Category: British landscape

The Ruined Manor Part II – The Barry Family at Hampton Gay

Posted on by Nigel Williams

I have been photographing the ruined manor at Hampton Gay regularly over the last 20 years or so. Along the way I learned about the history of the manor, and became interested in the story of the family that built it. According to the landed families site the story of the Barry family at Hampton Gay starts with John Barry (d. 1546), a glover and landowner of Eynsham, Oxfordshire. The coat of arms of the Barry family dates back much earlier – to the reign of King Edward II (1307-1327) – but the connection to that time is no longer discernible.

Engraving of the Manor at Hampton Gay by JC Buckler, 1822

Oxford, Sheep and the Manor

The Barry’s fortune and subsequent investment in the Manor at Hampton Gay came from John Barry, who moved to Oxford in 1536. He prospered substantially, becoming Oxford’s leading tax payer and holding the office of Alderman of Oxford, 1537-46 and Mayor 1539-41. In 1544 he purchased the Hampton Gay estate, but died just two years later, leaving some 1,900 sheep in his will.

The estate passed to his eldest son, Laurence Barry (d. 1577) and then to Laurence’s eldest son Vincent (1548?- 1615), who built the manor house. The exact date is not certain, but it probably dates from the 1580s.

Like many other landowners at the time, Vincent Barry enclosed the fields of the parish for sheep farming, which resulted in a revolt amongst the local labourers and farmers and a plot to murder him and his daughter. Barry was warned, and the revolt was thwarted. Several men were arrested and the ringleader was executed.

The Barry Inheritance

After Vincent Barry died it passed to his daughter Katherine and her husband Sir Edward Fenner (d. 1625). The next to inherit the estate was his cousin, Vincent Barry (1628-80) of Thame, Barrister-at-law and Justice of the Peace for Oxfordshire. He followed in turn by his son, also Vincent Barry (1660-1708).

The Sale of The Manor

The Rev. Vincent Barry (1660-1708), was a cleric and graduate of Oriel college, Oxford. He inherited Hampton Gay Manor from his father in 1679. In 1682, he was admitted to the Inner Temple, one of the four Inns of Court. The same year, he sold the Hampton Gay estate, sold the Manor in 1682 to Sir Richard Wenman (1657- 1690), 4th Viscount Wenman. This was possibly in order to provide for his widowed mother and other dependants. He subsequently became the vicar of Fulham. The Barry fortunes would then decline for some generations.

Re-establishment of the Barry family fortune

It was not until the nineteenth century that Sir Francis Tress Barry (1825-1907)re-established the Barry family’s fortune. He established himself in business in Bilboa and made a fortune from open cast copper mining in Portugal. Sir Francis purchased St. Leonard’s Hill, in Windsor, which he used to lend to the Prince of Wales during Royal Ascot. He was involved in various philanthropic projects, including making a Christmas gift of 6d to all the children in the London workhouses and workhouse schools. Sir Francis also owned Keiss Castle in Scotland, where he served as a Deputy Lieutenant of Caithness and financed the excavation of Nybster Broch, an Iron Age drystone structure nearby. Sir Francis had five sons and two daughters.

The following is from his obituary from the Morning Post, March 1st, 1907.

The late Baronet filled the position of British Vice-Consul for the province of Biscay, Spain, in 1846, and was Acting Consul for the provinces of Biscay, Santander, and Guipuzcoa in 1847. In 1854 Mr. Barry was offered by the Earl of Clarendon the appointment of British Consul at Madrid, but was obliged to decline it as he had established himself as a merchant at Bilbao. Returning to England shortly after, he joined his brother-in- law, Mr. James Mason, in the exploitation of the famous San Domingo copper-mines in Portugal, from which time many honours fell to him. He was decorated with the Order of Christ by the King of Portugal in 1863, five years after being raised to the rank of Commander of the same Order. In 1880 he was decorated by the King of Spain with the Cross of Naval Merit (Second Class). He acted as Consul-General in England for Ecuador in 1872. Sir Francis represented Windsor in the Conservative interest from 1890 to 1906. He was created a Baronet in 1899, and also held the Portuguese title of Baron de Barry. Sir Francis is succeeded by his son, Major Edward Arthur Barry, who was born in 1858.

