Rise and Decline: Dover and Deal in the Nineteenth Century - Part I

RISE AND DECLINE: DOVER .AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY! By JoBN WHYMAN, B.So.(EooN.) lNTRODUicl,., 72. 60 ll>icl,., 73. 67 Jl>icl,., 73. u Ibid., 73. 69 Ibid., 73. eo Il>icl,., 72. 61 Il>icl,., 74. 62 The Times, 4th January, 1900, 6f. oa Kelly's Directory of Kent (1895), op. cit., 201. . u '],'he.New Handbook to the Downs Neighbourhood, op. eit., 60. os Laker, op. cit., 875. 114 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY not materialize.66 Between 1699 and 1836 the better class of houses were supplied with water brought from the North Stream, conveyed in a primitive method by wooden pipes made oflogs of wood, bored through, a mill and suitable machinery securing the supply.67 A boon that was long overdue resulted from an Act of Parliament of 1836 for supplying the town with water, whereby a company was formed and waterworks started.68 The works were constructed on high ground about two miles from the market place69 and at the back of Walmer;70 at such an elevation, we are told in 1847, 'that the water rises to the tops of the highest houses', and 'the inhabitants have now an abundant supply of this precious fluid distributed all over the town by means of several miles of piping'.71 The majority of the inhabitants in the Downs, as also the ships being provisioned off Deal, had hitherto been dependent upon wells for their supply of water. To meet these needs a great number of public wells had been sunk, but the water they had provided was often brackish, the wells being nearly all affected by the tide, rising and falling with the flow and ebb.72 The water supplied by the Deal Waterworks in the 187Os came from a boring made through a chalk stratum, and a reservoir, capable of holding 200,000 gallons kept fi.Ued by means of steam power.78 The Company's £5 shares were then at a premium in the market,74 even though the works came in for some moderate criticism; for instance, 'Its only drawback is in having the tank uncovered .•. The Company's charge is moderate, and the water may be drawn for about 2 hours on most days of the week during the summer months, but in winter, only on four days in the week. We have yet to get wisdom into the heads of the Directors of ·Water Companies, before they will make the supply of water constant. The public had better pay a higher price and increase the profits of the shareholders than have their water stand in leaden cisterns or become impure in the confined neighbourhood of most urban dwellings.'73 0 4. Electricity Supply and Trams If Dover, in the course of the nineteenth century, secured a more constant supply of pure water than did Deal, the 189Os were also memorable in Dover's history for witnessing the introduction of electricity into the town. Electricity works, the property of the Dover 00 Ibid., 375. 67 The New Hanabook to the Downs Neighbourhood, op. cit., 60. as Laker, op. cit., 375. 69 Bagshaw, op. cit., 355. 70 The New Hanabook to the Downs Neighbourhood, op. cit., 60. 11 Bagshaw, op. cit., 355. 71 Laker, op. cit., 375. 78 The New Hanaboolc to the Downs Neighbourhood, op. cit., 60. 14 Il:>id., 60. 75 Ibid., 60. 115 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Electricity Supply Company Limited, were erected in 1894, current being first publicly supplied :in April 1895.76 Of the progress made by electricity by 1899 it could he claimed, that 'the principal streets are lighted by electricity, and the illumination of the Sea Front dur:ing the season is unsurpassed by any other watering-place'.77 Street widen:ing made it possible to :introduce tramways, with electricity as the motive power, and at a cost of £28,000 the Dover tramways were constructed and equipped :in 1897.78 The Electric Light and Power Works supplied :in 1899 a 500-volt direct current for the trams,79 the Corporation tramway network extending over 3½ miles.so The tramcars were observed to be a great success, offering 'a minimum of inconvenience with a maximum of advantage', the fares being ld. only for any distance each way.81 5. Dover Munioipol, Ownership The Times reported :in January 1899 as follows on public municipal ownership by Dover Corporation: 'The Dover Corporation, who already own the local waterworks, electric tramways, bathing establishments and machines, at their meeting yesterday had before them a. proposal to purchase the local gas and electric light undertakings. This proposal was adjourned for further particulars.'82 The success of Dover's municipal trading again caught the eye of The Times a year later in January 1900: 'At a Meeting of the Dover Corporation yesterday, it was stated that the Municipal Waterworks had yielded a profit of £3,500 on the year. This, together with a profit of over £2,000 on the municipal electric trams, is equal to a reduction of ls. in the £ on the town's rates. '83 6. Other PubUc Improvements The Corporation. of Dover was no less active in other spheres of public improvement towards the end of the n:ineteenth century. The provision of pleasure and recreation grounds was begun as early as the 1880s.84 In July, 1883, the Duke and Duchess of Connaught opened the Connaught Public Park, occupying 22½ acres, on the north side of the town, commanding a, fine view of the Channel, leased from 78 W. H. Pendlebury, 'The Electric Light o.nd Power Works', BriUsh Aesociati< m Handbook t-0 Dover, op. cit., 75. 17 BriUsh Aosociation Handbook to Dover, op. cit., advertisement. 1s Bavington Jones, op. cit., 293. 1o Pendlebury, op. cit., 77. 80 BriUsh, Aseoci.atwn Handboola to Dover, op. cit., advertisement. 81 Ibid., advertisements. 82 The Times, 11th January, 1899, 6b. 􀂎 Ibid., 4th January, 1900, 6b. H Bavingt;on Jones, op. oit., 293. 116 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY the War Department by the Corporation for 90 years.85 The Danes Recreation Ground for cricket and football was opened in 1891.86 The 1890s witnessed some memorable sea-front improvements, designed to add to the attractions of Dover as a seaside resort, particularly in 1894 when the Dover Harbour Board made over a portion of the Marine Parade to the Corporation, who then widened the public carriage road, and extended the tarred paving seaward so as to form a promenade 28 ft. wide.87 The Promenade Pier, the property of a company, costing £24,000, was opened on 22nd May, 1893. It was 900 ft. in length from the Esplanade to the head, the general width being 30 ft. and at the head 100 ft., the structure consisting of cast iron piles, firmly screwed into the chalk, upon which, firmly braced together, the deck of the promenade ha.