Potted history of Deal

Romans
The fist historical appearance and description of Deal is by Julius Caesar in his book “Battle for Gaul” as he relates the story of his arrival in Britain in 55BC. He writes of a flat open beach but despite running his ship hard ashore the water was deep, just as it is now. This and the Britons defending the shore in their chariots discouraged the soldiers from disembarking until the standard bearer of the 10th Legion shouted “Jump down men unless you want to betray your eagle to enemy” and led the men ashore. Military historians have calculated that, given the number of ships Caesar brought with him and that the landing began with the left flank where the cliffs fall away completely in the vicinity of Walmer Castle the right flank must have been as far north as Deal Castle. So although he was in the warships that tried to outflank the Britons it is not possible to identify the point at which Caesar himself landed. A modern stone memorialises the event on Walmer Green just south of Downs Sailing Club. No trace of the camp the Romans built after winning the fight on the beach has ever been identified. Although Caesar came back to Deal again the next year it was over 90 years before they came to stay. This time they landed at Richborough to the north and the substantial remaining walls of the fort they built there can be visited from Deal. Sholden Roman villa, which would have controlled the farming around Deal, was excavated in the 1920s but nothing is visible above ground.

Addelam and Wealemere
If the interpretation the origin of the name Walmer is correct, the Britons left behind after the Romans departed, survived the arrival of the Jutes brought to Kent by Hengist & Horsa (both road names in Deal) in 449. Wealh being a Saxon word for foreigner and mere, a pool, hence a pond of the Britons, given at a time when natives and invaders lived nearby in separate settlements, perhaps given by those living at the Saxon settlement discovered on Mill Hill. Addelam is also of Old English derivation meaning in a valley and seems to be a misnomer. The only valley of significance is that between the beach bank and the higher ground inland in which the modern High Street runs but the original settlement was around St. Leonard’s church and now called Upper Deal, which is well onto that rising ground. Although nearby Eastry was associated with the kings of Kent our area remained a backwater during Saxon times. Neither Deal nor Walmer make it in the Doomsday Book although other documents of a similar antiquity mention the early spellings.

Three Castles
After many years free from the threat of invasion and due to the changing nature of warfare, when Henry VIII broke from Rome and fears arose of intervention from Europe, it was clear that the defences of the south coast needed upgrading. The three castles built at Deal were part of that program and completed in 1539/40. Although called castles, they are squat gun platforms, Deal having 6 bastions and its plan seeming to compare to a Tudor rose, while Walmer and Sandown were smaller with 4 bastions. Ditches with intermediate bulwarks, the site of one of which is recalled by Bulwark Road, linked the castles. Despite their military purpose they were sited at parish boundaries to avoid the payment of taxes on coals taken into them. Sandown lies on the boundary between Sholden and Deal, and Walmer on the boundary with Kingsdown while the boundary between Deal and Walmer runs along the middle of the drawbridge to Deal Castle. They could then claim to lie in the other parish to that which tried to claim, and pay neither. They didn’t see action until the civil war when Parliament quickly expelled the Royalist garrisons without a fight. When war started again in 1648 the garrisons once more took the Royalist side and were more stoutly defended against Parliamentarian siege with help from forces landed from the sea but were eventually surrendered one by one over 3 months. As their military usefulness declined they were only spasmodically maintained and garrisoned. The sea broke into Sandown and as the damage increased it was partly demolished in the 19th century and what remained was incorporated into the modern sea defences. Deal and Walmer had accommodation added to make them more comfortable for those living there but at Deal it was destroyed by German bombs in 1941 and it has returned to its original design. Walmer had greater improvements as it became established as the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and a pleasure garden added. William Pitt and especially the Duke of Wellington lived there for long periods and the Queen Mother visited annually during her extended period in that office.

Boatmen
Where the centre of Deal now is, just behind the beach, until the 15th century there would have been no more than a few huts on the shore for fisherman. As Sandwich harbour silted up and Dover struggled to prevent the same, ships began to choose to lay off Deal while they waited for a favourable wind to continue their journey down the Channel or round into the Thames. It became more lucrative for the local boatmen to service these ships with victuals and to land passengers, and as their number grew and hostelries were established for travellers the settlement by the sea became the most populous part of the parish. Three roughly parallel roads developed, Beach Street which had buildings on its seaward side, as shown in the 1825 painting by JMW Turner, until the 19th century where only the Royal Hotel remains, Middle Street, now the heart of the gentrified conservation area but where policemen would reputedly only walk in pairs at night until even the 1920s because of the rowdy pubs and their clientele, and Lower Street, now High Street, with many narrow streets and alleys running between them. North Street marked that end of the town beyond which the remaining Henrician defences hindered building. Between South Street and the castle the growing Royal Navy built a victualling yard, later edified by the time ball tower from which ships could accurately set their navigation clocks, to service their ships waiting, guarding or stationed in the Downs, the sheltered waters between Deal and the Goodwin Sands six miles offshore. Nelson stayed at the Three Kings (now Royal Hotel) when his ships were there and buried his favourite Captain Parker in St. George’s churchyard. When the opportunity arose the same boatmen were happy to supplement their income by smuggling across the Channel despite the efforts of the Revenue men to stop them. On the other hand they were willing to risk their lives to rescue people from stricken ships on the Goodwins, a tradition that carried down to the three lifeboat stations, Deal and Kingsdown ones having now been consolidated at Walmer. Deal had become one of the four busiest ports in the country but although coal from Newcastle was still landed on the beach as late as 1885 the coming of steam took away the victualling trade and the Navy Yard closed in 1864. Fishing also declined until it is now an almost entirely leisure pursuit.