The Barry Baronetcy continues to this day.

The man who returned the Manor

SL Barry Long Crendon Manor
Long Crendon Manor, Where Colonel Barry lived with his second wife (shot on a Nikon F3 in 2023)

The story of the Barry family at Hampton Gay resumes with Stanley Leonard Barry. He was born in 1873, the fifth and youngest son of Sir Francis Tress Barry. Educated at Harrow, he became a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Berks Regiment (Militia) in 1891, and a Lieutenant in the 10th Royal Hussars, in 1894.

According to the Anglo Boer war site Barry served in South Africa in the South African War from 1899-1902 as as a Staff Captain. He was mentioned in despatches and highly decorated – receiving the Queen’s Medal with six clasps, the King’s Medal with two clasps, and the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). He also became a Brevet Major. A brevet was a military commission conferred for outstanding service but without a corresponding increase in pay.

After the South African war he served as Signalling Officer, Deputy Assistant Adjutant General (Intelligence) and Assistant Military Secretary (AMS) to General Sir John French from 1900 to 1906.

During World War One Lieutenant Colonel Barry once again served under Sir John French, now Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France. This time he served as Aide-de-Camp (ADC). He also served in attendance on HRH the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII, and the Duke of Windsor after his abdication), in the early years of the war.

From 1916 Colonel Barry served as Assistant Military Secretary, Home Forces, Horse Guards. He was mentioned in Despatches, made a Member of the Victorian Order (MVO) and a Companion of the Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) in 1915. He was also awarded the Chevalier, Legion of Honour.

After the war Colonel Barry was awarded an OBE, and was promoted to Brevet Colonel. He retired from the army in 1929 and lived in Long Crendon Manor, which was restored by renowned architect Phillip Tilden in 1920/21 under the direction of Colonel Barry’s future second wife.

Return – after 300 years

The Barry Family at hampton gay
The Manor at Hampton Gay, 2021

According the peerage.com, Colonel Barry married twice: Hannah Mary Hainsworth in 1906, and Laline Annette Hohler (formerly Astell) in 1927. His second wife was the widow of fellow WWI veteran and DSO holder Lt-Col. Arthur Preston Hohler, who survived the war but died soon after returning to England in 1919.

Colonel Barry had a daughter from his first marriage, Jeanne Irene Barry (1915-2008), who married the Hon. James McDonnell, the son of the 7th Earl of Antrim, in 1939.

Colonel Barry returned the Manor to the Barry family in 1928 when he purchased it from Wadham College. The family had last owned it 300 years previously, in 1628. The College had purchased it in 1862 for £17,500. It burned down just 15 years later.

The ruins of the manor remained in the Barry family after Colonel Barry died in 1943 but the story of the Barry family at Hampton Gay came to an end when his daughter, by then the Hon. Jeanne McDonnell, sold the ruins in 1975.

Photos of the Ruin

For more photos of the ruin take a look my galleries:

  1. Main Hampton Gay Gallery
  2. Film Gallery
  3. Tilt Shift Lens Gallery


The Other Towns Called Deal

Posted on by Nigel Williams

The well-known seaside town of Deal in Kent is one of my favourite locations anywhere, and one of the most picturesque and enjoyable places on the British coast to visit. I will declare that was raised there and get back to visit as often as I can, so I am not particularly objective. However, many people agree with me, as it has been voted one of the best places to live in Britain. I discovered recently that is it is not the only place with that name and that there are other towns called Deal: a seaside town in the USA with the same name; a village in Transylvania, Romania; two Deal islands, one as far away as Tasmania, and the appearance of quite a few more on the internet.