-d been laid.88 It was advertised of Dover's sea front in 1899: 'The Corporation have lately taken over the Sea Bathing rights on the foreshore, and also the establishment on the Marine Parade where salt and fresh hot and cold water baths of all sorts can be obtained; there a.re also two large tepid salt-water swimming baths. The proper arrangement of these has greatly enhanced the attractions of the Borough. •ao To meet further the wishes of people who displayed a preference for establishment bathing over that from bathing machines, Turkish Baths were added in 1900,00 and in the interest of personal cleanliness, the Corporation ran 'hot and cold water Baths for the working class population', adjoining the Town Han,01 which building was also opened in July, 1883, by the Duke and Duchess of Connaught.92 In addition to a new Town Hall costing about £18,000,93 the Dover Municipal Buildings were completed in 1894.94 7. Doctors and Hospit,a,ls Preventive medicine particularly on the hospital side was another advancement enjoyed by Dover towards the end of the nineteenth century. On the other hand, the presence of hospitals and the existence of large numbers of doctors in the nineteenth century cannot be taken by themselves to represent simply a great saving of lives or reduction 203. u Kelly's Directory of l(ent (1895), op. cit., 203; Bavington Jones, op. cit., 9e Bavington Jones, op. cit., 293. 81 Kelly's Directory of Kent (1896), op. oit., 201. 88 Ibid., 201. 89 Briti8h A.s8ociation Handbook to Dover, op. oit., advertisement. 00 · Bavington Jones, op. cit., 294. 01 British A.88ociation Handbook to Dover, op, cit., advertisement. '2 l(elly'8 Directory of Kent (1895), op. oit., 202. 98 Ibid., 202. iit J,3(1,vington Jones, op. cit., 348, 117 lRD DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY of infect,ion at least up to the 1870s. Two medical authorities, Doctors McKeown and Brown, have suggested that before 1850 the medical contribution to population growth was small, compared to a better diet and environmental improvements, particularly in respect of the clothes people were wearing and the houses they were living in. Even in mid-century Florence Nightingale felt compeJled to remind people that the first duty of a hospital was to do the sick no harm. The numerical strength of the medical profession within Dover and Deal and Walmer increased during the period. The number of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries in Dover in 1792 was 6, and in Deal and Walmer 5, compared to 16 in Canterbury, 9 in Maidstone, 6 in Margate, and 5 each in Ramsgate and Faversham.96 Doctors appear to have been attracted in considerable strength to seaside resorts, and the numbers under the heading 'Physic' in Dover rose to 9 in 1828,1J6 and to 14 by 1838.97 Deal and Walmer had 11 physicians and surgeons in 1851, giving a ratio to the resident population of 1 : 88O.os In Dover between 1851 and 1874 not only did the number of physicians and surgeons go up from 13 to 19 but their ratio to the resident population improved from 1 : 1,160 to 1 : 820.99 · • By the end of the nineteenth century the town of Dover possessed two hospitals, the first of which grew out of an earlier dispensary,100 and the second of which the Corporation had an interest in. In the mid-189Os Dover Hospital contained 33 beds, and there was a yearly average of 4,885 out-patients and 200 in-patients.101 Dover Corporation established in 1871 the Dover Infectious Diseases Hospital, as an Isolation Hospital for the treatment of persons suffering or recovering from infectious diseases.102 By 1895 it contained 64 beds,103 and was said to possess 'all the equipment requisite for such an institution' .104 It seems to have been effective in limiting the spread of epidemics.105 Deal Dispensary, originating from a legacy of £500, suppJied the wants of the deserving poor who were not in receipt of poor relief.106 Students of nineteenth-century demography, more particularly in 85 The Kentieh Oompanionfor the Year of Our Lord, 1792, Canterbury, 1792, 164--5. . . 􀁛 W. Batcheller, A N l?fW History of Dover, to which is added a New Dover Guide, Dover, 1828, 352. 07 Batcheller (1838), op. cit., 139. 08 Post Office Directory of the Si:u Home ry of Kent (1895), op. oit., 203. 101 Ibid., 203. 102 Ibid., 203. 1oa Ibid., 203. 1 °' M. K. Robinson, 'Dover.as a. Health Resort', British Association Handbook to Dover, op. cu., 60. lOG Ibid,., 66. 100 The Nl?!W Handbook to the Downs Neighbou1ihoor),, Dp. cit., 62 •.. · 118 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY e􀁼anding·tow:ns, need to be conscio-q:s niore of the quality of.medical skill, rather than of its quantity -as indicated by numbers of doctors or hospital beds. The difficulty of measuring medical improvement was admitted in Dover in the 1890s in the observation that, 'the full extent to which preventive medical science has limited the bounds of infectious maladies and the amount of human life saved can never be ascertained.'107 But add the effects of pure water, proper drainage ancl sewage disposal, which did much to improve the general environment of the. town, it could be boasted at the turn of the century, 'Our soil is uncontaminated. The cesspools and accumulations of filth still to be found in many towns in close proximity to dwelling houses built on sewage sodden foundations are here practically nonexistent ... In addition, the inhabitants enjoy that inestimable boon, a supply of water, derived from works belonging to the ratepayers, constant in supply and constant in its purity •.. It will thus be noticed that all the most important and fundamental conditions on which the general health of the community depends, are amply fulfilled in Dover, and that the residents, by giving ordinary attention to the cleanliness of their houses, and exercising proper superintendence over the gas-pipes, water-pipes and drains, within the curtilage of their homes, may secure the healthiness of their residences for themselves in ordinary conditions.'108 8. Education It was noted of the role of education in the highly developed position of Dover at the close of the nineteenth century that the tovm possessed 'educational and benevolent institutions that reflect credit upon the intellectual and philanthropic advancement of the townpeople;'109 and that Dover, 'must now be considered to be well provided with educational facilities ... The schools at present flourishing ..• are eminently fitted to meet the requirements of the town and neighbourhood. Foremost among them must be pla.ced Dover College.'110 This College, which opened in 1871,lll was educating by 1899 over 200 pupils, 50 of whom were at the Junior School.112 Seventeen years after the opening of Dover College the High School for Girls was built, and by 1899 was educating about 100 girJs.113 Iv the sphere of technical education, the Municipal School of Art, Science and Technology, 101 Robinson, op. cit., 66. 108 Ibid., 05-6. 100 Industr·ial Great B1·itain, Part II, A Commercial Review of Leading Firms Selected from Important TownB of Many Oount1-ie8 (1891), 147. 110 A. H. Atkinson, 'Educations.I Facilities', British, Association Handbook to Dovei·, op. cit., 78. 