To understand anything of the history of Deal one must first appreciate the importance of the Downs, the stretch of water immediately facing us, which for 2000 Years of recorded history was, and remains, amongst the busiest in the world. We are still in the first 150 years of the supremacy of the power-driven vessel; before this, movement depended entirely on wind and tide. The same wind which brought a ship up-Channel and round the South Foreland prevented her getting round the North Foreland and into the North Sea or London River, and vice versa.
Hence the Downs was as often as not, a compulsory anchorage; mention of 400 or 500 vessels lying at anchor was common; 800, on one occasion, have been recorded!
The town of Lower Deal came into existence to serve the needs of the shipping in the anchorage. It had no other purpose!
The development of a community at any given location depends upon many factors, geographical, political and economic.
Here we will try to give a brief outline of those factors which were responsible for the town of Deal as we know it today.
Many reasons for the establishment of a small town are absent in the case of Deal, : adequate fresh water, a ford across a river, or an important cross roads for example. The nearest good water was two miles away and considerable efforts had to be made to obtain a supply. No important roads passed through Deal, even today one must make a detour to get to the town.
Facts against the area as a site for a community would include the liability to flood, both from the sea and the flood plain of the River Stour, the land lying behind the shingle bank was marshy, the Sea Valley (High Street) was not dry until the 17th Century and the fact that the area could not be easily defended against attack. Why then did Deal develop on this spot ?
In answer to this question our chronicle commences at least 10,000 years or so ago. England was then part of the land mass of the main continent, connected by a land bridge which lay between Kent and the Pas de Calais in France. This land together with erosion by wind and sea gradually caused the breaching of the land bridge. Once the connection of the two large sea areas to the North and South was made the newly created tidal currents quickly completed the process.
By 5,000 B.C. the Strait of Dover had been formed. Material deposited by the swirl of the tidal currents was to form the Goodwin Sands.
In the years following various peoples, stone age, bronze age, iron age, settled on the high ground in the surrounding countryside but none close to the shore. Indeed the shingle bank upon which the nucleus of Deal was to be built had hardly begun to develop.
When the Romans arrived they made use of the waterway lying between Thanet and the mainland as an alternative to rounding the dangerous North Foreland. This waterway "The Wantsum Channel" also formed a safe haven protected from the worst of the weather and from enemies by the garrisons of Reculver and Richborough at either end.
During centuries of Roman occupation the Wantsum Channel slowly narrowed due to silting and our shingle bank was slowly growing Northward.
The Vikings and Saxons presided over an irregular and quarrelsome period of East Kent settlement. They have however left Christianity and traces of occupation in the form of burial sites and ornaments found in Upper Deal, Upper Walmer and Eastry. Recent archaeological digs have made significant finds in these areas and at Dover.
Legend has it that the last of the great Saxon Earls, Godwyne, had estates on the Isle of Lomea which it is supposed occupied the present site of the Goodwin Sands. It is said to have disappeared in a great inundation, maybe because of poor sea defences, sometime at the turn of the first millennium.
During the comparative peace under the rule of the Normans and Plantagenets considerable trade developed between Britain and her continental neighbours. All the naval activity could be met by the small ships of the Cinque Ports Confederation. However, wars and internal strife caused the Ports to become less powerful and effective.
Meanwhile, the shingle bank was still growing northwards and, together with wrecks at the river mouth, playing its part in the silting up of the Stour estuary.
By the middle of the fifteenth century "The Downs" had become an important anchorage. Sailing ships, requiring to round the North Foreland in both directions, needed to await favourable winds before they could continue their journey and the Downs afforded protection against wind and weather. Since the right conditions to continue were sometimes slow in arriving, shipping "lying to" might number several hundred. No doubt a few boatmen living in shacks on the shingle bank were beginning to take advantage of the regularly occurring situation.
At the dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII built his three castles to defend the coast and anchorage. From this time, building on the shingle bank was known accelerated, sometimes interfering with the "plying of the ordenance" from the castles. Deal's importance as a Port grew from this period.
The building of Deal, Walmer and Sandown Castles by Henry VIII afforded a new
haven to shipping. The Downs had truly become a safe refuge, protected from wind weather and enemies alike.
Time was ripe for the Channel "lay-by" to acquire a "Service Station". Soon, the Captain of Deal Castle was
complaining that his line of sight for the ordanance was being obscured by the number of houses being built
on the foreshore. The ships waiting for a change of wind needed fresh provisions.
Boatmen skilled in launching from a shingle beach into rough seas were a necessity.
Deal was coming into its own.
Support for the King's Ships was established and the business of "hovelling" became the full time occupation of the fishermen of Upper Deal. They commenced squatting close to the shore and the town of Lower Deal, three parallel streets, Beach St, Middle St. & Lower St. running from North St. to South St. was born.
During the rule of the Stuarts the King's Buildings were expanded and filled the space between South St. and Deal Castle. All trades that supported the technical side of ship maintenance came to the town. The supply of provisions to waiting ships provided the impetus for a rapid expansion in the intensity of local agriculture. Constant wars with our continental neighbours and the expansion of the East & West India trade fuelled the fires of commerce. More and more boats suitable for use off the steep shingle bank were required. Fitted for speed, strength and seaworthiness, salvage, rescue and supply duties, (also a bit of smuggling), their design was developed from experience and they were built in the town by a skilled core of craftsmen. The largest were the Luggers, up to 30 tons, followed by Cat-boats and gradually decreasing in size down through Galley Punts and Galleys to the smallest, the lowly paddle punts and skiffs.