Town called Deal

The Other Towns Called Deal – and the Internet Confusion

A quick internet search can give the appearance of many places called Deal – one site claims 10. To make the confusion worse the term ‘Deal’ gets confused with all kinds of monetary ‘deals’, financial transactions and card dealing. If that wasn’t enough there is a cryptography term DEAL which stands for Data Encryption Algorithm with Larger blocks, and even an early car named Deal! This post provides a short jaunt to the other Deals around the world and attempts to clear up the internet confusion.

The Other Seaside Deal and its Extra Terrestrial Rock

I haven’t visited any of other towns called Deal, though I have unknowingly been very close to the other seaside Deal in New Jersey, USA many times. For some years I worked for a NJ software company based in Monmouth County and I often visited the seaside at Long Branch, which is the next town on the coast, and only about 5 miles away. If only I had known about the other seaside Deal at the time!

The name of the New Jersey town is derived from the original Deal in Kent, which comes from the Old English ‘dael’ meaning ‘valley’. The modern English word with the same origin is ‘dale’.  A settler, Thomas Whyte, an English carpenter from Deal, acquired land along the shore in the mid 1660s. Like much of the coast in that area, it is a pricey location. The average house price was $1.8m back in 2007, according to Forbes Magazine. There is a man-made lake in the area called Deal Lake, which is one of the largest in New Jersey, occupying 158 acres.

The other reference to Deal, NJ you might find is the Deal meteorite, which fell in 1829. It caused much excitement at the time, being accompanied by a fireball over the town and multiple booms. It is of the L6 chondrite variety, which mainly consists of obscure minerals such as  olivine and hypersthene, and weighs in 28g.

Other towns called Deal Long Branch NJ
Long Branch. About 5 miles from Deal, New Jersey

New Deal, Texas

There is a new New Deal in Texas, with a population was 794 at the 2010 census. This is named after President Roosevelt’s public works program, not our English seaside town, so it’s a red herring. It was originally called Monroe, after a local landowner, but as there was already a town in Texas with the name Monroe City, the U.S. postal department changed the name of the town to avoid confusion.

Transylvanian Deal

Deal is Romanian for ‘hill’ so it is not surprising there is a place of that name in Romania. It’s located in the county of Alba, Transylvania which had a population of 355 in 2011. The Wikipedia page is a stub article that provides very little information except for a translation of the name into other languages. The village has a FaceBook page, which provides some images.

Given it is such a common word, it’s also not surprising to find villages in Romania that incorporate it. There are several villages called După Deal, which according to Google Translate means ‘beyond the hill’. Searching for ‘Deal’ in Romania will also bring up place names that contain the term such as the Dealul Mare wine region.

Far Flung Deal Island, Tasmania

Far from South East Kent is Deal Island, Tasmania, the largest island of the remote Kent Group of islands and some 10,609 miles away! The island lies within the  Kent Group National Park, Tasmania’s northernmost national park and marine reserve.  A visitor in 2018 described it as “an imposing, dramatic landfall…picture a mammoth, granite tooth jutting out of the sea on an otherwise blank horizon.”

According to the same account, the average population of Deal Island for most of the year is just two caretakers, volunteers who stay for 3 months to maintain the heritage buildings, grave-sites, and air strip. The island is largely inaccessible unless you have a yacht and the caretakers are entirely reliant on solar power. At least the caretakers have some wildlife for company, as the island has populations of wallabies and geese.

There is a lighthouse on the island, which was constructed in 1865, decommissioned in 1992 and once the highest lighthouse in the Southern Hemisphere. The original lighthouse keeper’s residence is now a museum.

The reference to Kent sounds like it must be connected to Deal, Kent, but that’s another red herring. The island was named after captain William Kent, an English Royal Navy officer, known for his part in settling the region.

