Deal Timeball Tower — Attraction in Dover

In the days when ship navigation relied on setting the chronometer and using the sun and stars, aided by a sextant, it was imperative to set the ship timepiece reliably. This was done by viewing the timepiece tower with its falling ball as they set sail. The Timepiece Tower retains the ball and mechanism that helped long ago sailors. The small museum is inexpensive and worth a visit to find how naval and military communication took place using visual signals of various types before the first undersea cables were laid. A fascinating story that is nicely explained by the staff and by...

We popped in as we happened to be passing on a day out. This museum was really interesting. But most of all the couple at the front desk were amazing. A font of knowledge, welcoming, answered all of our questions and explained the best time to see the timeball drop etc. Really made the visit even more interesting so thank you to you both. I also feel like like I learned something about time from this museum that I did not know before. Especially about semaphores, Timeballs and how they used them to work out maritime...

A very interesting piece of maritime history with lots of information boards and fantastic volunteers who provided additional information and answered all of our questions...

Well worth a visit if in the area and the Time Ball has been recently restored at significant cost and does its thing every hour...