3 Best Sights in The Southeast, England

Erected in 1540 and intricately built to the shape of a Tudor rose, Deal Castle is the largest of the coastal defenses constructed by Henry VIII. A moat surrounds its gloomy passages and austere walls. The castle museum has exhibits about prehistoric, Roman, and Saxon Britain.

This house was originally the home of Mary Pearson Strong, on whom Dickens based the character of Betsey Trotwood, David Copperfield's aunt. Dickens lived here from 1837 to 1839 while writing The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist. Some rooms have been decorated to look as they would have in Dickens's day, and there's a reconstruction of Miss Trotwood's room as described by Dickens. The house is in Broadstairs, 16 miles up the coast from Deal.

Another of Henry VIII's coastal fortifications, this castle was converted in 1708 into a residence for the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, a ceremonial honor dating back to the early Middle Ages. Made up of four round towers around a circular keep, the castle has counted many famous figures among its lord wardens, including William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806), the Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), and Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965). The small museum here homes in on Wellington (who lived here from 1829 until his death), telling the story of his victory at Waterloo through a rather random selection of memorabilia, including an original pair of Wellington boots, which the duke is credited with inventing.

Visitors can enter the drawing and dining rooms of the castle (except when the lord warden is in residence) and explore the eight acres of award-winning gardens that surround the fortification. These include the Glen, a planted former chalk quarry that's now open for the first time in a century, and the sprawling lavender gardens, which come with gorgeous ocean views. The castle is about two miles south of Deal town center.