History of Folkestone
The history of Folkestone stretches back to ancient times, with evidence of human habitation dating to the Mesolithic and Paleolithic ages over 12,000 years ago.
It sits near the North Downs Trackway, which provided a natural track from the narrowest part of the English Channel to the important religious complexes at Avebury and Stonehenge in Wiltshire, where it is known as the Harroway.
[4] The entire area around Folkestone sits on a thick band of gault clay overlying the Lower Greensand which forms the underlying structure of southeast Britain.
Unfortunately for historians and archaeologists alike, the greensand stone is loose unconsolidated sandstone, and the gault clay is nearly liquid at the point where it meets the greenstone, so that there may have been significant erosion and possible loss of prehistoric sites over the years.
[1] On the outskirts of Folkestone, an important Bronze Age site was found at Holywell Coombe between 1987 and 1988, in advance of the building of the Channel Tunnel.
[3] Folkestone querns have been found in numerous other archaeological excavations throughout the greater Kent[clarification needed] area and beyond, suggesting that the Iron Age residents had widespread trading connections.
Querns have been found in local Kentish sites such as Wingham, and Dosset Court in Upper Deal, as well as more distant locations such as Hunbury (Northants), London, Essex, and possibly France.
[10] Archaeological evidence suggests that in return for the querns, the inhabitants received fine pottery from Gaul and wine from Italy.
[2] A 1st century[clarification needed] cemetery was discovered in 1948 at Cheriton on the outskirts of modern Folkestone, and contained both British and Roman remains.
[13] Archeological evidence suggests that the villa may have been damaged by fire, but it was rebuilt in the second century on a more luxurious scale, this time using quarried and dressed greensand stone.
[13] It was built to roughly the same plan, but was enlarged with more rooms and corridors, an expanded Roman Bath suite, and more luxurious finishing such as hypocausts, mosaic floors, and painted walls.
[18] In 1095 the lord of the manor was Nigel de Muneville: he built a new church in the town to replace that which was destroyed by Earl Godwin and established Folkestone Priory for Benedictine Monks close to the nunnery site.
The French took an opportunity to attack Folkestone in 1216 and laid waste to much of the settlement which, although still a village in size, was significant enough to have a Mayor and a Corporation.
Here the Shorncliffe Redoubt was built; in 1796 the Garrison was further extended with the provision of barracks for housing troops, originally being sent off to the Peninsula Wars, were stationed there.
Subsequent wars have seen many thousands of troops here: the present Sir John Moore Barracks is the home of Gurkha Regiment in Britain.
Later in the 19th century, Folkestone Harbour become a reality; and the coming of the railways heralded the start of a new industry to the town: that of tourism, although this was to be relatively much later than its neighbours of Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs.
In general, little serious damage was done to Folkestone during World War I, although on 25 May 1917 low cloud over London caused a 21 strong wave of Gotha bombers to abort a raid on the capital.
The Luftstreitkräfte aircraft turned for home and detached their bombs mainly in the Folkestone district, killing 71 people and injuring 94 more.
During preliminary work, the ordnance in the vessel's hold exploded with force equivalent to an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale, digging a six-metre deep crater in the seabed and causing panic in Folkestone, although no-one was injured.
