DEAL
AN INTRODUCTORY OF THE PAST
TO The turn of the 20th century
TAKEN FROM OLD WRITINGS
In many respects Deal is distinctly one of the most remarkable and interesting towns on the English coast line. The very name of the place has a fine maritime savour about it, reminiscent of the days when our glory lay in the wooden walls and hearty admirals; when the Navy wore shiny hats and pig-tails, and trousers that required constant “hitching;” when “England, home and beauty” found an echo in every heart; and when our sailors loved the Frenchman because he was so good to whop.
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Deal Halfpenny 1794
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Deal Halfpenny 1794
Deal and smuggling, too –the melodramatic, dark o’night smuggling of which we read in the story books- can never be entirely disassociated; and for centuries past the town has, of course, been inextricably mixed up with the moving of the Downs, and that dread shoal and ship swallower, the Goodwin Sands. So far as the majority of these things are concerned, however, the cry is now “Ichabod.” Admiral Benbow, Tom Marlinspike, and the jolly skippers and tars of the old-fashioned merchant service no longer straddle down Beach Street and Middle Street, or take their ease and their rum vociferously in the quaint, tumble-down inns; the French have ceased from troubling, and smuggler Bill and Excise man Gill are at rest; or at least, so it is believed. But the Downs, with their ever-changing panorama of shipping, still remain to us, and so does Deal-the old Deal architecturally and in the body, as it were; but a new Deal in point of spirit, intention and ambition. During the last few decades local interests have undergone an entire transformation
Whereas victualling, hovelling, and the running of contraband were formally the chief mainstay of the population, modern Deal devotes itself almost exclusively to the entertainment of the stranger, and aspires, with good reason, to a considerable future in this connection. There can be no doubt that the influx of visitors is steadily increasing season by season, and has been doing so for some years. On the seafront, and the northern and southern outskirts of the town, numerous excellent residentional properties have sprung up, many of them specially designed for boarding house purposes, and the South Eastern Railway Company are already well advanced with the erection of a
St Leonards Church Upper deal
spacious hotel, which when completed, will probably equal in appointments and luxurious comfort many of the great caravanserais to be met with in our leading resorts. Large sums of money are about to be spent on municipal improvements, whilst such matters as the extension of the promenades, the re-modelling of the water supply and drainage, and the lighting of the streets by incandescent gas, have received the fullest attention, and altogether the outlook is decidedly promising and encouraging.
Of the natural advantages of Deal it would be difficult to speak too highly. It fronts directly on the Downs at a point about midway between the North and South Forlands, thus commanding uninterrupted views of “the finest roadstead in the world,” as well as of the Goodwin Sands, the Straits of Dover and the Isle of Thanet: whilst in clear weather the coast of France is plainly discernable. The beach affords a stretch of over three miles of safe, clean shingle, with a broad asphalte pavement running its entire length. Behind the town there is a wide expanse of open country, abounding in pleasant walks and drives, whilst close at hand are Walmer, St Margaret’s Bay, Sandwich, Dover, Ramsgate, Minster, and other places of interest, all offering opportunities for delightful excursions, and all within easy access by road or rail. Capital golfing and fishing may likewise be had, and being well kept, and comparatively free from acclivities, the neighbouring roads are admirably adapted for that healthful and now universally popular amusement cycling.
The air is salubrious and bracing to a degree, devoid of any tendency to produce lassitude or languor, dry, rich in ozone, and extremely beneficial to persons suffering from lack of tone and pulmonary complaints, for the alleviation of which it is strongly recommended by the medical faculty. The general features and attractions of the town itself will be fully dealt with later on. We may mention en passant, however, that they are once varied and out of the ordinary, and fully on a par with the reputation Deal is so rapidly developing.
Deal Castle
IN DAYS GONE BY
It was by the recital of his bellicose adventures that Othello won the young affections of the engaging Desdemona. “She loved him for the others he has passed” – and very becoming of her it was. In certain senses Deal might play Othello to the Desdemona of the travelling public with marked affect; for thought the town has not been visited by an alarming number of “dangers” of a purely local kind, its position on the Downs has given it a fairly big finger in the pie of our navel history from the earliest times. That hoary and ever-faithful friend of the schoolboy, Julius Caesar to wit, is said to have landed here, or hereabouts, on both the occasions of his calling to see us – viz, in 55 BC, - and again a year later. It had been his original intention to disembark at Dover, but the sight of the cliffs and the county militia gave him pause, and, like a sensible man, ha sailed a few miles north, and secured undying fame for himself as the first distinguished visitor to Deal.
