Deal Castle

• TR 35 SE 6
• Scheduled Monument

The castle is designed in a double clover-leaf design.

It’s main role was to defended part of the Kent coastline at a time when there was a Catholic threat from France and Spain.

It includes a low circular keep in the centre, six bastions, and a further six built into the curtain walls. The gatehouse was incorporated into one of the bastions on the western side. Surrounded by a wide and deep moat. The entrance was at the second-floor level. Included a portcullis and drawbridge. A well is located beneath the central tower with a double set of stirs located above. Included a furnace required for heating the round shot; and the outer ring of the defences held the main armament.

It includes 5 tiers of gun ports and 145 embrasures (openings for firearms) which resulted in the entire area between the keep and the outer curtain was completely covered by fire.

The cannon were mounted in three tiers

• Roof of the curtain wall
• Bastions of the keep
• The keep itself.

In all 54 handgun loops protected the outer moat, and 30 handgun loops protected the gap between the curtain wall and the keep. Guns were fired from the top of the keep as well as the inner bastions added to it. Included 16 trained gunners.

Here is a timeline for the castle.

1229 –                Deal was part of the Cinque Ports.

1539-40 –          Built by Henry VIII to protect the anchorage between the North and South Foreland of Kent. The castle was designed by Stephen von Haschenperg.

1539 –               June: Workers demanded more pay, but Sir Edward Ryngley refused. Five of the workers were sent to Canterbury Castle as a punishment for not working.

1539-                 Anne of Cleeves was received at the castle by Sir Thomas Cheyney, Warden of the Cinque Ports, and she stayed there before going on to meet Henry VIII.

1540 –               The castle building was completed and accommodated a Captain and 34 Other Ranks. Thomas Wallingford was Captain of the castle.

1541 –               Thomas Boys was Captain of the castle.

1547 –               Was armed with 57 guns.

1569 –               John Baker was Captain of the castle.

1570 –               Around: The outer bastions were filled with earth. Held 17 guns.

1572 –               Peter Hammond was Captain of the castle.

1588 –               Fully garrisoned and placed on alert.

1599 –              Mathew Bredgate was Captain of the castle.

1611 –              Erasmus Finch was Captain of the castle.

1611 –              William Byng was Captain of the castle.

1625 –              Thomas Pulnetby was Captain of the castle.

1643 –               William Batten was Captain of the castle.

1648 –               Thomas Rainsborough was Captain of the castle.

1648 –               Captain Wyne was Captain of the castle.

1648 –               Regimental Major Samuel Kemm was Captain of the castle.

1648 –               Colonal Nathanial Rich was Captain of the castle. A Royalist.

1648 –                 Attacked by Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War.

1648-                  Seized by Royalists.

1653 –               Samuel Taverner was Captain of the castle.

1660 –               William Byng was Captain of the castle.

1661 –               Colonel Silius Titus was Captain of the castle.

1665 –                Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot were at the Castle

1667 –               The Dutch were spotted off the coast – but they turned to the Medway

1671 –               Captain Frances Digby was Captain of the castle.

1672 –               Francis, Lord Hawley was Captain of the castle.

1673 –               Sir John Berry was Captain of the castle.

1690 –               Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Granville was Captain of the castle.

1690 –               Sir Francis Wheeler, Knight, was Captain of the castle.

1692 –               England was hit by an earthquake.

1720’s –            Alterations were made.

1730’s –            The Governor’s Lodgings were built on part of the courtyard and one of the bastions.

1732 –               Smaller crenellations were added making the castle more like a home.

1745 –               John Norris was Captain of the castle.

1777 –               Francis Godolphin Osborne, Marquis of Carmarthen, was Captain of the castle.

1786 –              George Augustus, 9^th Lord North, was Captain of the castle.

18^th C –            Alterations undertaken.

1802 –              Robert Smith, 1^st Baron Carrington, was Captain of the castle. The Governor’s Lodgings were rebuilt. And he spent a lot of money refurbishing them.

1809 –               Deal was one of the locations that a large force left from to prevent the French from getting to and using the port of Antwerp.

1838 –              William Wellesley-Pole, Lord Maryborough, was Captain of the castle.

1843 –              James Andrew Brown Ramsey, Earl of Dalhousie, was Captain of the castle.

1847 –               Richard Charles Francis Meade, Earl of Clanwilliam, was Captain of the castle.

