page_title: Samphire Hoe
section_title: History of the area
hierarchical_section_title: Samphire Hoe / History of the area
caption_attribution_description: English: Samphire Hoe In the background are the tall twin portals to the Shakespeare Tunnel, in the middle is the road access tunnel to the Hoe, from the A20 above the cliff, and on the right is one of the channel tunnel equipment sheds.
context_page_description: Samphire Hoe is a country park situated 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 Getlink, 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.
context_section_description: The cliffs above the current park (Round Down Cliff) 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 60 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 French President François Mitterrand. It opened to the public in 1997.
caption: Samphire Hoe. In the background are the tall twin portals to the Shakespeare Tunnel, in the middle is the road access tunnel to the Hoe, from the A20 above the cliff, and on the right is one of the Channel Tunnel equipment sheds.
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