111 The Time.,, 5th October, 1871, 6d. m Atkinson, op. cit., 78-9. 118 lbw., 79. 119 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY established in 1870,114 was taken over by Dover Corporation in 1892, and offered its students: 'a knowledge that will be serviceable to them in their daily work, present or prospective' _115 The subjects studied covered wood-carving, needlework, cookery, dressmaking, bookkeeping, hygiene, shipbuilding, shorthand, etc., and between 1877 and 1899 some 3,192 art and science students passed through the school.Jl6 The elementary schools of nineteenth-century Dover and Deal were attached to the various parishes and denominations, while Sunday Schools played no small part in the overall development of popular education. The number of children attending Church and Chapel Sunday Schools in Dover in 1838 was 1,289.117 By 1899 elementary education in eight schools in the town was being granted to over 6,000 pupils,118 The Deal Charity School was founded on the resolution of a public meeting held at the Town Hall on 12th April, 1792, to accommodate 25 boys and 25 girls who were to be nominated as vacancies arose by subscribers of one guinea annually.119 The first master, William Child, was appointed in May at a salary of 50 guineas, out of which he had to provide a mistress (his wife), a school room, coals and materials;120 and, to assist the finances of the school, an annual charity sermon was preached at the Parish Church and St. George's Chapel every summer.121 The use of special sermons in financial support of various charities was quite commonplace in the nineteenth century.J.22 Among the various denominational schools in Deal the Wesleyans opened schools for boys, girls, and infants in 1865.123 A somewhat unique charity school, the Deal Nautical School, founded in 1834 under the superintendence of nine naval officers, trained boys for the sea until some time in the late 1850s, and some 250 of the 353 pupils admitted to it in the first seventeen years of its existence entered upon a seafaring career.124 In Dover at the close of the nineteenth century Army Schools educated the children of soldiers quartered in the town.125 In both towns there were a number of private schools of all grades, 114 Ibid., 79. 116 Ibid., 80. 116 Ibid., 80. 117 Batcheller (1838), op. cu., 58-64. us Atkinson, op. cu., 81. 110 Laker, op. cu., 343. 120 Ibid., 343. 121 Ibid., 343. 122 The Royal Sea Bathing Hospital at Margate for example benefited from church sermons in London, Thanet and elsewhere. 1z:i Laker, op. cu., 344; The New Handbook u:, the Downa Neighbourhood, op. cit., 72. m Laker, op. cu., 344. 116 Atkinson, op. cit., 81. .liO DOVER .AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTUltY including boarding schools which became a characteristic institution of most seaside towns. The private preparatory school was a, coastal institution throughout the century,126 The private schools in Dover in 1899 were said to have 'an excellent reputation in their various spheres' .127 Among 11 boarding and preparatory schools in Deal in the 1870s Alfred House Academy received special mention: 'The salubrity of the air, facilities for bathing, and the genera.I healthiness, render the neighbourhood well suited for the establishment of schools to which the young may be brought from inland and more confined situations. We might refer to several gentlemen of eminence in their respective positions who have been educated here, but we refrain. The premises have recently been rendered much more convenient for the purpose, by an extensive enlargement of the house ••• A large play-ground is attached to the premises; a cricket ground ••. is also provided .•• Several of the pupils have of late years gone up for the University Middle Class Examinations, or have passed with honours and distinctions.'128 9. Poor Law Apart from a great variety of private charitable provision, covering soup distribution to the poor, schooling, almshouses, etc., the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act reformed the national poor law by instituting unions of parishes, and by cutting down on outdoor relief. Control of the union workhouses passed to Boards of Guardians who pursued the less eligibility principle, that conditions inside the workhouse should not be superior to the worst conditions outside. The Dover Poor Law Union was formed in 1835, and the workhouse at Buckland opened in the spring of 1836.129 It was built in the form of a· quadrangle, with the Board Room for meetings and the Master's offices in front over the entrance, containing a small hospital against the opposite wall, the rest of the square being occupied by ward rooms and dorm.itories.iso Subsequent enlargements occurred in 1837, 1849, 1871, 1877, and 1903.131 The Dover Union in 1874 comprised 25 parishes and the Workhouse gave employment to a Governor, a Matron, a schoolmaster and mistress, Chaplain, a surgeon and a clerk.182 As early as 1851 the buildings could accommodate 275 inmates,138 For the year ending 25th March, 1878, the amount received from poor rates totalled £26,100 in a total income of £27,041, with total expenditure running at £25,971.184 128 J. A. Willia.maon, The English Ohannel: A History (1959), 327. m Atkinson, op. cit., 81. lt8 The New Handboolc to the Down.9 Neiglibourhood, op. cit., 71. m Bavington Jones, op. cit., 462. 180 Ibid., 462. 181 Ibid., 462. 132 Post Office Direcrory of the Six Home Oounties (1874), op. cit., ii, 1236, 1238. 133 Ibid. (1851), 300. 114 The Municipal Oorporationll Companion, op. cit., 131. l21 DQVEE AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The ea.uses of nineteenth-century poverty were many and complicated. Sometimes personal poverty could be attributed to specific causes, either within or beyond the control of the individual, yet equally a man or his family might be poor through two or more factors operating collectively. Several specific causes of poverty can be identified, among them, unemployment, under-employment, the downturn of the trade cycle, age, sickness, large families, low earnings, rising food prices brought on by poor harvests up to the 1870s; but also the fact of whether a town was booming or declining could itself make a tremendous difference to the levels of local well-being measured by such indices as employment opportunities or wages received. . It is central to the remainder of this article to examine some economic functional trends in Dover and Deal in the nineteenth century, and the thesis to be analysed can be stated quite simply that while the economy of Dover expanded throughout tlie period, that of Deal appears to have become relativel;y depressed after the Napoleonic Wars. Both places must have been almost of equal importance in the middle decades of the eighteenth century, assuming the observations of a gentleman touring through the whole island of Great