Deal Island, USA and the Skipjacks

Deal Island, USA is in Somerset County, Maryland. The population of the island was 578 at the 2000 census, though it is dropping, whilst shedding land at about six-and-a-half acres a year due to rising seas. The island is known for its skipjacks, single-masted vessels, which were the mainstay of the Chesapeake Bay oyster fleet in the 19th century.

The local oyster harvest reached its peak in 1884 but has declined steadily since, especially since the turn of the 21st century. New skipjacks were built up until the late twentieth century, but a change in the law in 1965 allowed motor powered boats to operate two days a week , and they have been in steady decline ever since. Few skipjacks remain today, but they remain a source of pride on Deal Island, which hosts skipjack races once a year. It sounds like a really interesting place to visit with traditional waterman’s homes, seafood shacks and wildlife such as osprey and pelicans. I would think it would be a great photographic destination. In addition to the boats and wildlife there is old wooden bank building still standing which closed after the crash of 1929!

Unverified Towns called Deal: Idaho, Pennsylvania, The Philippines and South Africa

You can find map references to towns called called Deal elsewhere, typically in very remote locations, but these appear to be automatically generated with nothing to substantiate them. The link I’ve shared here counts Deal, Kent twice, so its clearly unreliable.

There is also a Wikipedia stub article that references a Deal in Pennsylvania, but it provides no details except that it is an unincorporated community that had a post office in the 1880s!

Useful Resources on this Site

My post on the many pleasures of Deal describes some of the best ways to enjoy the English coastal town, which is an ancient place with a rich history. You can read more about that in my article on Deal history and its companion post on Deal’s famous visitors and residents. The most obvious start to Deal photography is at the beach. There are still several working boats to shoot on the shingle beach together with winding gear and plenty of lobster pots. I have put together a gallery of boat shots, all taken on film – you can view them at my boats of Deal, Kent gallery.

Famous Deal Visitors and Residents

Posted on by Nigel Williams

This article describes the most famous residents and visitors to the town of Deal, which includes some of the most notable figures of the last two hundred years.

Deal Kent Pier historic deal visitors
Deal sea front on a stormy day, from the pier

Admiral Nelson

Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, widely regarded as Britain’s greatest military hero, visited Deal when his fleet was anchored in the Downs, the anchorage just off the coast of Deal. The weather must have been inclement as he wrote to Lady Hamilton in 1801 that ‘this is the coldest place on earth, most assuredly’ 

Nelson’s aide-de-camp Captain Edward Parker was severely wounded in a Raid on Boulogne in 1801. The Admiral arranged lodgings for him in Deal so he could recover. Despite the care he received Captain Parker died of his wounds and is buried in the churchyard of St Georges’s Church. His tomb was paid for by Admiral Nelson, who attended the funeral.

Nelson Street (in which I rented a cottage in the summer for many years) was named after the Admiral, as were two Lord Nelson pubs (one in Deal and one in Walmer) and two Deal Luggers (a local boat type) – the Brave Nelson and the Nelson.

Emma, Lady Hamilton, Nelson’s great love, is known to have stayed at the Three Kings in Deal, later the Royal Hotel, where she could watch Nelson’s ships from her window.

Princess Adelaide

Princess Adelaide of Saxe Meiningen stayed at the Royal Hotel after she landed at Deal on her way to marry the future King William IV. There is a large property on the seafront named Adelaide House, and a pub was named in her honour in Church Street Walmer. The pub closed in 1913 and the house is now a private residence. Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, is also named after her.

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill is legendary as a statesman, an orator and the war time leader who rallied Britain from the brink of defeat to victory in WWII. Churchill was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle in 1941 and was guest of the Royal Hotel whilst visiting Dover Castle during the war.

Churchill painted The Beach at Walmer, an oil on canvas, in 1938. The view in the painting is of bathers with one of the Walmer Castle’s cannons in the foreground. He and his family enjoyed bathing in the sea and the beach was one of his favourite subjects to paint. was given as a gift to General Ismay, Churchill’s chief military adviser during WWII. The work was auctioned at Christie’s in 2011 for £313,250.

