castle and its the next right onto Upper Road, you then can't miss the entry to the small carpark. However, as you enter note to your left the small gated entryway embedded in the hill, this is the rear entry to the castle!
It's all boarded up now as it clearly isn't used, but it was something we never knew existed and it answered a lot of questions we previously had about accessibility to the castle during various battles and wars. This point would have been well guarded!
There are some ongoing works at this woodland site at the moment where trees are being cut down in order to encourage new growth and wildlife, so we'd recommend being careful when visiting, although there are many ways to get to the memorial.
This is a beautiful dog walking spot and we would have liked to have explored a little further, however we'd just come from Wanstone Battery and called in here on the flyby (pun intended), but Storm Amy was rapidly approaching so we needed to get home before the high winds and rain began.
We would certainly encourage people to take a look at this hidden gem! We had no idea of the sites relevance and Louis Bleriot deserves to be remembered for his grand achievement, you also get a new perspective of the castle above, so what isn't there to like?!
The site is super peaceful once you get away from the road and while we didn't see anything per say, all forest type areas hold some sort of supernatural energy so the chances of the odd haunting here aren't exactly slim, especially if you take into account its proximity to Dover Castle where a fair amount of blood has been shed over the years. It's just a shame we don't know when the memorial was placed, but hats off to whoever arranged it!
DISCLAIMER: Now for the official bit. This blog does not receive any paid promotions from the places mentioned above. We have not been approached to promote or act as spokespersons for any attraction mentioned within this post and this is simply a post intended to act as a day in the life of a couple on a cute date. All photos included are taken by ourselves and as such the rights for these images our ours, no links, brands, or companies mentioned otherwise belong or are associated with Phantom Adventures UK. We are responsible only for this blog. Opinions are our own and not influenced by any third party source..
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