RAF Hawkinge

The Spirit of the Few Monument is a memorial at the Kent Battle of Britain Museum at Hawkinge which commemorates the 2,938 aircrew of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm who took part in the Battle of Britain during the Second World War. The monument, unveiled on 29 July 2022, is in the form of bronze sculptures of seven pilots of the RAF. It replicates a well-known photograph taken on 29 July 1940 of pilots of No. 32 Squadron, which flew from Hawkinge airfield during the Battle of Britain.

The Kent Battle of Britain Museum is an aviation museum located in Hawkinge, Kent, focused on the Battle of Britain. The Spirit of the Few Monument is in the grounds of the museum.

Hawkinge ( HAW-kinj) is a town and civil parish in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, England. The original village of Hawkinge is actually just less than a mile (c. 1.3 km) due east of the present village centre; the village of Hawkinge was formed by the merging of Hawkinge and Uphill.

The Folkestone Downs are an area of chalk downland above Folkestone, where the eastern end of the North Downs escarpment meets the English Channel. Part of the Downs is the Folkestone to Etchinghill Escarpment Site of Special Scientific Interest, designated for its geological and biological interest.

Cheriton Hill is a hill overlooking the English Channel near Folkestone in the south-east corner of Kent, England. The relatively low-lying hill (reaching only 188 metres above sea level) is covered with farmland, villages, narrow lanes, and footpaths. The highest point is on a covered reservoir next to the trig point; the highest natural point is nearby, probably close to the road to the village of Paddlesworth, near a transmitter mast, but the relatively flat summit gives no real impression of being on top of a hill. By contrast, the southern edge of the hill is a steep escarpment which carries the ancient track named Pilgrims' Way, which is believed to date from 500–450 BC, and which runs from Folkestone along the North Downs hills. At this point the escarpment overlooks the huge Cheriton Channel Tunnel terminal, with views to France across the roofs of Folkestone. The slope of this escarpment forms part of the Folkestone Downs and is the location of the Folkestone White Horse, completed in 2003. Cheriton Hill was the location of the discovery of the Late Spider orchid in the 19th century. At one point the number of known plants at Folkestone/Cheriton declined to just six, but with improved management of the chalk grassland by Eurotunnel and the White Cliffs Countryside Project, the population is now much healthier, estimated in 2008 to be 165 plants, some 30% of the UK population. Cheriton Hill is one of the Marilyns identified since the publication of The Relative Hills of Britain in 1992, and is the most easterly Marilyn.

Paddlesworth is a hamlet and parish located about 3 miles (4.8 km) NNW of Folkestone in Kent, England, near Hawkinge. Paddlesworth was a sighting-point for the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) linking the Royal Greenwich Observatory with the Paris Observatory, undertaken by General William Roy. A chain of readings was made from high points between the two observatories, including locally from Dover Castle, St Peter's Church, Swingfield, and Aldington Knoll. The Early Norman Anglican parish church is dedicated to St Oswald. It was built in the 11th century or earlier but underwent alteration in the 13th and restoration in the 19th century. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.It is said of Paddlesworth that it has the "Highest Church, Lowest Steeple, Poorest Parish, Fewest People". These words can be seen carved in a circle round the edge of the village sign, as seen in the photo above right. The public house is 'The Cat and Custard Pot', two elements illustrated on the village sign.From September to December 2010 a group of writers and artists created the Paddlesworth Press, a "mixed-media, collaborative online novel" based on Paddlesworth with fictional characters and events in a spoof newspaper.

Folkestone Castle stood on a spur of the North Downs to the north of the town of Folkestone, Kent (grid reference TR214380). The Norman castle on a natural mound which existed in the late 11th and 12th centuries. It was excavated in 1878 by Augustus Pitt Rivers and this has been claimed to be the first excavation of a medieval site in Britain using scientific methods. Known locally as "Caesar's Camp", it is not actually Roman at all, but was probably constructed as early as 1095 and was certainly occupied for some time following the Norman invasion. The hill on which it stands is known as Castle Hill and it affords splendid views over the town and coast, from Folkestone across Romney Marsh to Dungeness, Rye and Fairlight. The earthworks now overlook the end of the M20 motorway and the entrance to the Channel Tunnel at Cheriton.

