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Membership
PAYPAL You will soon be able to pay by paypal
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Donations
You will soon be able to make donations
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Items on Offer
2024 Dover Castle Big Events
Easter Adventure Quest – Sat 23rd March- Sun 14th April
The Big Brick Build (where visitors can join in to help build a replica Dover Castle out of lego bricks) – 6-14th April
WW2 weekend – 25th to 27th May
Pirates – 3rd and 4th August
Clash of Knights – 24th to 26th August
The Friends
now hold regular monthly meetings
Yes Friends, we have now set up to have regular monthly meetings - the first Monday of each month!
Normally, these will be general committee meetings for our Charity Trustees but we like to open such meetings for members who are able to attend and contribute but not able to vote on Trustee matters. These will be facilitated by invitations or requests as our accommodation is not so expansive we can have a free for all.
Each month will have a theme and we aim to publish an Agenda in good time.
Monday 11th March 2024 Film Night and Cheese
Tuesday 2nd April 2024 (due to Monday being BH)
Tuesday 7th May 2024 (due to Monday being BH)
Monday 3rd June 2024
Monday 1st July 2024
Monday 5th August 2024
Monday 2nd September 2024
Monday 7th October 2024
Monday 4th November 2024
Monday 2nd December 2024
We will try to publish agenda's ahead of each meeting.
The Friends of Dover Castle was founded in 1986 and constituted as a Registered Charity with the Charity Commission in 1987.
The aims and objectives are to support and promote Dover Castle.
Here seated in our new Jubilee Arbour is vice Chairman Mark Danson and Chairman Graham Hutchison (dressed in his Volunteer re-enactment WW1 Gunner uniform).
As Graham is in his WW1 Royal Garrison Artillery Uniform
FORTRESS DOVER PROJECT
The Friends of Dover Castle were heavily involved in the Lottery Funded English Heritage Fortress Dover Project which saw the Fire Command Post and Port War Signal Station be restored and given a WW1 interpretation together with the restoration and installation of a genuine WW1 Anti-Aircraft Gun.
Graham was involved in the Project right from making the Heritage Lottery application where the Friends had input and influence by proposing English Heritage used Volunteers and also supported a Friends run Photography Competition - all of which happened and we raised over £6000 towards the installation of the Gun.
Graham is part of the Gun Drill Re-Enactment Team which fire the gun regularly throughout the season - normally at weekends but also at other times and special occasions. The Friends try to get involved in Re-enactments whenever we can.
The Friends of Dover Castle Dover Community Time Capsule Project
Graham Hutchison, Chairman, pictured here with Chairman of Dover District Council, Mike Connolly, Maison Dieu Project Development Officer Martin Crowther and Mayor of Dover
Gordon Cowan at the official launch.
The Time Capsule was Graham's idea as he felt Dover District had so much going for it we needed something positive to do coming out of the pandemic. Local residents were able to make suggestions and donate items to go into the Capsule so it became a whole community project.
The capsule was buried on 9th November 2022 and a reception was held in the Riverside Community Hub.
New membership cards
This is the image of our new plastic membership cards. If you join now or renew now, you will receive these new cards
As part of our new Marketing and Publicity Strategy we have decided to invest in quality membership cards sourced from sustainable sources.
Our Membership is still great value
Our subscription rates have increased this year but this is only the 3rd increase in 10 years and still represents great value and means you can enter free all year - provided the castle is open.
I am also going to try to set up a student membership whereby students aged 18-23 can obtain membership at a reduced rate so please watch this space.
Remember full English Heritage members get a discount. This is only full English Heritage members and does not apply to corporate memberships such as CSSC - sorry and remember your membership does qualify for Gift Aid so please tick the box and all our spare cash is spent on projects here at Dover Castle or benefits Dover Castle.
As a member of the Friends you get to go places and see things other people do not!
