Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION TWO.
THE PORT OF DOVER
XV. THE WELLINGTON PERIOD.

From 1829, the Duke of Wellington, as Lord Warden,
had been the Chairman of the Harbour Commissioners, but
until after the death of Sir Henry Oxenden in 1838, he usually
deferred to Sir Henry's opinion with regard to new works and
repairs, but after that time the Duke of Wellington definitely
took the lead. Mr. James Walker, C.E., sometime President
of the Institute of Civil Engineers, was then m charge, the
first works taken in hand in 1841 being the continuation of
the quay on the eastern side of the Pent down to the wall
across the bottom, Messrs. Tredwell, of Folkestone, carrying
out the work by contract at a cost of ;^5,ooo. They also
continued the quay 407 feet along the bottom of the Pent,
leaving, near the south-eastern angle, a space for gates 60 feet
wide to communicate with an intended approach to the outer
harbour. These quay walls were carried down 30 feet to
provide for deepening of the Pent bottom.

The Harbour Commissioners moved slowly in dealing
with the improvements of the interior of the harbour, and
in the meantime the funds were accumulating to enable them
to do the work without the intervention of Parliament. Dur-
ing the Lordwardenship of the Duke of Wellington a meeting
of the whole Board was only called once a year, and at the
Harbour Session in November, 1842, it was resolved to en-
large the tidal harbour by taking in the land at the north-east
corner, then covered with warehouses, hotels and dwellings ;
and they gave directions for Mr. Philip Hardwicke to make
a report on the property to be taken, and to Mr. Walker,
to provide plans and specifications for the work. During
the ensuing year those orders were carried out, and at the
Harbour Sessions in 1843 Mr. Hardwicke brought up his
report on the property along both sides of Union Street, and
it was decided that it all should come down with the exception
of the Union Hotel on the side next the Commercial Quay
and Latham's Bank and warehou.ses on the side next the
Basin. The property then ordered to be removed consisted of
the Vork Hotel, which had long been the favourite house
for continental travellers, the Dover Castle Iim, the Duke



13© ANNALS OF DOVEft

of Cumberland Inn, and a whole row of residences (including
the old residence of the Bazelys), which occupied the north
side of Union Street abutting on the Pent. There was also
removed a house overlooking the sea near where the Esplan-
ade Hotel now is, which had been the property of Mr.
William Knocker when he was Mayor and Receiver of
Harbour Rents, but it had been sold to Messrs. Fector.
The fort named Amherst Battery was also removed, and the
North Wall promenade was made on its site in 1850. At a
special meeting of the Harbour Commissioners held at the
residence of the Consulting Engineer, Mr. James Walker, in
London on 4th May, 1844, the tender of Mr. Bray, of Leeds,
was accepted for excavating about five acres to add that much
space to the outer tidal harbour, and to build the necessary
walls and gates for the sum of ^40,10-^, and a tender from
Messrs. Hunter and English for ironwork at ^4,738 was also
accepted. At the same period Mr. H. P. Mackenzie
obtained from the Ordnance Department a contract at ;^3,7oo
to build the Ordnance Quay and Wharehouses on the east side
of the Pent.

The e.KCavation for the enlargement of the harbour
commenced in the summer of 1844, and by January, 1845, the
granite walls in line with the gateway were up. At that
time an abnormally high tide overthrew 60 feet of the wall
and greatly impeded the work. On the occasion of No\ember
Harbour Sessions, 1845, the Commissioners inspected works
under Mr. Bray's contract, which was then making good
progress, there being 250 men employed. The quay walls
were finished about mid-summer 1846, the remaining part
of the work was chiefly the excavation which made the north-
east corner of the outer harbour, adding an area of about
five acres. This was done with great rapidity, about 1,000
tons of mud and earth per day being excavated, and a large
portion of it was deposited between the new work and the
sea, forming a new IS^orthwall promenade. Mr. Bray also
made the great gates between the new work and the Pent
providing the machinery to work them, and he also
erected an iron bridge for public vehicular traffic over <he
opening in Union Road, the ironwork for it being supplied by
Messrs. Hunter and English under their separate contract.
This bridge was finished on the 13th November, 1846, and
was opened on that day by the Duke of ^\'cllington, who
drove over it in his phaeton, and while the guns from the Drop



THE PORT OF DOVER I31

Redoubt fired a salute, the structure was officially named the
" Wellington Bridge."

From the opening of the Wellington Bridge until the
final dissolution of the Board of Warden and Assistants was
but fourteen years, and the Duke of Wellington's Wardenship
terminated with his death nine years before the old order was
changed; but during the whole of the period, up to 1861, all
the important work done at the harbour was but the wincHng
up of the projects, which had been undertaken while the
Duke was at the head of affairs. The finances had been
brought into a satisfactory state by expenditure being kej^t
within the income, and the works left to be finished were
aided by a growing income arising from the revenue from
Passing Tolls having increased to the substantial sum of
;!^io,ooo a year. The trouble about the Harbour Bar had
finally been overcome by the Admiralty Pier in 1850, having
been carried out into the true tide, which permanently kept
the shingle out of the harbour. There was a little anxiety
when the railway opened and threatened to attract part of
the Channel passenger traffic from Dover I>y a new route to
France being opened via., Folkestone Harbour and Boulogne,
but as that entailed very little loss of revenue the Harbour
Commissioners did not feel called upon to spend money to
deepen the Outer Harbour to allow the Channel steamers to
enter and leave at all times of the tide, which it was not
j)ossible for them to do at Folkestone with the accommoda-
tion then existing there. The townspeople, howe\'cr, were
very anxious that Dover should have that advantage over
Folkestone and they formed a company to construct a landing
pier opposite Waterloo Crescent, but that project was so
long in maturing that the building of the Admiralty Pier began
before the landing jetty was commenced, and as it was known
that the Admiralty Pier would be used for landing passengers
as soon as a short length of it had been completed, the sub-
scribers to the Landing Jetty had the pleasure of receiving
back their money.

The other works left to be completed after Bray's con-
tract for enlarging the outer harbour finished were the
strengthening of the Castle Jetty, the construction of groynes in
the bay, the erection of a new swingbridge at the Crosswall,
the construction of a vSli])way at the top of the Pent, and
the dcc[jeiiing of the Pent, together with the coi'Struction of
Northampton Street and the quays alongside it.



132 ANNALS OF DOVER