Our knight in a castle! Staying in the grounds of Dover’s legendary fortress while exploring the new siege-themed play area is an unforgettable history lesson

There are few places that will take you back and forth through our country’s history like Dover Castle.

10am? It’s 1942, and we wander wide-eyed through a WWII hospital buried deep in the White Cliffs, before visiting an underground network of war offices where much of the Allied evacuation of Dunkirk was planned.

Lunchtime? We’re in the 1180s in the Great Tower, Henry II’s 83ft-high centrepiece of pomp and circumstance with its 21ft-thick walls and medieval furnishings – where my children, Belle, 12, and Cleo, 10, are in the kitchen trying to add chunks of meat to a beautiful-looking (wooden) stew.

Joanna Tweedy checks out a new interactive family attraction at Dover Castle (above) called Dover Castle Under Siege. It tells the story of two sometimes forgotten attacks on King John’s kingdom in 1216 and 1217

Dover Castle has two properties for guests to stay in: the 13th century Peverell’s Tower with one bedroom (left and right) and the Sergeant Major’s House, which sleeps six and dates back to the castle’s time as a Georgian garrison.

And now I watch as my lucky two are the first to get the chance to enter a brand new playground, complete with tunnels and a chance to fire a trebuchet catapult.

It forms part of Dover Castle Under Siege, a new interactive family attraction at the castle (included in the main prize) which tells the story of two sometimes forgotten attacks on King John’s kingdom in 1216 and 1217.

These attacks were part of the First Barons’ War and led to a siege of the castle by French and English rebels.

Family fun: Tourists stroll along the canal, with Constable’s Gate in the background

Joanna explores Henry II’s Great Tower, above, ‘a 25-metre-high centrepiece of pomp and circumstance with its 6.4-metre-thick walls and medieval furnishings’

At its most brutal, a frenzy of knights and chain-mailed soldiers broke out, brandishing axes, swords and clubs as arrows flew through the air and buildings burned.

Dover Castle Under Siege paints a picture with an impressive interactive exhibition, access to the castle’s northern defences and a play area that puts young day-trippers right at the heart of medieval warfare.

In the exhibition itself you can fire a crossbow with laser beams and then walk through defensive tunnels built after the siege, in some places roughly hewn from the Middle Ages, in others built with neat Georgian brickwork.

The highlight of the tour is a visit to the Spur, the defensive barbican, which allows history buffs to see the castle for the first time through the eyes of the attackers, where they faced death or victory.

There are two self-catering properties: the one-bedroom 13th-century Peverell’s Tower and the Sergeant Major’s House, which sleeps six, and dates back to the castle’s Georgian garrison.