The Folkestone White Horse is a white horse hill figure, carved into Cheriton Hill, Folkestone, Kent, South East England. It overlooks the English terminal of the Channel Tunnel and was completed in June 2003.The horse was planned as a Millennium Landmark to help regenerate the Folkestone area. The design for the horse was drawn by a local artist, Charlie Newington, inspired by a nearby Iron Age fort in an area known as Horse Hill dating from three millennia ago and also based on the White Horse of Uffington. It is the first official hill figure in the town, although an area of chalk on Summerhouse Hill is said to resemble an elephant's head and has become known as the Folkestone Elephant.Planning permission for the project was first applied for in April 1998, with an illustrative canvas mockup being erected in August 1999. The project was opposed by the Government watchdog English Nature due to the site's importance as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. In 2000 English Nature appealed to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, although the project was said to have widespread public support by local MP and prominent politician Michael Howard. The project was supported by Folkestone & Hythe District Council, who adopted it as their corporate logo. Due to the opposition, the project went to a public enquiry in 2001. The project was given the go-ahead in March 2002 by Stephen Byers, then Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, who stated that the emotional and symbolic value of the project outweighed the possible environmental damage.Construction of the horse began in September 2002. The work to build the horse was completed entirely by hand. Directed from afar by the artist via radio, a team of volunteers staked out a second canvas template of the horse, and following this, shallow trenches were then dug into the topsoil, 12–24 inches (30–60 cm) wide. These trenches were then filled with limestone slabs. The entire figure is approximately 90 metres long, measured from the front to the rear hoof. Both the Green Party and Friends of the Earth appealed to the European Union to stop the project based on the site's protection under the European Habitats Directive. In early May 2003 the EU issued a formal notice to the UK Government declaring the work illegal, and giving the government two months to either explain the 2001 enquiry decision satisfactorily, or restore the site, by which time the turf for the horse had already been cut and transplanted.Over two weeks in May 2003 a team of volunteers including locally based Gurkha soldiers transported, cut and positioned limestone slabs in the trenches, fixing them in place with pins. The limestone laying phase of the construction, which had been delayed when the Gurkhas were needed to crew fire engines during the 2002–2003 Firemen's strike, was completed in early June 2003, with the formal notice from the EU outstanding.In June 2004 "The Friends of the Folkestone White Horse" was formed, to promote the landmark and look after the site, which requires periodic light weeding. A time capsule was buried on the site on 18 June 2004.

The 2007 Kent earthquake registered 4.3 on the Richter scale and struck south east Kent, South East England on 28 April 2007 at 07:18:12 UTC (08:18:12 local time), at a shallow depth of 5.3 km.The worst affected area was the town of Folkestone, although the towns of Deal, Dover and Ashford were also affected. The tremors could be felt across much of Kent and south east England, including as far as East Sussex, Essex and Suffolk, as well as on the other side of the English Channel at Calais and Brussels.

Arpinge is a hamlet between Paddlesworth and Newington (where, at the 2011 Census, the population was included) to the west of Folkestone in Kent, England. It consists of three working farms, three now converted to residential use and a further four houses. The name probably originates from the Old English 'eorpa' (dark-skinned (person)) and 'inge' (a settlement). There is no church as it falls within the ecclesiastical parish of Newington-next-Hythe. There are no shops and the nearest pub is the 'Cat and Custard Pot' in Paddlesworth.

Turner Free School is a co-educational secondary school located in the Cheriton area of Folkestone in the English county of Kent.The school is located at the former site of Pent Valley Technology College.

The Eurotunnel Folkestone Terminal (also known as the Victor Hugo Terminal) is a railway terminal built for the transport of road-going vehicles on specially constructed trains through the Channel Tunnel. The terminal is one of two, with the Eurotunnel Calais Terminal located at Coquelles, near Calais.