Lympne Kent - (From Roman Castle to Tigers)

Lympne is a small village lying on top of the cliffs which overlook Hythe and the English Channel. It has been known by many similar names through the ages, Limme, Lymme, Lymen, Limne, Limine and Lymene. The name is derived from the river Limden (Nowadays the Rother).

The entrance to the River Rother emerged to the sea here before Roman times, however it has changed its course twice since then, the first time it emerged at New Romney and now reaches the sea at Rye about 20 miles to the south east.

It dates back to Roman times when Portus Lemanus was built to protect the Roman ships in the harbour below the current village.

They built a castle to protect the old river entrance from raiders from the Scandinavians. The castle now known as Stutfall Castle is lower than the Romans built it, as the cliff has slipped since it was built.

The church was built by the Normans and the tower constructed in the 1100's outside the lychgate is a mounting block used by ladies in large dresses to mount their horses.

Lympne Castle a fortified manor house was built in the 1420's on the spot where the Romans had a lookout tower. The Castle was extensively rebuilt during the early 1900's, and restored to its current condition.

The village was used by smugglers as a lookout and signalling post to warn of Excise men to those at sea.

In 1804 Napoleon was getting ready to invade England, the government decided to try to stop a French invasion via the Romney Marshes and they built the Royal Military Canal as part of the nations defenses.

It was re-fortified in the 1940's by installing gun emplacements and pill boxes to try to delay a German invasion via the Marshes, the canal runs to the south of Lympne at the base of the hill .

If you look to the east, you can see an odd concrete structure from the war which was used as a sound location device to attempt to detect the bombers used by the Luftwaffe in 1940. This was built by the War Department (Ministry of Defence) before the last war and is, in fact, an aeroplane detecting parabolic sound mirror.

It was superceeded by the advent of Radar which proved superior, another example lies at Greatstone . Port Lympne is the home of John Aspinall and Howletts Zoo Park.

The house was built in the early 1900's on a wonderful site overlooking the Romney Marsh, many famous visitors came here, including Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, the Prince of Wales and Mrs Simpson and many others. During the war, the house was requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence, and fell into decay.

John Aspinall purchased the house in the early 1970's and has restored the property, and created Howletts Zoo Park.