1879 –              John Roberts Townshend, Earl of Sydney, was Captain of the castle.

1890 –                Farrer Herschell, 1st Baron Herschell, was Captain of the castle.

1899 –               Right Honourable Lord George Francis Hamilton, P. C., was Captain of the castle.

19^th C –              Alterations undertaken. Governor’s Lodge was rebuilt.

1923 –               Field Marshall The Earl of Ypres, John French, was Captain of the castle. He died at the site.

1925 –               Field Marshall Lord Allenby was Captain of the castle.

1927 –               Rufus Isaacs, Marquis of Reading, was Captain of the castle.

1941 –               WWII: The Governor’s Lodge structure was destroyed by German bombers. The only damage to the castle. It was rebuilt.

1951 –                Until: The main residence of the Captain of the Cinque Ports. Position of Captain vacant.

1960’s –              The castle opened to the public.

1964 –                 Field Investigation.

1972 –                 General Sir Norman Tailyour, KCB, DSO., was Captain of the castle.

1980 –                 Major General Ian Harrison was Captain of the castle.

1984 –                 Looked after by English Heritage.

1996 –                Scheduling Notification.

20^th C –             The castle was bombed during World War II.

A small castle but a big history, especially as it was one of the towns/castles of the Cinque Ports. This week we will be looking at some of the Charters and information about the Cinque Ports.

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Recommended Reading

             

References & Bibliography

Baskett. J. 1726. A Collection of the Statutes Relating to the Cinque Ports. Baskett.

Brayley. E. W. 1808. The Beauties of England and Wales: or Delineations Topographical, Historical and Descriptive. J. Brittan.

Childs. D. 2009. Tudor Sea Power: The Foundation of Greatness. Pen & Sword.

Gorski. R. 2012. Roles of the Sea in Medieval England. Boydell Press.

Great Britain. Ministry of Public Buildings and Works. Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings. 1984. Deal Castle. Official Guides. Great Britain. Ministry of Public Buildings and Works. Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings.

Harrington. P. 2007. The Castles of Henry VIII. Oxford. Osprey Publishing.

Ingleton. R. D. 2012. Fortress Kent. Casemate Publishers.

Johnson. P. 1992. Castles of England and Wales. Wiedenfeld & Nicholson.

King. D. J. Cathcart. 1991. The Castle in England and Wales: An Interpretative History. Routledge Press

Langmead. D., & Garnaut. C.2001. Encyclopedia of Architectural and Engineering Feats. ABC-CLIO.

Lyon. J. 1813. The History of the Town and Port of Dover and of Dover Castle: With a Short Account of the Cinque Ports. Ledger & Shaw.

Matarasso. F. 1995. The English Castle. Cassell.

Morley. B. M. 1976. Henry VIII and the Development of Coastal Defence. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.

Murray. K. M. E. 1935. The Constitutional History of the Cinque Ports. Manchester University Press.

Paine. L. 2014. The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World. Atlantic Books.

Philpot. J. 16327. John Philpot’s roll of the constables of Dover Castle and Lord Wardens of The Cinque ports 1627. G. Bell & Sons.

Pritchard. S. 1864. The History of Deal, and Its Neighbourhood. Haywood.

Rodger. N. 1996. The Naval Service of the Cinque Ports. The English Historical Review, 111(442), 636-651. Retrieved August 27, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org.rp.nla.gov.au/stable/576912.

Royal Marines – https://royalmarinesheritagetrails.org/history-of-the-royal-marines-in-deal-walmer/.

Saunders. A. 1989. Fortress Britain: Artillery Fortifications in the British Isles and Ireland. Beaufort.

Thompson. M. W. 1987. The Decline of the Castle. Cambridge University Press.

Somerset Fry. P. 1996. Castles of Britain and Ireland. David & Charles.

Sweetinburgh. S. 2006. Mayor Making and Other Ceremonies: Shared Uses of Sacred Space Among the Kentish Cinque Ports. In Paul Trio & Marjan Smet (Eds). The Use and Abuse of Sacred Spaces in Late Medieval Towns. Leuven University Press.

Ward. E. 1916. The Cinque Ports and Their Coastline. The Geographical Teacher, 8(6), 360-374. Retrieved August 27, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org.rp.nla.gov.au/stable/40554510