Britain in 1762 to be reasonably accurate: DEAL -'Near it is the famous Road for Shipping, so well lmown all over the trading world by the Name of the Downs, and where almost all Ships which arrive from foreign Ports for London, or go from London to foreign Ports, and pass the Channel, generally stop; the Homeward-bound, to dispatch Letters, send their Merchants and Owners the good News of their Arrival, and set their Passengers on Shore; and the Outward-bound, to take in fresh Provisions, to receive their last Orders, Letters and Farewells, from Owners and Friends, etc. •.. The town of Deal is very much improved of late Years; to which the great Resort of Seamen from the Ships in the Downs has not a little contributed. The great convenienoy of landing here has been of infinite Benefit to the Place, so that it is large and populous, divided into the upper and lower Towns, adorned with many fair Buildings •••. Having a continual Resort of People ... Deal is the most flourishing Place upon this Coast; enjoys a very considerable Portion of Trade and has, for the present, eclipsed Sandwich, the (Cinque) Port to which it is a Member.'™ DOVER--'The Piers which form the Haven, or large Basin, are costly and great Works ••• Several Acts have passed to repair and restore the same ••. Dover is one of the Cinque Ports, and . . . here most of the Business of these Ports in general is done, and the Courts are kept .•• The Packets · m By a, Gentleman, A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great B1'il.am, Divided into Oircuits or Journies, 6th Ed., 1762, i, 166-9. 122 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY for France go qff here, in time of P.eace, as also those for Ostend, with the Mails for Flanders; and all those Ships which carry Freights from New York to Holland and from Virginia to Holland, come generally hither, and unlade their Goods,• enter them with the Custom-house Officers, pay the Duties, then enter them again by Certificate, re-load them, and draw back the Duty by Debenture, and so they go away for Holland.'13B Economic life was, of course, a great deal less sophisticated in the mid-eighteenth century compared to the end of the nineteenth century, and whereas, after 1815, Deal languished and was forced to adjust its economy, Dover flourished and built on the earlier foundations to its economy, more especially in connection with its defensive functions, and as a, port for passengers and mails to and from London and the Continent. Part I DEPRESSION AND ADJUSTMENT IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY DEAL Deal as it is known today is predominantly a seaboard town, although in John Leland's time it was no more than a small 'Fisher village, half a myle fro the shore of the sea',1S7 the fishermen then occupying that part which became known &ubsequently as Upper Dea].l.88 Pritchard's Hist'JI· cit., 28, who aleo notes ibid., 322, that the scale of enterprise in brewing was in the last resort limited by the extent of the local marketing area which could be exploited and once the buainese had expanded to this limit, further increase was largely dependent upon the growth in size of the local community or some innovation in local transport, the absence of which often meant that profits accrued faster than they could be invested with advantage in the business, tempting the brewer and his family to eet up another brewery at a distance as did Cobb of Margate at Deal. 166 Laker, op. cu., 293-4. 167 Ibid., 296, lGS Ibid., 296. 169 Ibid., 296. Ho Ibid., 296. 101 For instance, Nathaniel Spencer, The Oomplete English Traveller (1772),. J61. . 102 Pritchard, op. cit., 20􀂰. 126 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE· NINETEENTH CENTURY . places.ilia The Admiralty in 1813 · even: went so far as to contemplate removing from Dover the making of biscuits, since almost every tide vessels left Dover Harbour with victualling stores for the men of war in the Downs but with strong winds could not round the South Fore. land, or were liable to be taken by French privateers running out from Calais, Dunkirk and other cross Channel ports.104 Indicative of the general prosperity and bustle which reigned during the Napoleonic Wars was an increase of over 35 per cent. in the population of Deal ,'1-ithin the decade 1801 to 1811, and it is even suggested that, at 7,351 in 1811, the population had begun to decline, which means that 'it is probable that in -intermediate years it had been even greater' .16° Certainly the housing of this increase of population caused an extension of the town, which included building on land which had previously existed as market gardens.1°0 Deal was seen in the 1800s as 'a very considerable maritime town ... always more flourishing in times of war than of peace . . . a general place of rendezvous for shipping, not only of merchant vessels, but also of men of war·:107 and 'between 300--400 sail are sometimes at anchor in the Downs at one time; on these occasions the town is particularly full, and the bustle and traffic are both very great'.168 It was further observed that the constant influx of people, and the necessity of providing regular supplies of ships' stores and provisions render 'this a most eligible spot for traders' ,100 while anot,her contemporary source noted that 'the resort of seafaring people and others connected with the shipping, and also of summer visitors makes a brisk circulation of money•.110 The last of the prosperous years from the commercial point of view coincided with the Napoleonic Wars, the end of which took L. Fussell on A Journey round the Coast of Kent . . . made During a Summer Excursion, whereupon he observed: 'Deal is a seaport without an harbour; but the Downs between the shore and the Goodwin Sands affording a secure road for ships, the town is usually crowded with a succession of visitors and persons ie3 Laker, op. cit., 297-it was the invention of the Rev. Lord George Murray, afterwai·ds Bishop of St. David's, and oonsisted of a series of semapho1·es by means of whioh the news was signalled from one station to the next, the semaphores being placed at Betteshanger, Barham Downs, Shottenden, Beaoon Hill, Callum Hill, Gadshill, Swansoombe, Shooter's Hill, New Cross, West Square, and the Admiralty, ibid., 297. 164 Pritchard, op. eit., 205. 10􀃍 Laker, op. eit., 296-7. m Ibid., 297. 167 Brayley, op. eit., 1018. 108 Ibid., 1020, 1022. m Ibid., 1018-19. 