The peculiarities and dangers of the stretch of water between Deal and the Goodwin Sands also produced a race of very skilled seamen. Their sound training in the Downs fitted them as professional men for the King's Ships and Mercantile Marine. Many, when they had obtained full masters' tickets, came home and served as Pilots through these dangerous waters. Most Deal boatmen and those connected with the beach and fleet supply had special tickets excusing them the vagaries of the vicious Press Gangs.
By 1600 the population had risen to 2,000 and at one time, in Naval ships and Merchantmen, upwards of 35,000 men
were estimated to be stationed in the Downs. No wonder ship to shore trade was becoming brisk.
Here indeed was the reason for Deal's existence. Most of the trade once passing through Sandwich had dried up and the Port of Deal was
considered to rank with Rochester, Portsmouth and Plymouth in importance. The Town of Deal was granted
its own Royal Charter in 1699 and with self government established the Port's expansion continued.
By the time of the Napoleonic Wars, military establishments were well developed in the town : Barracks for troops,
Naval & Military hospitals, the Naval Yard and Telegraph.
These facilities were greatly increased during the war years. During the great troop embarkations there were sometimes as many as eight hundred ships in the Downs. Deal was passing through the peak of her prosperity even though William Cobbett in his travels of 1823 called it a "Villanous Place."
As late as 1847 it is recorded that there were 10 Blacksmiths, 9 Braziers, 32 Bakers, 14 Butchers, 3 Coopers, 3 Breweries together with 3 Ropewalks, 4 Anchor yards, and 2 Chain stores. These of course were backed up by farmers, millers, graziers, market gardeners and slaughterhouses. A pumping station was built to bring in fresh water and some attempts at flood defence were made. Most of the European seafaring nations maintained consulates along Beach Street to report the movements of their shipping back home. With all this trade, leisure and entertainment were not neglected. Hotels, inns, taverns, alehouses and lodging houses, theatres, restaurants, brothels and music halls, carriers and coaches, all proliferated.
This prosperity was not to last for ever. A new application of that great invention, the steam engine, was to toll the death knell for Deal ! Sailing ships were at the mercy of tide and weather. Less so were the new fangled steam powered paddle and screw driven ships. No longer needing to await a change of wind these new ships steamed through the Downs and away. To add insult to injury, steam tugs even towed sailing ships (they lasted through to the 20th century), around the North and South Forelands. Deal had lost its main source of income !
The town worthies cast around for alternative means of support. Sea front clearances were instituted in order that resort style building could take place. New promenades and access to the beach were obtained by compulsory purchases of Beach St. property. With the closure of the Naval Yard, Victoria Town, as it was known, filled the vacant space with elegant villas and hotels more suitable for the new visitors. They were arriving from 1847 by that other new fangled steam powered transport, the railway.
Piers were built, the first of wood did not last long. The Iron Pier of 1864 lasted till 1940, when a
mined ship crashed through it, and what remained of it was destroyed on Government orders. In 1957 the
present concrete pier, funded by the Government, was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh, the only post-war
pier to be built in Britain.
Three lifeboat stations were established, at Kingsdown, Walmer and North Deal. They took on the rescue work that had formerly been carried out by the Deal luggers. Their exploits are well recorded by the Rev. Treanor in his book, "Heroes of the Goodwin Sands."
The boatmen, who had never really fished seriously since the growth of the port, tried working deep sea off Iceland but achieved more success with local spratts, herring & mackerel. The first sardine factories in England were located in Deal. They canned vegetables from local market gardens during the summer months.
The maritime trades slowly declined throughout the town. The tourist trade became the thing. The gentler art
of off shore cruises for the visitors led to changes in the rig of Deal boats. The luggers were the first to go,
followed eventually by all the traditional boat types that had at one time dominated the beach scene.
Deal was growing into the quiet resort that we know today.
The Boer War & Great War saw Deal once more filled with troops. The Naval Battalions were formed at the Depot Royal Marines. The IVth Battalion R.M. trained at Hawksdown and Betteshanger before it carried out the Zeebrugge Raid on St. George's Day 1918. There was a further burst of development to Upper Deal as the Kent Coalfield expanded during the 1920s. The large estates of Trust Houses, built to accommodate miners, filled the space between the railway, up Mill Hill to Salisbury Road. The miners came from all corners of the Kingdom and added many new dialects to local language.
The 2nd World War saw air-raid damage to the old town, some of which was due to shelling from the Pas de Calais. Deal boats maintained their tradition and sailed for the Dunkirk evacuation. Much construction work for the Normandy Invasion took place at nearby Richborough Port.
Since the war many Deal residents have found employment on the cross channel ferries but the Channel Tunnel
has greatly reduced this area. The mines were closed by 1985 and the town's economy, with only light industry,
began to suffer. The Royal Marines School of Music had come home to the R.M.
Depot at Deal in 1950.
After a tragic I.R.A. bombing incident in 1989, they finally left for Portsmouth in 1996 and the barracks,
after 200 years occupation, were closed. They still await full redevelopment.
There has been expansion at the Sandwich factory of Pfizer Ltd. but it appears that Deal has once more to return to attracting new tourist trade as a main source of revenue. Golf, angling, sailing and walking tours to view what remains of our heritage, these, coupled with peace and quiet, seem to be our main attractions.
Copyright, Deal Maritime & Local History Museum, 1999