His welcome appears to have been warm, if not exactly enthusiastic, and in spite of an unfortunate little contretemps, which resulted in the loss of many of his ships, he liked the place so much that, as we have seen, he came again next season, bringing with him a matter of 800 vessels and 27,000 men. According to Dr Halley, the company arrived on August 26th, a highly favourable date, when the boating and bathing would be at their best. At this time, however, Deal was not so well off in the matter of hotel accommodation as at present, and “Julius Caesar Imperator, and party” were therefore compelled to bend their steps inland, no doubt with great reluctance. In various ancient MSS. Deal is mentioned as “Dola” “Dele” or “Dale”. It also figures in Doomsday Book as “Addelam” a name signifying low, open land on the sea-shore. From the same authority we gather that Deal was a
Sandown Castle 1855
parish in 1051, and formed part of the hundred of Cornilo and Bewsborough. Of course the Deal referred to in the Doomsday Book was not the present town, but that portion of it now known as Upper Deal.
Sandown Castle 1897
The population consisted of a handful of poor fishermen, who gained a scanty subsistence from the sea, then not so far removed as it has since become in consequence of the gradual accumulation of sand and shingle. After the Roman invasion, nothing of importance, as affecting Deal, occurred until 1215, when King John assembled a fleet in the Downs to meet the French, who were threatening his crown. But the Downs had an unruly fit on, and we are told that “ by tempest that arose from the north, these (John’s) shippes were bruised and drowned, or driven into the south part of the sea,” it was in 125, too, and off the North Foreland, that England fought her first big navel engagement. The opposing fleet was that of France; and the English won thus initiating the splendid series of maritime triumphs which was eventually to
bring us undisputed command of the ocean. Edward II, Henry VII and Henry VIII likewise organised fleets here, the provision of stores and material for which would no doubt give a considerable fillip to local trade. We get a good idea of the extent of Deal in the fifteen century, from the following incident:
“On the 10th March 1464, a woman was sentenced to be carried around the town by two porters, proceeding from the Court Hall, through High Street and several other streets, to the cross in the Corn Market, by Harne Street to the Pillory Gate, and lastly to the Stone Cross, where she was to be banished, but if she returned she was to be burnt in the cheek.” It seems evident, therefore, that a High street and several other streets were in existence five hundred years ago and that the town also boasted a Court Hall, a Corn Market and a Pillory. In December 1539 Anne of Cleves landed at Deal on her way to be married to the portly and uxorious Henry VIII. During the same year Henry commenced the erection of the three castles, viz, Deal, Walmer and Sandown, the idea being to provide suitable means of defence for the coast, which owing to its low and open character constituted a sort of “standing invitation” to the general invader. Prior to the construction of the castles, the local defences consisted of five or six mounds of earth, with embrasures for cannon, extending in a line from Walmer to Sandown. Two of these mounds, located between Deal and Walmer, rejoiced in the somewhat grandiloquent titles of the Great and Little Bulwarks – “the bulwarks of the free” so to speak. The castles ere finished and their fortifications perfected in the reign of Elizabeth. A troublous time for Deal was the year
St. Georges Church
1558, when the English lost Calais, after having held it over two centuries. Up to the date mentioned, Calais had been for the most part inhabited by English settlers, largely from Deal and the Cinque Ports, and the cross channel trade had naturally become pretty substantial. On the French “coming to their own again,” this trade chiefly in fish and agricultural produce – dwindled at once to nothing; many of the prosperous Deal merchants suffering severely in consequence. When preparation was being made to meet and confound the Spanish Armada in 1588, Deal was one of the places fixed upon for the concentration of defences. Strong garrisons were drafted to the castles, and a formidable fleet mobilised in the Downs, ready for an emergency. Altogether the Cinque Ports contributed no fewer than sixty three fully equipped ships to the general resources on this occasion. Six of these vessels were entirely new, and fitted out at a cost of £33,000, the Dealites, as “limbs” of Sandwich, paying a proportionate share.