We organise regular tours, such as DUMPY, The lower level of the underground tunnels where the Regional Centre of Government would be sited in the event of a Nuclear War. The Cold War was at it's height between the 1950's and late 1980's. We also do a range of other tours and events - Behind Locked Doors; Stone Hut; Hudson's Passage and East Demi Bastion; Officer's New Barracks; Constables Tower; Debtors Prison. Last year we also did a unique special called Invisible Castle which gave us a view of what the Castle was like in Medieval times. We also hold talks and a regular Carol Concert in ST Mary-in-Castro Church. This year I am organising a really special talk by the Company who advise film makers on filming in Scheduled Ancient Monuments.
Some random images
The Friends of Dover Castle is a Registered Charity. We are a not for profit membership association and currently have 168 paid up members. We are managed and run by a Board of Trustees headed by a Chairman.
We also usually have a non executive President - traditionally we invite the leading soldier of our area to be the Honorary President and currently this is Brigadier Guy Boxall MBE who we understand has left his post so at the moment this is vacant . We also currently have two honorary vice Presidents, Mike McFarnell - who was instrumental in setting up The Friends following a call and a meeting with the Late Lord Montagu of Beaulieu who was the first Chairman of English Heritage who wanted to set up Friends associations attached to prime English Heritage properties. Our other Honorary Vice President is Wendi Atherton who lived in Constables Tower when her husband, Brigadier Maurice Atherton was Deputy Constable of Dover Castle between 1976 and 1981. The Atherton family lived in Constables during the exciting time when Her Majesty the Queen Mother was installed as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle in 1979 and whilst the Lord Warden generally resides at Walmer Castle, she often stayed at Dover Castle and was entertained by Wendi and her family.
AFFILIATION with English Heritage
We have recently been meeting with managers from English Heritage as we have been offered AFFILIATE Group Status which means we will be working more collaboratively with English Heritage and our work will be far more recognised and have special status with them. Members of The Friends will be able to volunteer as Community Fundraising Volunteers and their time spent as such volunteers will count towards becoming an English Heritage Volunteer which provides great benefits and rewards. The fine details of our Affiliation are still being drawn up but it means this is a very exciting time for us at the moment
FUNDRAISING.
Fundraising is an important aspect of our work. We have previously raised funds to purchase disability buggies, presentation displays and interpretation panels. We also supported the National Lottery funded Fortress Dover project where we raised £6000 for the renovation and installation of the WW1 Anti-Aircraft Gun which then fired every weekend as part of a Gun Drill re-enactment. This genuine 3 inch gun is the only one of it's type anywhere in the World that can still fire. We have recently raised £5000 for our Constables Project which is seeing fruition with the Kitchen Garden Project. We also raised £2500 for the Friends of Dover Castle Dover Community Time Capsule Project where we were lead partners.
Income Streams
Membership subscriptions
This is our main income and thank you to all who become members and pay subscriptions. It is also important that if you are tax payers in the UK that you
GIFT AID to us as that gives us effectively gives us an extra 25% of money we raise from membership. We applied to HMRC and they deemed us to be a qualifying charity whereby our membership qualifies for Gift Aid, so please tick the box on the membership application or send us an email advising you wish us to claim
GIFT AID - this could give us an extra £500 a year!
QUIZ NIGHTS - these are important Fundraising Events and previously, in a year we have raised nearly £1000 for projects. We aim to hold an annual Quiz Night, maybe more, with a target of £300 net proceeds for special projects at the Castle.
DOVER LOTTO
We participate in the Dover Lotto which was set up by Dover District Council to support Community Organisations and Projects. A real big Thank You to all of you who purchase weekly Lotto tickets with us as supported charity or local good cause as for every £1 ticket we benefit by 50p donation to us. Yes, that's right, every ticket gives us 50p. In addition to that 50p we also raise money by receiving contributions via the Community Grants schemes. At present we have 18 regular supporters and have raised over £2000 since the lotto started which is about £500 annually - valuable funds to put towards projects.
Dover Lotto
DONATIONS
Donations are always welcome and generally would also qualify for GIFT AID. Basically a donation with no expectation of something in return qualifies for GIFT AID which means your cash donation will be uplifted by 25% ! You can make donations at any time, at our Free Tours, Talks and Events, Open Days, Quizzes and Fundraising Events.
