Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION FIVE.
THE HISTORY OF THE CORPORATION.

III. BOUNDARIES, LIMBS, AND LIBERTIES.

In Saxon and Norman times Dover was a self-contained
Borough, having no outlying limbs and liberties, excepting a
small semi-circle area outside the wards, which had been
the fringe of the Borough from Roman times. That outer
border was within the boundary' of the ancient town, but
outside the limits, which, at a later date, were enclosed by
the walls. Those ancient bounds were ridden, ceremoniously,
once in every seven years.

The following is a statement of the Bounds of Dover as
they existed in the 17th Ed. IV., 1478: — "These are the
metes and bounds of the franchises of the town and port of
Dover (one of the ancient towns of the Liberty of the Cinque
Ports), which they were wont to ride once in seven years,
with the Mayor, Jurats, and certain of the Combarons of the
town, with the voung ])eople of the same, according to the
cu.stom of the town and port of Dover, used and approved
from the time whereof the memory of many is not to the
contrary : —

" From the Market Cross of Dover to Snargate, and
from Snargate down to a low-water mark and as far into the
sea as a man on horse can ride with a .spear and touch
ground. And so from thence to Hound Hyethe by the low-
water mark, and from thence up to Franchise Stone adjoining
the lands of Elphynes. and from thence along the Dyke, and
as the Dyke leadeth down into .St. Nicholas Close, and
through the hither end of the same, and from thence into
the highway leading to Hofam ; and from thence to Rich
Close, and from Rich Close to St. Bartholomew's lands, and
so to the further end of St. Andrew's Close, and from thence
over the King' highway, and so to go through the close of
Highe Adame at the further end next unto St. Bartholomew's
lands, and so over the water down to the Cross and Haithorne
there, and so through the lane to Croches Crosse, and from
Crorhes Crosse to the Castell Crosse, and from thence over
Mayle Hill, along under the Butts there to the Franchise
Stone at the Castle Hill, and from thence alongest above
Hunt's garden and so to the Cliff, and from thence straight



THE HISTORY OF THE CORPORATION 235

down unto the low-water mark and so far into the sea as a
man can ride with a horse and a spear and touch ground,
and from thence along the low-water mark straight against
Snargate, and so unto Snargate, and from Snargate to the
Market Cross again, as the metes and bounds more plainly
appeareth time out of mind, used and accustomed."

Owing to the difficulty of identifying the ancient places
named, and the absence in the directions of the cardinal
points, some portions of the circuit above described are
obscure, which the following outline prepared for the guidance
of the Corporation when making the circuit of the bounds
in 1764 will make a little clearer: — " From Snargate south-
east to low-water mark ; from thence west-south-west to the
hither part of High Cliff, called Hounds Hyethe ; from the
top of High Cliff north-west to the mark stone in the Folke-
stone Road ; from thence west-north-west to the top of
Gorse Hill to the stone at the corner of Maxton Lane ; from
thence north to the West Hougham Road; from thence
west-north-west to Winless Down ; from thence north-east
to the top of St. Bartholomew's Hill; from thence east to
St. Bartholomew's Close sheer-way; from thence east-south-
ea.st to the mark stone on the London Road ; from thence
north-east across the brook up the Sandwich Road to the
stone at Cross Vents ; from thence east to the top of Mayle
Hill; from thence south-south-east through the Castle gate
postern ; from thence south-east along the top of the Castle
ditch by Hunt's garden (now called Shoulder of Mutton
Field) to the Cliff, crossing The Mote Bulwark down to low-
water mark; from thence west-north-west in a right line
with Snargate to where the bounds set off." As the whole
of the Harbour was anciently within the limit where a man
on horseback could touch ground with a spear, it was held
that everything within the old North and South Pier-heads
was within the jurisdiction of the Dover Corporation.

The walls of Dover were not the Borough boundary,
but works of defence erected at points best calculated to
secure the safety of the Town. The first walls of Dover
were, of course, the Castle walls, and the ancient Civil
inhabitants clustered beneath their shelter; but when the
estuary of the River Dour had partially silted up, leaving
habitable land on the seashore, Withred, King of Kent,
provided a Church and dwellings for the Canons of Dover



236 ANNALS OF DOVER,

on the west bank of the river, and, the Civil population
following them, the King built a wall along the shore so
that they might live in peace and security. That was the
first wall of the town of Dover authentically mentioned in
history. The fact is stated by Barrel in the history of Dover
Castle written in the reign of Elizabeth, Darrel having
extracted it from a Castle record now lost. Modern writers
have stated, without any authority at all, that the Romans
built the walls of Dover. To the gate that stood at New
Bridge they have given the name of Servius Gate, and to
the one up Adrian Street, Adrian's Gate; but older records
name the gate at Xew Bridge Boldware Gate, and the one
up A.drian Street, Upwall Gate. The Roman name given
to the gate at Xew Bridge may be disposed of by recalling
the fact that the mouth of the valley was a deep and wide
estuar)' in the Roman Period, and it may also be remarked
that at a time when there were no inhabitants in the valley
a gate on the edge of a cliff, as Upwall Gate was situated,
would not have been built by the Romans.

