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Main article: History of Folkestone
The area of Folkestone has been occupied since at least the Mesolithic era. In 2010, worked flints were discovered below the remains of the Folkestone Roman Villa. The East Cliff area was excavated in 1924 and most recently from 2010 to 2011, producing artefacts from the Mesolithic period through to the Roman era. On the East Cliff, an extensive Iron Age oppidum existed, which produced quern-stones on an almost industrial scale. Those quern-stones, which were used for grinding cereals into flour, were traded for continental exports such as pottery and wine. A modest Roman-style villa was constructed over the Iron Age settlement some time during the 1st century AD, followed by a more luxurious one in about 200 AD. The villa was abandoned during the 3rd or 4th century for unknown reasons.
In 597 AD, monks, led by Augustine of Canterbury, arrived at Ebbsfleet on the Isle of Thanet, on a mission from Pope Gregory to re-Christianise Britain. He was greeted by the Anglo-Saxon pagan King of Kent, Æthelberht, and his Christian Queen, Bertha. Augustine was granted land in Canterbury, where he built his church and, outside the walls, founded the monastery of St Peter & St Paul, now known as St Augustine's. Æthelberht was succeeded as Anglo-Saxon king of Kent by his son Eadbald, whose daughter Eanswythe refused all offers of marriage. In 630, Eanswythe founded a nunnery on the site of her father's castle near Folkestone by the present parish church of St Mary & St Eanswythe.
Church of St Mary and St Eanswythe, in the town centre, contains the remains of St Eanswythe, granddaughter of Æthelberht of Kent.
Eanswythe died around 640 and was quickly made a saint. Her remains were moved into the chancel of the current church on 12 September 1138, which has since been commemorated as the Feast of St Eanswythe. They became the focus of prayer and pilgrimage, so Eanswythe was quickly adopted as the town's patron. The religious community grew and developed into a monastery until it was dissolved by Henry VIII, and St Eanswythe's remains disappeared. They were rediscovered in June 1885 when workmen, carrying out alterations to the high altar, found a battered lead casket immured in a niche in the north wall of the chancel. Examination by archaeologists at the time, and again in 1981, confirmed that the casket was of Anglo-Saxon origin and the few bone fragments were those of a woman in her early thirties. The relics are still housed in the church, close to where they were discovered, flanked by a pair of small brass candlesticks. St Eanswythe also appears on the town's seal, along with William Harvey, the Folkestone-born 17th-century physician who discovered blood circulation.
A Norman knight held a Barony of Folkestone, which led to its entry as a part of the Cinque Ports in the thirteenth century and, with that, the privilege of being a wealthy trading port. At the start of the Tudor period, it had become a town in its own right. Wars with France meant that defences had to be built, and Folkestone Harbour was built, though the coming of the railways in 1843 had a greater impact on its development.
Dover Hill, the highest point in Folkestone, was a sighting point for the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790), which measured the precise distance between the Royal Greenwich Observatory and the Paris Observatory. The hill provided a sight-line to the east along the line of the Folkestone Turnpike to Dover Castle, one of the two principal cross-channel observation points, the other being Fairlight Down in Sussex.
Folkestone Harbour[edit]
Folkestone Harbour
Main article: Folkestone Harbour
Until the 19th century, Folkestone remained a small fishing community with a seafront continually battered by storms and encroaching shingle, making it hard to land boats. In 1807, an act of Parliament, the Folkestone Pier and Harbour Act 1807 (47 Geo. 3 Sess. 2. c. ii), was passed to build a pier and harbour, which was built by Thomas Telford in 1809. By 1820 a harbour area of 14 acres (5.7 hectares) had been enclosed. Folkestone's trade and population grew slightly, but development was still hampered by sand and silt from the Pent Stream. The Folkestone Harbour Company invested heavily in removing the silt but with little success. 1842, the company went bankrupt, and the government put the derelict harbour up for sale. It was bought by the South Eastern Railway (SER), which was then building the London to Dover railway line. George Turnbull was responsible in 1844 for building the Horn pier. Dredging the harbour, and the construction of a rail route down to it, began almost immediately. The town soon became the SER's principal packet station for the Continental traffic to Boulogne. The last ferry ran in 2001.
The Harbour Arm, formerly used solely for port activities, has been extensively restored and developed as a recreational space and promenade to which the public has access, including bars and restaurants, with entertainment at weekends and on some evenings. The former railway station and harbour viaduct have been reconstructed as a successful public walkway and promenade following the full closure of the branch railway in 2014.