Charter & Government
As a limb of the Cinque Ports, Deal was administered by its head port of Sandwich. By the end of the 17th century it had far outgrown its more ancient neighbour and its prominent citizens lobbied for borough status of its own. When it was finally granted in 1699 the charter was brought from London, past Sandwich, at night in fear that the townspeople might intercept it in an attempt to preserve their rights. The original hangs in the Mayors Parlour in the Town Hall which was built in 1803 to also serve as the courthouse and with provision for a covered market in the Undercroft. It later also housed the town’s fire engine. The first mayor was Joshua Coppin and he was supported by 12 jurats, who were provided with night sticks to help keep order. Walmer was granted Urban District Council status in 1854 but was merged with the parishes of Kingsdown and Great Mongeham into an enlarged Borough of Deal in 1936. The town lost its independence in the local government reforms of 1974 when it was merged with Dover, Sandwich and the surrounding rural areas to be part of Dover District Council, which is the current position. Charter Trustees maintained the ceremonial position of the mayor and in 1995 chose to become Deal Town Council with parish status.

Royal Marines
Barracks were built at Lower Walmer in 1795 to house troops stationed in the area because of the Napoleonic Wars. Before that, in 1665 the Yellow Company (from their uniform coat) of the Duke of York & Albany’s Maritime Regiment, forerunner of the Royal Marines formed the year before, was in Deal for the Dutch Wars. They returned in 1864 when the barracks were transferred to the Admiralty as a base for the Marines, and provided a boost to a local economy suffering from the loss of shipping. The town’s proud association with the Royal Marine Band was consolidated in 1930 when the School of Music moved to the barracks in 1930. The sergeants mess pantomime in the Globe Theatre was a highlight of the town’s social calendar with its inevitable “Corps de Ballet” in hobnail boots and tutus and the band provided a focus at other events, Remembrance Day, leading the carnival and many more. But on 22nd September 1989 the IRA detonated a bomb as bandsmen were arriving for the day, killing 11 of them. Despite government promises at the time the school of Music was moved back to Portsmouth in 1996 and the barracks have been mostly converted into housing. A memorial bandstand to the 11 victims was built on Walmer Green and the Band return each summer to perform in concert there. Read remembrance poem by Sheila Bamford.

Mining
Coal was discovered at Dover during an abortive attempt to dig a channel tunnel in 1890 and in the years that followed many borings were made and pits started in the countryside behind Deal but only four produced coal in commercial quantities. Betteshanger, the nearest to Deal, was the last to open in 1927 and the last to close in 1989. Although a small village was built adjacent to the pit for workers, most of the miners who came to work here from coalfields all over the country looked for lodgings in Deal. At the time Deal had aspirations to be a genteel seaside resort and the residents were shocked to find black faced men in heavy boots and dirty clothes with strong, unfamiliar accents tramping through their streets. Some shopkeepers and guesthouses put up signs “no miners”. After Pearson Dorman Long, the pit’s owners, provided baths at the pit head and built a large estate of houses on Mill Hill behind the main town the miners were assimilated to be a significant part of Deal’s population. At its peak over 2000 men were employed there but they had a militant reputation, being the only ones to strike during World War Two, and the last to return to work after the national miners strike of 1984/5. This and the pit’s closure in 1989 had a detrimental impact on the local economy. The site is being redeveloped for industrial use and its tip has been landscaped to become Fowlmead Country Park at the entrance to which stands the "Waiting Miner" statue.

WWII
Immediately after war was declared an air raid siren sounded but was for now a false alarm. The Royal Navy instituted a contraband patrol which brought ships into the downs for their cargoes to be inspected as part of a blockade of Germany. But there were many collisions and mine strikes from which the casualties were brought ashore at Deal so the “Phoney War” was not so phoney here. One of the mined ships was the Dutch vessel “Nora” which was then carried by the wind and tides into the Pier destroying the old iron structure. At the end of May 1940 the motorboats disappeared from the beach and within days it became clear they had gone to Dunkerque. After that Deal was in the front line and witnessed the Battle of Britain overhead. The first bomb fell at Kingsdown  3rd July and the first shell from German guns across the channel killed a Marine at the barracks 12th August. Although the town never suffered the mass raids visited on other cities there would be bombing or shelling every few days for the next four years. German planes would make small hit and run raids or dropped bombs when returning from a failed attack inland. On 4th October bombs falling on Middle Street and Union Road started the spaces which are now the towns main car parks, as well as hitting the castle. The worst days were 11th August 1942 when 8 were killed by bombs hitting the gas works, station and elsewhere and 22nd October when 15 were killed by three bombs, including one on High Street shops. Deal had 3676 air raid & shelling alerts during the war but after the Canadians captured the guns at Calais in September 1944 Deal was no longer in the front line and removal of the beach defences began.