First Stop, Folkestone.

Cue (NZERS), Issue 34, 31 October 1945, Page 7

First Stop, Folkestone.

The first -English town and port to be seen by .New Zealand soldiers from Italy on English leave is Folkestone, where a transit centre has been established in the largest hotel'the Metropole. Folkestone is a fashionable watering-place in Kent and is a little Over seventy miles from London. The terminus for many years for Continental passenger traffic from Boulogne, it is an ancient town, tracing back its history to the. time, of the Domesday Survey when it belonged to Odo. Bishop of Bayeux.

The older part of the town lies in a small valley which opens steeply to the shore. To the north it is sheltered by hills, of 400 to 500 feet on several of which, such as Sugarloaf and Castle hills, are ancient earthworks. On the •cliff west of the town a broad promenade called the Leas extends, affording views of France, twenty-two .miles distant. Hero also is the old parish church of St. Mary and. St. Eanswitli.

mainly Early English ; the original church, attached to a priory, was founded bn the site of a convent established by Eanswitli,. daughter of Eabald King of Kent, in 630, the Monastery being destroyed at the Dissolution.

Beyond the church extending down to the harbour, is the old. fishing town with its picturesque and irregular streets. Fishing, apart from tourist and passenger trade is the chief occupation but a large general trade is carried on in peacetime by the 37,500 inhabitants.

Because of its fine deep harbour, from early times Folkestone was a ’’limb” of the Cinque Port of Dover anq had to find one out of the 21 ships furnished by that port for the-Royal service.

During- World War I and, no doubt World War 11, it was an important embarkation .point for France.