170 David Maopherson, Annals of Oommeree, Manufaetu1·u, Fisheries, and Navigation (1805), iv, Appendix IV. 127 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE :NINETEENTH OJDNTURY engaged in :rμaritime affairs: passengers alsq being usually 1anded here, letters . brought on shore, provisions taken in, and vessels, both outward and homeward bound, commonly waiting for orders and instructions . . . The custom house, naval storehouse, and hospital, 171 afford convincing proofs of its :flourishing condition and increasing opulence. The pilots stationed here are esteemed remarkably skilful, bold, and active; and the assistance afforded by them to vessels in distress, whether belonging to the royal navy or private traders, entitles them to be marked amongst the most useful and effective classes of British sailors. The appearance of the Downs, when enlivened by the arrival of a large fleet, is extremely interesting, and exhibits a noble proof of the naval strength and commercial importance of the country. 'AB the inhabitants of Deal may be considered almost amphibious, and the attention of those who visit the coast will be principally directed to its fine beach and the shipping, the buildings of the town, and the distribution of the streets, must not be too fastidiously criticized. If they appear dirty and narrow in those parts to which the greatest traffic occasions the greatest resort, some allowance must be made for the low and level shore on which the houses were originally erected, and for the meanness of the buildings themselves, constructed at a period when, in all probability, there was but little expectation that Deal would ever arrive at its present degree of opulence and importance. 'Deal affords a complete contrast to Sandwich. On visiting the latter, a stranger, as he wanders solitary through the town, in which "the pavement dreads the turf's encroaching green", and scarcely a human being is visible even at noon-day, will be induced to ask, Where are the inhabitants? But as soon as he arrives at Deal, he is surrounded by so great a throng as to obstruct his passage along the streets, and is tempted to exclaim, Where can such a multitude find habitations?'172 Within a few decades these comments about Sandwich were to be applied to Deal, the gist of whose decline was summed up as follows by a guidebook looking back from the standpoint of the 1870s: 'Deal was most prosperous during the Continental War, when the Downs was crowded with shipping awaiting a convoy, to protect them in their commercial engagements ... At that time many of the inhabitants grew rich upon legal spoils; a large contraband trade was carried on173 • • • Whatever might have been the sudden increase 171 A hospital for sick and wounded seamen was founded at Deal in Common• wealth times, and its history appears to have been intermittent but by the 1790s two hospitals were in existence-The Royal Naval Hospital and the General Military Hospital, Laker, op. cit., 190, 203, 308-4. 112 L. Fussell, A Journey round, the Ooast of Kent; containing Remarks on the Prinei,pal Objects .•. being Original Note11 made During a Summer Excursion (1818), 138-9. 173 Not all the trading of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Deal and Dover was above board, so to speak, and for this reason the economic historian should consider the extent to which not only smuggling but even the illicit export of gold coins were practised. This subject is too detailed and complicated to treat at length here and this footnote serves to demonstrate that it has not been overlooked. To the contrary, I think that smuggling was an activity of significant importance and deserves serious study, particularly since Governments for the 128 DOVER AND DE.AL IN THE NINETEENTH OENTURY of wealth by these means, the restoration of peace brought its· Qalamitous reverses, and property that had been purchased at an excessive cost, changed hands at a merely nominal price. The inhabitants fell into a kind of social and commercial collapse, and years passed away before any great effort was made to adapt the town to the advancing civilization and social demands of the age. About a quarter of a century since, the narrow streets began to disappear. The North and South Esplanades were formed where houses once stood, the back doors of which had opened out to the beach and fostered the smuggling propensities of the people resident along the shore. For this first step in the way of improvement, Deal is indebted to the wisdom, foresight and ability of Captain E. Boys, R.N. His aim was to raise the character of the town, and convert it into a favourite wateringplace and residence for persons of good position and comfortable means, and so to counter-act the influences that had brought it into unnatural decay. In his efforts he found himself too often obstructed by persons afraid to venture the penny in order to bring back the pound. Reactionary influences set in ... and a new period of indifference stayed the general improvement which otherwise would over this have made Deal one of the most attractive watering-places upon the south-eastern coast.'17' More recently John Laker in his Hi.swry of Dea,l has shown that 'years of great adversity'l76 followed t􀀫e Napoleonic Wars, 'which ended the long years of naval and military activity at Deal. With the close of the war a new era was ushered in. The years of prosperity were followed by a period of stagnation and decay. The boatmen, already impoverished by loss of occupation, were further harassed by severer measures against smuggling. Bankruptcies became common 114 The New Hand.book to the Down.s Neighbourhood, op. cit., ll. 176 Laker, op. cit., 375. financing of the prolonged and costly WM'S of the eighteenth century had resort to raising customs and excise duties on a whole range of imported products. Ralph Davis, 'The Rise of Protection in England, 1669-1786', Economic History Review, 2nd Series, xix, no. 2 (August, 1966), 306-17. In economic terms there had to be incentives to smuggle which were present and increasing as and when successive governments imposed higher taJCes on teas, wines, spirits, tobacco, snuff, lace, silks, etc. It was for this reason only that the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries emerged as the peak era of illicit trading, and well explains the fact that while fighting a major enemy abroad the government during the French and Napoleonic Wars was compelled to do battle with smugglers to protect its own fiscal revenues. What must have been the minimum of smuggling ha.s to be gleaned from masses of details surviving in customs and excise records, legal proceedings and from newspaper reports. Suffice it to state that the following references add up to a considerable activity in this respect: Braylef, op. cit., 1020; Laker, op. oit., devotes the whole of Chapter 18 to 'Smuggling in Deal, 353-70; · The Gentleman's Magazine, ii, August, 1732, 925, and iil, September, 1733, 492, and !iv, August, 1784,, 632; William Laird Cloves, The Royal, Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present, iii (1898), 16; the Kentish Gazette, 8th-llth June, 1768, or llth-15th June, 1768; The Times, 17th October, 1806, 11th March, 1807, 3b, 29th May, 1820, 3c, and 30th May, 1820, 3b; the Dover Telegraph and Oinque Ports General Advertiser, 3rd January, 1835, 8; and John Whyman, 'Kent Coast Smuggling in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries', Tlianet Panorama: A Modern Guule to the Ialand (Isle of Tha.net Geographical Association, 1966), 29-30. 