The South Street Beach and parade
along in fairly comfortable style, though its increasing importance as a piloting station and navel depot gave rise to serious jealousies and bickerings between the local authorities and those of Sandwich, the latter of whom do not seem to have treated their “limbs” with anything like the consideration the physiology of the case demanded. In 1640 the population of Deal was under 3,000, and an old map of this date shows only a few irregular lines of houses straggling down from Upper Deal in the direction of the sea. The year 1652 bought with it the Dutch war, and the advent off these shores of the famous Admiral Van Tromp “with a broom at his mast head.” Earth works had been thrown up between the castles, however, and several companies of infantry and
artillery planted behind them, so that Van Tromp sagaciously postponed his sweeping operations sine die
The heyday of Deal’s pre-victorian prosperity was reached when the French wars broke out, and from 1707 down to 1816 the town was always more or less alive with “our gallant defenders” and busily concerned in the equipment and provisioning of successive fleets. The old navy yard, dismantled in 1863, must at this period have been a scene of continual and exciting activity; as, to all intents and purposes, it was the principle government yard on the South Coast. The Downs literally swarmed with shipping - first-raters, cruisers, frigates, and merchant men of all rigs – work was plentiful, labour highly paid, and the demand for marketable commodities practically unlimited. Indeed, the amount of trade done in Deal subsequent to the declaration of war against France
Victoria Parade
In 1792 is said to have far exceeded that done in all the other towns in East Kent put together. The value of property went up with a rush, and, in the north end of the town particularly, new houses were erected by the score.
Beach Street and Middle Street, by virtue of their proximity to the sea, became important business thoroughfares. Here the leading merchants had their counting houses and stores, and here were most of the chief inns and shops.
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St. Andrews Church
The sales of ship’s chandlery , provisions, cables, anchors, chains etc., attained enormous proportions, and there was also a flourishing boat-building industry, affording employment to a large number of hands. This industry is still carried on in the north end, though on a very restricted scale. When the final peace came, depression of the severest kind immediately resulted. Rents depreciated at an alarming rate, hundreds of families had to leave the town through lack of work, and that those remaining were in a parlous state is shown by the fact that in 1816, or thereabouts, the burgesses were paying a rate of 1s. in the pound on the then rateable value every three weeks, whilst five hundred children toddled daily to the workhouse to be fed. Another serious blow to the local population was the establishment at this crucial juncture of a Coast Blockade for the suppression of smuggling.
The smugglers or free traders of the district were in many respects a race unto themselves: they had practised their calling for generations, untrammelled and unreproved, and it took years of vigorous action on the part of the Government to convince them that the evasion of the |Customs was illegal and would not be tolerated. Many curios stories are told
concerning the cunning, bravado and revenges of these men. We read, for example, that on one occasion a coast guardsman was seized at his post, tied up in a sack, carried to the cemetery of St George’s Church and left there to his reflections: during which time the merry contrabandists landed a goodly cargo of tea and tobacco “duty free”. It was also no uncommon thing for “informers” to be liberally tarred and feathered and carted through the main streets in open daylight, as a sort of raree show and warning to les autres. At the beginning of the present century, probably no town in the United Kingdom had better grounds for considering itself “played out” than Deal. Time, however, is proverbially a great healer and the past four or five decades have brought with them railways, visitors, new industries, and a general
The Pier
amelioration of local conditions; and through the quondam glories of the place are now but a tradition, other good things have come in their stead and the future is big with promise.
MODERN DEAL Late 1800's
If ever there was a resort that could lay claim to electric charms and the capacity for satisfying the pleasurable desires of all sorts and conditions of people, it is surely this quaintest and least conventional of Kentish watering-places. As it stands at present, the town can in no wise be pooh-poohed, either as “a mere fishing village” or as “ a good old has been.”
Quite apart from its favourable climate and unrivalled marine location, it offers residential advantages, which, taking into account the population, are decidedly above the average. One may live here year in and year out without feeling in any sense cut off from the resources of civilisation, and without
The Pier & promenade
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experiencing that “ deadly dullness “ which is so abhorrent to fin de siecle mind. Despite the fashionable affection to the contrary, there can be no doubt that people who come to the sea-side for “ rest and change and quiet “ like them considerably qualified,--qualified that is, with some of the concomitants that go to make up the bustle and life of great cities. And Deal appears to us to afford this qualification in just the proper and necessary degree. In other words it is a town, and possessed of all the characteristics appertaining to the title; not simply a collection of lodging houses, with a pier and a flagstaff and one policeman. Of shops, and shops of every kind, there is an abundance, and whilst the High Street makes no pretentions to being a second Oxford Street, it has plenty of brightness and urban distinction about it, and for the greater part of its length, it is lined with
North deal beach
business establishments which are fully equal to meeting the requirements of the most exacting.
