Spring Lane (Cat and Mutton Lane)

Dover

Kept by the widow Garrison in 1760, it was one of a row of houses which faced a swamp of mud and rushes where might be seen a duck. Charming.

Referred to as the "Cat and Shoulder of Mutton" in the Kent Post of the same year. See below.

I have found reference to a "Shoulder of Mutton," Battery on the cliff edge between the Dover Castle and Castle Hill, overlooking the harbour. mentioned as early as 1851 but building didn't really start till 1871 and completed in 1874. Today the battery is very overgrown but quite well preserved.

and barely a stones throw from the centre of Dover. Not much seems to have been written about this battery. It's situated on the western spur and would have commanded a field of fire across the main inner harbour and along the beach.

Above pictures shows the "Shoulder of Mutton Battery" from a lithograph circa 1900, overlooking the harbour.

At present I do not know where Spring Lane or Shoulder of Mutton Lane was in Dover, but I would suggest with the name of "Spring" in the title it may have been at the base of a cliff where springs occur. Again, I do not know how the Battery shown above got it's name, but putting two and two together and probably making more than four, perhaps the pub was at the bottom of these cliffs at East Cliff. Then again, perhaps the "Shoulder of Mutton Battery" was only called that because if its shape. (Paul Skelton.)

LICENSEE LIST

GARRISON Mrs 1760