129 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY among the tradesmen, and it wrur only by the energy and far-sighted policy of a little band of townsmen, who were convinced of Deal's possibilities as a watering-place, -that the town was saved from complete ruin.'176 H e argues that many circumstances contributed to this. First and foremost, the large fleets which had assembled year after year in the Dovvns were disbanded or stationed elsewhere, causing distress among the boatmen who had acted as pilots to these ships or had followed a thriving trade in supplying their wants.177 The men fe.11 back upon their ancient sideline of smuggling, and endeavoured to eke out a scanty livelihood by this means,178 but the Government did everything to repress the activity which anyhow declined in the mid-nineteenth century with the coming of Free Trade. The need for pilots remained, however, of which there were 61 in 1847,170 down to 53 by 1874,1 80 but even this function became restricted so far as Deal was concerned. After the Fellowship of Cinque Ports' Pilots ea.me to an end in 1853, supervision being transferred to the Trinity House, London, a commencement was made in transferring the Deal pilots to Dover, a process which continued despite protests from Deal.181 Sixty-si:x: pjlots were stationed in Dover by 1874,182 rising to 90 by 1895.183 The activities of pilot and boatman were always risky and losses at sea brought human tragedy to whole families, as on the night of 1st August, 1864, when the lugger Fawn, manned by four Deal boatmen, was run down by a steamer near the Downs, and all hands in a moment perished, leaving behind families and twelve orphans deprived of every means of support.184 The Mayor of Deal, William Matson Cavell, in a letter to the Editor of The 1'imes, appealing to the public for subscriptions, pointed to the gloom which had been thrown on the town by this tragic incident, concerning seamen, 'whose valuable services are so well known all over the world'.185 Following this appeal, subscriptions poured in from individuals all over the country, and were acknowledged by the Mayor in several issues of The Times during the months of August, September, and October, 1864-.180 As a customs port Deal suffered yet another blow in October, 1881, 170 Ibid., 340. m Ibid., 375-6. 178 Ibid., 376. 179 Bagshaw, op. cit., 368-9. 180 Post Office Director1J oftheSilx Hom,e Counties (1874), op. cit., ii, 1228-31. 1s1 Laker, op. cit., 405. 182 Post Office Directory of the Si:n HorM Oountiea (1874), op. cit., ii, 1243-52. 183 Kelly's Directory of ]Cent (1895), op. cit., 201. m The Times, 22nd August, 1864, l0o. im; Ibid., 22nd August, 1864, lOo. 1so Ibid., 27th August, 1864, 12a; 30th August, 1804, 8d; 3rd September, 1864, 9d; 10th September, 1864, 12a; 19th September, 1804, 9a; 24th September, 1864, 120; 22nd October, 1864, 7b. 130 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH OENTURY when the Port of Deal was degraded to a Creek, its landing privileges being withdrawn.187 Laker shows that, 'This led to a protest by the Town Council, but it is probable that everybody realized that the measure was inevitable. Dea.I's days as a port were ended.T he introduction of steam and the failure to construct a harbour in the Downs had ended them.'188 In 1879 it was observed of the town's economy that, 'there is little or no trade, the population being chiefly employed as boatmen, pilots and fishermen'.189 Many aspects of the old function of 'foying' declined during the nineteenth century, as and when larger vessels were less liable to drag on their chains and anchors, and could carry more in the way of provisions. The problems of conducting a merchandise trade without a harbour, and with the facility merely of a beach, preoccupied much of the evidence submitted to the House of Commons Select Committee on Railway Bills: the South-Eastern Branch to Deal and Extension of the South-Eastern Canterbury, Ramsgate and Margate Railway Bill, sitting in July, 1845. The then Mayor of Deal, Cornford Kingsmill, spoke of frequent inconvenience for a fortnight or three weeks at times when the hoys from London could not come on shore in bad weather to land their goods and, in consequence, were forced back to Ramsgate: 'It is of very great consequence to the tradesmen at times-I have often known waggons obliged to be sent to Ramsgate to fetoh their goods from there.'100 l\fr. Stephen Pritchard, having retired from business after nearly twenty years as a chemist in the town, told how he had been the owner of two hoys but, 'unfortunately we had them wrecked in coming to land their goods in order to accommodate the tradesmen ... When we get our coals it is a very frequent thing for our colliers to be wrecked-I have seen three ashore wrecked at one time ... We have been accustomed to consider Ramsga.te Harbour as a place we can depend upon.'lll1 M:r. James Bates, coach and posting master at Deal, also referred to 'the great difficulty in beaching vessels, and the expense in unloading the vessels ... the labourers leave every other employment--There must be great despatoh used in unloading the vessels and consequently 187 Laker, op. cit., 405. 188 Ibid., 405. 189 The Municipal Corpora/dons Companion, op. cit., 121. 100 Cornford IGngamill, Mayor of Deal, 12th July, 1845, in evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Railway Bills; South Eastern Branch to Deal and Extension of the South Eastern Canterbury, Ra.msgate and Margate RaUway Bill, House of Lords Record Office, Committee Office Evidence, 1845, Volume 77. . . 191 Stephen Pritchard, Retired Deal Chemist, 12th July, 1845, in evidence to op. cit. 131 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY much heavier pay for the labourers. We pay upon the average 10s. a ton more for coals at Deal than they do at Dover.'192 Similar evidence was presented to the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the South-Eastern Railway, Deal Extension Bill, which sat in August, 1845. Then speculators, too, who had laid out money in the hope that Deal would become an important naval and military centre encountered disappointment.193 They gambled on the fact that during the Napoleonic Wars the numerous embarkations, reported constantly in the national and provincial press, had attracted great numbers of people to the town, and this in turn had provided a rich harvest for the tradesmen.104 In 1808 Deal had housed a Naval Storehouse, a Royal Militarr and Naval Hospital and extensive Barracks for cavalry and infantry.195 The Naval Yard, which was run down after the Napoleonic Wars, came to an end in the Autumn of 1864 when the Lords of the Admiralty sold by auc􀂢ion the whole of their property in Deal.190 By the 183Os tradesmen found their