There are also good shops in other thoroughfares, such as Victoria Road and Beach Street. The commercial or central quarter, too, is well paved and lighted; open, cleanly, and from an architectural point of view, distinctly picturesque. So far as the holiday maker is concerned, Deal, of course, lives and moves as it has its being on “ the front “; and to describe in anything like detail, the attractions of that front, with its promenades, its long stretches of shingle, its shining sea and
Betteshanger House
constant comings and goings of steamers, schooners, tugs, pilot boats, and other craft; its castles, pier, and bandstand; its coastguard and lifeboat stations, its curious inns, comfortable hotels, and smart terraces; its boating , fishing, and bathing, and sunny dolce far niente, would almost take up a volume in itself. Nowhere on the southern seaboard can be sojourn “by the briny “be made more of a health giving, inspiring, unalloyed delight: nowhere is one free of all the trammels and cut-and-dried re-strictions of the beau monde; and nowhere does one meet with less of the vulgarity and outré gaiety which are rapidly transforming some of our most popular resorts into so many marine beer-gardens. All we need add is “Veni viator!”
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High Street Deal 1865
The central tower is flanked by four round bastions pierced by numerous port-holes, and surrounded by the usual moat, a draw-bridge connecting the main entrance and the tower. None of the walls are very high, but they make up for their lack of altitude by their exceptional solidity, being about twenty feet thick at the foundation and tapering off to about eleven feet at the summit. Beneath the tower is a cheerful bomb-proof dungeon, which, as some wag has remarked, “Would
Turning our attention for the moment to a few of the principal objects of interest along the front, we may notice first THE CASTLES, which as already stated, were originally erected by “bluff King Hal,” who, in the thirty-second year of his reign, placed them under the governorship of the Lord warden of the Cinque Ports. DEAL CASTLE stands on the southern boundary of the town, close to the sea, and just off the high road between Deal and Walmer.
High Street Deal 1897 from the same position
take a Deal of getting out of.” Lord Herchell, the present captain of the castle, occupies a suite of rooms overlooking the Downs as his official residence, but the rest of the building is open to the public.
SANDOWN CASTLE, at the north end of the Marina, is now a mere basement ruin, having been taken down by order of the Government in!863, Architecturally it was a replica of “DEAL” Its chief interest lies in the fact that the celebrated Colonel Hutchinson one of the signatories of Charles I. @s death-warrant, here suffered a long and cruel imprisonment, which only terminated with his decrease on September 11th, 1664.
THE PIER, naturally the great centre of attraction during the summer months, --- was erected in 1864 by Messrs, Laidlaw and Sons, the well known Glasgow engineers, It is an ornate iron structure 1,000 feet in length, 27 feet wide, and flanked at the entrance by two square pavilions. At the further end there is a commodious hall for concerts, etc. together with a landing stage, or lower platform, which constitutes a point of embarkation for the various
High Street Deal from Park street
excursion steamers, and from which, also, excellent fishing may be had, the depth of water during the prevalence of spring tides being about forty feet, and never less than ten. Formerly this pier was considered the finest on the Kent and Sussex coasts, and though others of somewhat greater dimensions have since been built, it gives place to none in its suitability for promenading purposes, and the magnificent sweep of marine and landward scenery it commands. The old wooden pier erected in 1838, stood a little north of the site of the present structure, and adjoining the Royal Hotel, it collapsed in 1861 and no trace of it now remains
THE BAND STAND, which is a comparatively recent addition to the resources of the FRONT, almost adjoins the pier approach. Here, during the season, the band of the Royal Marine Depot and other bands discourse sweet music at frequent intervals, and, to quote the poet “all goes merry as a marriage bell.”
ECCLESIASTICAL & EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
The fine old parish church of St. Leonard is situated in the quaint and pretty little hamlet of Upper Deal, now so designated to distinguish it from the more modern and more pretentious lower town, from which it is distant from perhaps about a mile by way of the Church Path, or, as it is familiarly called in the neighbourhood, the “Tar Path.” Various date have hazarded in connection with foundation of the ancient edifice, which was probably erected about the middle of the eleventh century, there being still traces of Saxon and Norman workmanship visible in the chancel. It is evident; however, that the building has been much altered from time to time, and has no doubt lost many of its original characteristics, whilst acquiring others of later date. In the interior of the church are many memorials of former generations of former well known Deal residents, notable those to the Coppin and Ockman families; and near the communion table may be noticed a fine brass to the memory of Thomas Boys, of the “Parishe of Nunnington,” who attended Henry VIII at the siege of Boulogne, and died in 1562. In the church yard is the family vault of Admiral Drake, and there are, of course, many monuments to mariners of lesser note, who, like poor Tom Bowling, have long since “gone aloft.” There is, in fact, a distinctly maritime savour about even the churches of deal, as there is about almost everything connected with the good old town. The Rectory house of Upper Deal is interesting as having been the residence of the first mayor of the borough, Joshua Coppin, in 1699.
