Prehistoric Dover

Bronze Age Torc

Changing sea levels and erosion are thought to have destroyed much of Dover's earliest Stone Age remains. Only a handful of stone axes have been found in the area.

The first known inhabitants of Dover's River Dour valley were late Stone Age farmers who crossed to Dover by boat with corn seed and domesticated animals about 6,000 years ago.

Britain's earliest known shipwreck (dating to about 1100BC) occurred off Dover in the Bronze Age, littering the seabed with over 350 bronze tools, weapons and scrap metal. Over 45 Bronze Age sites, mainly burials, have been found locally, but very little evidence of Iron Age settlements has yet been discovered.

In 1992, during major road works through the town centre, a large wooden boat dating from the Bronze Age was discovered in a deep waterlogged hole.