trade dwindling or ruined, and bankruptcies became common.107 The numerical representation of some trades declined quite markedly as between 1847108 and 1874,190 the number of bakers going down from 27 to 16, beer retailers from 30 to 15, hairdressers from 6 to 5, milliners from 9 to 5, toy dealers from 5 to nothing, and so on. Wives, families and other relatives of officers, both naval and military, who had settled in Deal during the Napoleonic Wars decided gradually to leave the town.200 Even the two minor industries of the place, boat-building and rope-making, fell into comparative decay.261 In 1847 there were six boat-builders,202 reduced to four by 1874.263 At the latter date there were two sail-makers, a mast- and block-maker and one rope-maker still in operation.204 By the 187Os boat-building existed only on a small scale, and according to the port and navigation statistics for 1877, the quantity of boat-building in Deal amounted to seven sailing vessels, gross tonnage 453,205 102 James Bates, Coach and Posting Master at Dea.I, 12th July, 1845, in evidence to op. eit. 193 Laker, op. eit., 376. lot Ibid., 376. 106 Brayley, op. eit., 1021-22. 196 Pritchard, op. eit., 207; or, Roget, op. eit., 27. 101 Laker, op. cit., 376. 10s Bagshaw, op. eit., 364-70. 199 Post Ojflce Directory of the Sue Home Oounties (1874), op. cit., ii, 1228-31. 200 Laker, op. cit., 376. 281 Ibid., 376. 202 Bagshaw, op. cit., 364. 203 Poat Ojflce Directory of the Sir11 Home Counties (1874), op. eit., ii, 1228-31. . 2o.i Ibid., 1228-31. 295 The Municipal Oorporatione Oompanion, op. cit., 121. 132 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY The population figures of the town and the accounts of the Pavement Commissioners bore eloquent testimony to this general postNapoleonic collapse in Deal's economy. In 1801 Deal had a population greater than that of either Marg"ate, Ramsgate, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells together, Gravesend and Folkestone. A century later Deal was much surpassed in population by all of these towns, with the exception of Gravesend.206 In the decade 1801 to 1811 the population of Deal rose sharply from 5,420 to 7,351 inhabitants; it received a sharp setback in the next decade, up to 1821, slipping back to 6,811. Not until after 1851 did the population of Deal rise above the total for 1811, so that by 1861 there were 7,531 people living in the town. The population thereafter climbed slowly to 8,891 by 1891, rising more sharply in the 1890s to 10,581 by 1901.207 The receipts of the Pavement Commissioners reached high water mark in 1815 when they amounted to over £1,584.208 They then declined almost uniformly, and in 1826 amounted to little more than half this amount at £848.209 Many of the leading inhabitants looked to the Government to come to the rescue, advocating that Deal should become an important naval centre, and a few unsuccessful efforts were indeed made by the Admiralty to improve the Naval Yard, but by 1834 it was made clear to the townsfolk that they must assume responsibility for arresting the decay of their town.21 ° Captain Edward Boys, R.N., addressed an open letter to the inhabitants of Deal suggesting that they develop the town as a seaside resort.211 Deal had already been fashionable as a resort in the later eighteenth century, when the town too was more important as a port of call in the Downs for shipping en route to and leaving London. As early as May, 1754, the Kentish Post had advertised: 'At DEAL in Kent is the Original NEW-INVENTED MACHINE for Bathing in the Sea ..• The Machine dw-ing the l8$t Season met with general Approbation; and, in order to make it still more useful, the Proprietors have this Season provided an additional Machine. All Gentlemen and Ladies who are desirous of making use of this Ma-chine, are to apply to Mr. John Dixon, at the East India Arms in Deal, from whom they may hear of good Lodgings in the Neighbourhood, pleasantly situated, on reasonable Terms. N.B. A proper Woman is provided to attend the Ladies if required.'212 Charles Seymour wrote in 1776 of 'an Apartment towards the Sea', whioh had been modernized and was 'intended for the acoommodation aoB George S. Minchin, Table of Population in Ed,: W. Page, The Victoria HistonJ of the Oounty of Kent (1932), iii, 356--70. 307 Ibid., 356-70. 208 Laker, op. cit., 376. 200 Ibid., 376. 210 Ibid., 376. au Ibid., 376. 212 The l(entiBh Post, llth-15th May, 1754, 1; and 18th-22nd May, 1754, 1. 133 DOVER AND DE.AL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY of the Rt. Hon. Francis, Marquis of Carmathen ... during the bathing season' ,218 In those early days Deal thrived a,s a watering place and was the subject of a report i n the Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser, in June, 1825, which noted that, 'Many improvements are going on at Deal and Wahner where lodgings have at this early period of the season become scarce . . . From the hlgh price of land in its immediate vicinity (some bas sold at £200 per acre) and the preparations that are making for building, we have no doubt it will ere long rank hlgh in the estimation of the public. '214 It seems, therefore, that immediately after the Napoleonic Wars, the buoyancy of Deal as a watering-place had the effect of masking its commercial decay, but not for long, because, by the 184-0s, Deal was a poor relation to the Thanet resorts, and there were distinct signs of economic depression which even the Duke of Wellington's associations with Walmer Castle, as the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, could not overcome. The 1830s produced the proposal to construct a wooden pier. at Deal, the want of a harbour having always militated against the commercial progress of the town.215 Many schemes for the construction of a harbour were produced from time to time, and in 1838 a company was formed to build a wooden pier or jetty.as a substitute for a harbour, an Act of Parliament sanctioning the formation of a Deal Pier Company having an authorized capital of £21,000.216 The famous harbour engineer, Sir John Rennie, was commissioned to design a pier, 445 ft. in length and, at a cost of £12,000, piling was completed to a length of 250 ft., following which a further sum of £8,500 was then raised by an issue of £5 shares, but after that nothing more was done to complete the r.tructure; and 'year by year parts of it succumbed to the violence of the winter gales', until in 1857 a sudden south-easterly gale brought the whole structure down.217 In June, 1841, the Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser reported the failure and auction of the Royal Adelaide Baths, in Deal, erected in 1836 as a baths and library at a, cost of over £3,000, having never returned ls. in the shape of profit, and now publicly auctioned for the small sum of £1,000, including the furniture, fixtures, books and machines.218 An article on 'The Sea Side Resorts of the Londoners', which appeared in Olw,mhers' Edinburgh J 01irna,l in 215 Charles Seymour, A New Topo(J1'aphicaZ, Historical and Commercial Survll1J of the Oities, Towne, and Villages, of the Oounfl// of Kent, Canterbury, 1776, 282, 214 The Maidstone Journal and Kentish Adverti.!ler, 21st June, 1825, 3a.. 216 Laker, op. cit., 378; other references above, 112 ff. 21& Ibid., 378. 