Langdon Bay is a bay in east

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. It is two miles east of the town of Dover, and is named after the nearby villages of Langdon,

East Langdon East Langdon is a village in the Dover district of Kent, England, and northeast from Dover town. The population is included in the civil parish of Langdon East Langdon was mentioned in the ''Domesday Book''. The word 'Langdon' is "long hill" ...

and

West Langdon West Langdon is a village in the Dover district of Kent, England. It is located five miles north of Dover town. The population of the village is included in the civil parish of Langdon. The name ''Langdon'' derives from an Old English ...

. The cliffs around it are known as the Langdon Cliffs. A prominent zig-zag path down the cliff-face is visible from the sea and connects with the National Trust path by means of a step ladder. An additional means of exit from the beach being a return on foot to St Margaret's Bay. At the far western end is a restricted area of the Port of Dover, and occasionally walkers will be escorted out by the Dover Port Police.

History

The bay is known for the Langdon Bay Hoard – a collection of

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

metal objects found nearby in 1974. This includes bronze axes of a French type and is thought to represent the cargo of a boat that was caught in a storm just after leaving the English coast, either jettisoned to lighten and save the boat or sunk with it (if there was a wreck, it is now lost). This demonstrates that cross-channel

trade Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...

was already occurring in the Bronze Age, if not earlier. The hoard is owned by the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, but is on long-term loan and display in

Dover Museum Dover Museum is a museum in Dover, Kent, in south-east England. History Founded in February 1836 by the town's mayor Edward Pett Thompson, it was initially housed in the old Guildhall and run by the Dover Philosophical Institute. The Town Co ...

in Market Square, Dover. Three searchlight batteries – known as the Langdon Lights – were built into the base of the bay's cliffs during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, so that any ship trying to enter the bay could be illuminated while it was checked, though one battery has since been destroyed by a cliff fall. The area above the cliffs is now a

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

downland Downland, chalkland, chalk downs or just downs are areas of open chalk hills, such as the North Downs. This term is used to describe the characteristic landscape in southern England where chalk is exposed at the surface. The name "downs" is deriv ...

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, looking down on

Dover Harbour The Port of Dover is a cross-channel ferry, cruise terminal, maritime cargo and marina facility situated in Dover, Kent, south-east England. It is the nearest English port to France, at just away, and is one of the world's busiest maritime pa ...

and the Channel, and centred on the 'Gateway to the White Cliffs'

Visitor Centre A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to visitors. Types of visitor center A visi ...

. Large parts of this reserve, and of this section of clifftop in general, is an SSSI, AONB and Heritage Coast.National Trust website
Another nearby historic site is the

South Foreland Lighthouse South Foreland Lighthouses are a pair of Victorian lighthouses on the South Foreland in St. Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent, England, used to warn ships approaching the nearby Goodwin Sands. There has been a pair of lighthouses at South Forelan ...

, also a NT property.

Notes

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20040825152004/http://www.dover-kent.co.uk/places/langdon_cliffs.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20110727015244/http://www.geog.sussex.ac.uk/BAR/images/Kent/langdon_stairs/Page.html
Hourly Met office weather observations from the Bay
{{coord, 51.1336, 1.3510, display=title, region:GB, format=dms Bays of Kent English Channel Dover District National Trust properties in Kent