St George’s Church in High Street is a large, plain brick building,
dating from the time of Queen Anne, and consecrated in 1716.
it was originally intended, owing to the great extension of the town, as
a Chapel of Ease to St Leonard’s, but some years later it had a
special district assigned to it, and is by many strangers erroneously
thought to be the parish church. Considerable alterations an
enlargements have been made at different times, the better to
accommodate the always increasing number of worshippers.
The always increasing number of worshippers. Here the great
Nelson came in 1801 to attend the obsequies ofCaptain Edward
Thornborough Parker, R.N. a young officer wounded in action of that
year off Boulogne, and to whom there is a memorial in the south corner
of the church.
ST. ANDREWS CHURCH, West Street is a handsome modern edifice, open for public worship in 1850. It has several very fine painted glass windows, and the walls of the chancel are enriched by large pictures in encaustic tiles. This church has also undergone considerable enlargements since its erection and will now accommodate about 700 persons. There is also a MISSION HALL, in Sandown Road, in connection with St Andrews.
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury, is conveniently situated in Blenheim Road, and is a red brick building of imposing elevation. The CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH is another handsome building, in the Gothic style, affording seats for over 700 worshippers. It is in High Street, just beyond the Guildhall. The WESLEYAN CHAPEL too is a spacious and lofty building and is situated in West Street; whilst the VICTORIA BAPTIST CHAPEL too, in Victoria Road, the PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHAPEL, in Park Street, the UNITARIAN CHURCH, and the meeting place of the PLYMOTH BRETHREN are all designed to meet the requirements of their respective congregations.
Elementary training for the rising generation is therefore by no means neglected, there being PAROCHIL SCHOOLS for boys and girls and infants in Upper Deal road and Middle street, an INFANTS SCHOOL in connection with St Andrews Church, and the WESLEYAN SCHOOLS in Union Street; these and the various Sunday schools providing suitable instruction for a large number of children. The healthful climate and bracing air of Deal and Walmer also render these neighbourhoods peculiarly adapted as centres for private educational establishments, many of which, for boys as well as girls, have been long and successfully conducted
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DEAL AS A HEALTH RESORT
Having set forth a few of the claims of Deal to be considered as distinctly one of the most interesting and pleasant watering places on the Kentish seaboard, it is considered almost unrivaled with advantages as a health resort. Skilled physicians may do much to assist the convalescent in regaining nerve and vigor; but there is also such a thing as atmosphere or more helpful breezes than “betwixt the Forlands?”
The soil upon which it is built the lower or modern town of Deal is mainly composed of “drift” lying upon a substream of chalk, so that the natural drainage is both rapid and thorough, a fact that tends, in a very great measure, to prevent fogs and to create that dryness and crispness in the air so beneficial in all cases of pulmonary affection. Even during the winter months Deal can boast of an atmosphere totally free from that damp and penetrating cold so injurious to those who suffer from bronchitis, asthma, or lung complaints of any kind, and a resistance in the neighborhood has been known to quickly remove premonitory symptoms, and even to effect a cure after the malady has reached an acute form. Pure water, an excellent system of drainage, and a thorough regard to sanitation throughout every portion of the town materially aid in bringing about these very desirable hygienic results; and, further, they have been instrumental in reducing zymotic disease to practically “an unknown quantity.” The neighborhood of Deal is also peculiarly favored by nature in the manner of:
SUNSHINE AND SHOWERS
Observations have proved that an average rainfall is under twenty five inches, whilst the average number of fine days upon which no rain falls is over two hundred, thus placing Deal well into the front rank of other South coast resorts in both these respects. This is an important consideration on account of the potent influence which bright and sunny weather has upon health, and no doubt largely accounts for the hygienic supremacy of Deal. The English climate, as we all know, is subject to extraordinary fluctuations of temperature, and is consequently extremely trying to delicate constitutions; but by a residence at Deal the invalid may escape, in a great measure, the evil effects of these constant changes; and it is now a well known fact that seaside places are, warm in the winter and cool in summer, while inland stations are cold in winter and hot in summer. Deal forms a delightful winter as well as a summer resort, and year after year it is becoming a more popular place of permanent residence.