217 Ibid., 378-9. 21s The Dover Telegraph and Oinque Ports Gemeral Advertiser, 12th June, 1841, Sc. 134 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY November, 1853, claimed categorically that Dea.I was not a bathing place.219 Contemporaries argued about the reasons behind Deal's failure to maintain itself as a first-rate watering-place. Witnesses who appeared before the Select Committees of the House of Commons and the House of Lords on the South-Eastern Railway Deal Extension Bill, in 1845, argued the case that Deal was frequented to a certain extent, but its facilities had not yet been fully developed in consequence of the difficulty.of get.ting to the place; for instance, this was the line taken by the Mayor of Deal, Cornford Kingsmill.220 l\fr. Stephen Pritchard slated Herne Bay as, 'in our estimation so low that we put it almost out of notice . . . there is no harbour at Herne Bay but merely a pier which may last only a short time-now the worms are cutting it to pieoes by wholesale;' yet admitted of the hope to make Deal something of a bathing place, 'We have been trying to give the Town a lift if we could from time to time'.221 One witness on being cross-examined as to whether Deal was a place where grass was growing in the streets stated that he did not know anything about the suggestiou.222 On 1st July, 1847, railway communication was opened with London, Ramsgate and Margate from Deal as a terminal point on the South. Eastern Railway,228 but discussion of the relative failure of Deal as a watering-place continued into the 1850s. A letter to the Editor of the Deal, Walmer and Sandwich Te7,egram in 1859, for instance, pointed out: 'I am not a native of your town, but I have been in it for long enough to observe that it is half a century behind most watering-places. While its near neighbours, Dover and Ramsgate, can boast of their Artificial Harbours, and Margate of its Piers, and also of the numerous Lodging Houses, from their elegant and commodious terraces • . . down to the humble cottage where the shopma.n or artisan may enjoy his annual holiday. To such attractions as these Deal has no pretence . . . With the exception of three gingerbread castles and an irregular range of antiquated buildings, Deal Sea frontage is as innocent of the crime of improvement as when Julius Caesar landed nineteen centuries ago. 210 'The Sea Side Resorts of the Londoners', Oliambera' Edi,nburgh Jo,u1•1wl, 12th November, 1853, 307. 220 Oornford Kingsmill, Mayor of Dea.I, 12th J'uly, 1845, in evidence to The Rouse of Commons Select Committee on Railway Bills: South-Eastern Branch to Deal, eto., op. cit., and 2nd August, 1845, before the Select Committee of the Rouse of Lords on the South-Eastern Railway Deal Extension Bill, House of Lords Record Office, Lords Evidence, 1845, Volume 13. 221 Stephen Pritcha.rd, retired Den.I chemist, 12th J'uly, 1845, in evidence to the Commons Committee, op. cit. 111 Harry Ens!and, Ramagate Ooach Proprietor, 12th J'uly, 1845, before ibid. 223 The New Handbook to the Downs Nei,ghbourlwod, op. cit., 12, 63. 135 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 'Now, Sir, these things need not be •.• Why not fonn a Company for the erection of an Iron Pier . . . you would soon find it necessary to alter and increase the number of Lodging Houses; trade in general would flourish . • • and be the making of the town.'224 The old pier, as shown already, had been swept away by the sea two years previously, and all the schemes for constructing a harbour had failed,225 but this suggestion of constructing a new pier war, taken seriously and above all by Mr. Edward Hayward, the first proprietor and publisher of the Deal, and Walmer Telegram, who was 'indefatigable in advocating a new scheme both in the columns of his newspaper and among the townsfolk privately' .22 e .An Act of Parliament, 27th September, 1861, incorporated the Deal and Walmer Pier Company Limited, to construct an iron pier 1,000 ft. long, the contract for whi􀃈h was given to Messrs. R. Laidlaw & Son of Glasgow,227 at £ll,000.228 The first pile was driven on 8th Apl'iJ, 1863, and the ceremonial opening took place on 14th July, 1864,229 the en.tire structure being completed by the following November,2ao but 'the new venture, however, did not turn out to be the success that had been anticipated, and in 1866 the Pier Company was wound up. As a large sum of money was still due to the contractors (Messrs. Laidlaw & Son) the pier eventually passed into their hands.'231 By the mid-1870s it was landing excursionists from steam-boats and housed a refreshment saloon.2321874 saw the provision of hot and cold baths at the Pierhead; 'the water (pumped up by steam) at so great a distance from the shore renders it pure and clear'.2 33 It was claimed at this time that 'internal improvements have been going on by gradual yet very perceptible steps, and the visitor who has been about a series of years, finds the place materially changed in aspect';234 yet despite these and other improvements, Deal remained second-rate as a watering-place, offering to visitors in 1874 one bathing-machine owner, a baths proprietor, two oiroulating libraries, 53 lodging houses,285 and some new Assembly Rooms erected for £2,700 in 1864.236 In concluding this section on 'Depression and Adjustment in m The Deal, Walmer and Sandwich Telegram, 6th April, 1859, 4a. 226 Laker, op. cit., 400; and above, 112 ff. 220 Laker, op. eit., 400; The New Handbook to the Dawns Neighbourhood, op. cit., 26. 207 Ibid., 400. 228 The New Handbook to the Downs Neighbourlwod, op. cit., 26. m Laker, op. cit., 400. 230 The New Handbook to the Downs Neighbourhood, op. eit., 27. 231 Laker, op. cit., 400-1. 􀀅2 The New Handbook to the Downs Neighbourhood, op. cit,, 27. 133 Ibid., 27. 234 Ibid., 12. m The Post Office Directory of the Six Home Oounties (1874), op. cit., ii, 1228-31. 23e The New Handbook to the Downs Neighbourhood, op. cit., 30. 136 DOVER AND DEAL IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Nineteenth-Century Deal', the well-being of many ordinary people living and working in the town must have been affected by the longrun secular decline in its fortunes, which probably accounts for a soup. kitchen being set up by some benevolent individuals in 1850: 'to obtain voluntary donations a.nd superintend the distribution of soup to the poor during the inclement seasons of the year, and thereby mitigate the sufferings of the distressed, particularly of women and children. '237 237 Ibid., 03. 13'1 •. 18!