Published in the South Kent Gazette, 21 May, 1980.

A PERAMBULATION OF THE TOWN, PORT AND FORTRESS.

PART 80.

“COCKE BREWHOUSE“

In the year 1653, those premises were known as “The Cocke Brewhouse,“ belonging to William and Alice Wellard, who issued a copper token, of which there are some still existing, having in the centre a rose, and round the rose is “Will Wellard at“; and on the back, ‘‘W.W.A., The Cock Inn, Dover.“ (Further details.)

An engraving of the front and reverse of one of the copper tokens issued by William and Alice Wellard, of the old Cock Inn.

The incumbents of Holy Trinity, who at first were styled perpetual curates, the status of Vicar not being given until Holy Trinity Parish was separated from S{ Mary’s, have been: — W. S. Cole, 1835-47; G. G. T. Bar-low, 1847-52; S. Robbins, 1852-54; W. R. L. Bennett, 1854-56; L. B. White, 1856-59; A. T. Woodhouse, 1859-63; H. H. Hammond, 1863-67; E. S. Woods, 1867-85; G. ©arson, 1885-1902; H. H. Daniel, 1902-14; A. H. Collins, 1914-16; E C. Stephens, 1916-22; S. E. Prentis, 1922-30; C. ML P. Heath, 1930-37; J. A. M. Clayson from 1938.

On a Strand Street site later used as a coal yard there once stood the Gun Hotel, in its day well known to cross-Channel travellers. The 1929 alterations removed the northern end of Strand Street from the George Comer to the Barley Mow. Among the buildings that then disappeared was that which, prior to the War, was a Convalescent Home; in its later years managed by a joint Committee of Friendly Societies. A predecessor of this Convalescent Home was founded in 1869, the disused premises of the famous Ship Hotel being its first home.

CELEBRATED SHIP INN

The Ship Hotel was a celebrated hotel at Dover in Napoleonic days. Before the “Lord Warden“ days it was noted for receiving “crowned heads“ and other notable. Marshal Blucher was there in 1814, and when the Duke of Wellington landed here after Waterloo, he was carried to that hotel in triumph on the shoulders of the townsmen. Edward VII, at the age of 16 years, spent a night there. The Ship Hotel was demolished in 1878 to provide a site for Messrs Bradley Bros grain warehouse, but for some years previously it had been transformed into a Convalescent Home. Messrs Bradley Bros other grain store was nearer to the old Custom House, and was built in 1864, on the site of a one time Brewery, that of Messrs Rutley, Coleman and Co, which was purchased and pulled down. An iron bridge crossed the road from the upper floor of this warehouse to the Quayside for the purpose of unloading ships. Another big building on Custom House Quay was Admiralty House (named after the Admiralty Yard, which was there in 1871), the headquarters of the Marine Department of the S.E. and C. Railway.

THE CROSSWALL

Of the Crosswall, in the way of buildings, only the Hotel de Paris survived until recent times, being demolished about 20 years ago. Houses and shops once stood between Strond Street and Elizabeth Street, narrowing Strond Street to a lane, but in 1897 a block of houses and shops opposite the Hotel de Paris was removed. In the days when Dover still had trawlers, there was a wholesale fish market an the quayside, Where in the early mornings, daily, the “catches“ of the fishing boats that put in at Dover were sold by auction. This place was called Crosswall originally when a wall was built across the Tidal Harbour to form a dock, in the year 1661.

The old Pier district, now little but a memory. On the left, still under construction, is the Prince of Wales Pier (completed in 1902) and below it the north and south piers. On the extreme right is the Lord Warden Hotel (now Southern House), the large building in the centre Is Victoria Dwellings and below North Pier can be made out the short spire of St. John’s Mariners’ Church. The clock tower on the left is that of the old Harbour Station, part of which survives.

How the pier district was changed by the construction of the original viaduct over the railway is shown by this picture. St. John’s Mariners' Church and Victoria Dwellings stand in the centre, the old town station is next to the Lord Warden Hotel, Beach Street is shown on the right and, in the foreground is a cluster of properties in the Bulwark Street area. When the picture was taken Seven Star Street Flats, near Beach Street, now demolished, had not been built.

The picture above depicts Lukey’s bonded stores which stood on Custom House Quay near the Hotel de Paris.