The Saxon wall along the seashore during a lapse of
about six centuries must have fallen into decay, and when
the French pirates began to be troublesome, in the Thirteenth
Century, it became necessary to rebuild it. It was on that
occa.sion carried over the west branch of the river and con-
tinued a little way down Snargate Street, where old Snargate
was built, nearlv opposite Chapel Street. As there was
alwavs a danger of maurauders landing at Archcliff and
coming over the ^^'estern Heights slopes into the Town, the
wall was then, or a little later, carried roimd the back of
Last Lane, enclosing the lands of .St. Martin-le-Grand, and,
turning east, crossed Biggin Street, and went as far as the
western branch of the river. From that point to as far as
the slopes of Castle Hill the swampy remains of the old
estuary and the eastern branch of the river offered a sufficient
protection, and the wall about 180 yards from Biggin Street
turned southward on the west bank of Westbrook until it
reached Stembrook, where the river passed inside the Town
wall, and the wall continued south until it joined the sea
side wall, so enclosing in its circuit that part of the Town
which was the ancient seat of Municipal government. A
century later the reclamation of land from the sea under the
Western Cliff made it necessary to extend the Town waU



THE HISTORY OF THE CORPORATION 237

from old Snargate further down the shore, to prevent
enemies from landing under the cliff between ^Vellington
Lane and the place where Snargate was built in 1370. Up
to that point the sea still flowed to the foot of the cliff;
and from thence the Town wall was carried up the cliff
for which reason the gate in Adrian Street, which was built
at that time was called Upwall Gate. Houses having

been built on that slope, the wall from Upwall Gate took a
wider sweep westward, enclosing a region then called
" Above Wall," where a new highway was made, coming from
the ford at Wellington Lane, up lower Adrian Street, along
Chapel Place and York Street (then called Priory i-ane) to
the Priory, which was outside the walls.

In the Fourteenth Century, this Town Wall had twelve
gates, all of which were removed at the times here men-
tioned, (i) Butchery Gate, which was a water gate off
Townwall Street, removed in J 819; (2) Servius, otherwis*
lioldware Gate, New Bridge, also a water gate, finally
demolished in 1762; (3) Old Snargate, the ford gate, off
Wellington Lane, superseded in 1370 ; (4) New Snargate
lower down the street, built in 1370 and taken down in
1683; (5) Adrian, otherwise Upwall Gate, removed about
i68o;(6) Cowgate, top of Queen Street, taken down in
1776; (7) St. Martin's Gate, a postern at the rear of St.
Martin's Church '^'ard, disused at the Reformation; (8)
Biggin Gate, owing to its cramping the entrance to the
town it was taken down in 1762; along the return wall by
the river side there were two towers, names doubtful ; (9)
Dolphin Lane Gate over Dolphin I>ane, removed at an
early date, the foundations being found near the Brewery
about 100 years ago; (10) Fisher's Gate, leading from the
lower part of St. James' parish to shipyard below East-
brook ; (ir) Cross Gate, which led to the -sea oi)posite the
Fox Inn; and (12) East Brook Gate leading from the
Eastern Harbour up to St. James' Church. The three
last mentioned gates were removed early in the Tudor
period, but the walls between them remained until the
beginning of the Nineteeth Century. In addition to the two
towers before mentioned, there was a tower named Standfast,
adjoining Butchery Gate, in Townwall Street, which in the
Eighteenth Century was used as a prison, and in the early
Nineteenth Century as a watch-house and police station.



238 ANNALS OF DOVER

The foundations of most of these gates, towers, and con-
necting walls may, in many places, be found underground,
and much of the stonework of these walls may be seen in
modern buildings near where the walls stood. *

Dover's more extended liberties and limbs, as one of the
Cinque ports included the incorporated limbs of Folkestone
and Faversham ; and the unincorporated liberties of Mar-
gate, Birchington, Ville de Wood, St. John's and St.
Peter's, Broadstairs, including nearly the whole of North
Thanet ; also Ringwould and Kingsdown near Dover. In
later years the unincorporated liberty of Margate grew up,
as a sea-side town around St. John's Church and was incor-
porated as a Mimicipal Borough in 1859.



Ihere is a statement as to the walls of Dover in Hammond's
MSS. which agrees with the above, except that it states that the
wall, when it reached the Castle Cliff, was continued north, taking
in St. James's Church and Churchyard, then it passed across the
field at the foot of Castle Hill to the house called Upmarket, and
from thence went across Day Stone and beside St. Mai-y's Church-
yard to Biggin Gate. This latter part of the route has never
been traced by the excavation of the foundations, whereas the
route that gives the wall on the east side crossing the lower part
cf St. James's parish was carefully traced by examination and
excavations in the year 1846 by the Rev. F. A. Giover, Rector of
Charlton, and Mr. William Bachellor, who was then writing his
"History of Dover." Both accounts may have been correct
although relatmg to different periods. Possibly, the north-
western loop was abandoned soon after it was built because the
Castle was a sufficient protection on the north, and the gradual
ehifting of the river bed made it difficult to maintain on the west.



THE HISTORY OF THE CORPORATION 239