The Varne Bank is a five and three quarter mile long sand bank in the Dover Straits, lying nine miles southwest of Dover

Dover

Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...

 in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Lying almost in the middle of the south/west international traffic English-side channel of the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

, the Varne Bank is a constant concern for both Her Majesty's Coastguard

Her Majesty's Coastguard

Her Majesty's Coastguard is the service of the government of the United Kingdom concerned with co-ordinating air-sea rescue.HM Coastguard is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible for the initiation and co-ordination of all civilian maritime Search and Rescue within the UK...

 and shipping. Due to its heightened risk, there is still a Trinity House

Trinity House

The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond is the official General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and other British territorial waters...

 automatic Lightvessel

Lightvessel

A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship which acts as a lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction...

 placed on the Varne Bank.

Less well known than its close northerly neighbour the Goodwin Sands

Goodwin Sands

The Goodwin Sands is a 10-mile-long sand bank in the English Channel, lying six miles east off Deal in Kent, England. The Brake Bank lying shorewards is part of the same geological unit. As the shoals lie close to major shipping channels, more than 2,000 ships are believed to have been wrecked...

, ships that founder on the Varne Bank are often stated as being lost on the Goodwin Sands in error. Due to the volume increase in shipping through the world's busiest channel, several proposals have been made to eliminate the Varne Bank through dredging. However, also due to its shallow depth, the Varne Bank is a productive location for fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

, especially for cod

Cod

Cod is the common name for genus Gadus, belonging to the family Gadidae, and is also used in the common name for various other fishes. Cod is a popular food with a mild flavor, low fat content and a dense, flaky white flesh. Cod livers are processed to make cod liver oil, an important source of...

 and scallops.

In 1802, mining engineer Albert Mathieu made proposals to Napoleon in line with the aims of the 1751 Treaty of Amiens, for turning the Varne Bank into an island staging point for the Channel Tunnel

Channel Tunnel

The Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...

. In the twentieth century, a proposal was made for a Channel bridge, which would have used the Varne Bank as a staging post for a support structure.

Several naval battle

Naval battle

A naval battle is a battle fought using boats, ships or other waterborne vessels. Most naval battles have occurred at sea, but a few have taken place on lakes or rivers. The earliest recorded naval battle took place in 1210 BC near Cyprus...

s have been fought nearby, including the Battle of Goodwin Sands

Battle of Goodwin Sands

The naval Battle of Goodwin Sands , fought on 29 May 1652 , was the first engagement of the First Anglo-Dutch War between the navies of the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands.- Background :The English Parliament had passed the first of the Navigation...

 in 1652 and the Battle of Dover Strait

Battle of Dover Strait

The Second Battle of Dover Strait was a naval battle of the First World War, fought in the Dover Strait in April 1917 and should not be confused with the major Battle of Dover Strait in 1916...

 in 1917.

Varne

Varne

'Varne' is a British Marque of sailing yacht built in Essex by Varne Marine in the 1970s and 1980s.- Varne 27, Varne 850 & Weston 8500 :The most notable model produced was the Varne 27, designed by Duncan Stuart, and its successors the Varne 850...

Marine, now dissolved, was a UK Yacht Builder named with reference to the Varne Bank. The company produced the Varne 27 and other models, for which an Owners' Club exists. The club Magazine is called 'LightShip' after the Varne Lightship which marks the hazard to shipping.