Churchill was given the freedom of Deal and Dover, in 1951 and visited Deal to inspect the Royal Marines.

LS Lowry

LS Lowry, famous for his distinctive industrial landscapes, visited Deal in 1912. There he sketched a beach scene which he used much to produce a painting called ‘The Beach’ in 1947. The Royal Hotel is recognisable in the work, which was sold at auction by Christie’s for £1.5m in 2006.

The Duke of Wellington

The Duke of Wellington is best known for his victory against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, though his battle record is long and exemplary. He participated in around 60 battles and is regarded as one of the greatest defensive commanders of all time. After his military career he served as Prime Minister twice.

Wellington lived in Walmer Castle in his role as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports until his death at the age of 83 in 1852. Walmer Castle was built as a Tudor Artillery fortress. However, unlike Deal Castle, which kept its squat, brooding profile, Walmer Castle evolved into a comfortable stately home.

The Duke, then Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur Wellesley, also lived in Wellesley House in Walmer just before the Peninsula War of 1807.  The Wellesley Arms in Walmer Castle Road was named after him. The pub finally closed in 1911 and is now a private residence.

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens, the quintessential Victorian author created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters and is still regarded as one of the world’s greatest story tellers. He is not usually considered amongst famous Deal visitors as he is closely associated with the seaside town of Broadstairs, 16 miles awy. He first visited Broadstairs in 1837, and visited frequently for next two decades, writing Bleak House in the house of the same name.

Nevertheless, Dickens did visit Deal in 1847 to attend the celebrations that accompanied the opening of the South East Railway line, of which Deal was the terminus. He stayed in the Swan Inn, in Queen’s Street. This stay is not to be confused with his more well known stay at the Swan Hotel in Stafford, which he referred to as ‘The Dodo’. Deal is mentioned in Bleak House:

At last we came into the narrow streets of Deal, and very gloomy they were upon a raw misty morning. The long flat beach, with its little irregular houses, wooden and brick, and its litter of capstans, and great boats, and sheds, and bare upright poles with tackle and blocks, and loose gravelly waste places overgrown with grass and weeds, wore as dull an appearance as any place I ever saw.

JMW Turner

JMW Turner is perhaps Britain’s most well known painter, famed for his luminous skies and turbulent seascapes. Like Dickens he is not thought of amongst famous Deal visitors and residents as his connection to Margate is better known, especially after the museum bearing his name was opened in 2011.

It is less well known that he also lived in Deal. Turner was eccentric, but also intensely private and reclusive, so when Margate became too popular for his liking he persuaded his landlady and companion Mrs Booth to move with him to Deal, where they bought a two-storey property in Beach Street with views of the English Channel and Goodwin Sands.

Whilst in Deal, Turner found the anonymity he sought and painted four works, Sailing Boat Off Deal, Deal, Off Deal and Deal In A Storm. The latter was painted in 1824 and is owned by Deal Town Council. It shows a dramatic beach scene under a lightening lit sky with boatmen preparing to launch boats for a rescue a ship wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. Whilst he was in Deal he was rowed out to the sands where he watched a cricket match at low water, a tradition that survived until 2003. When he moved to Chelsea in later life he habitually wore a naval greatcoat and was known as ‘The Admiral’ in the area. 

Joseph Lister

The last of our famous Deal visitors is Joseph Lister, the British medical pioneer and father of modern surgery, lived at Park House, The Beach, Walmer. He introduced the use of carbolic acid as an antiseptic, which became widely used in surgery. His work led to a reduction in post-operative infections and made surgery much safer

Lister moved to Walmer after suffering a stroke and died there in 1912, the same year that LS Lowry visited Deal. In 1902 he had been called out of his retirement to oversee the emergency appendix operation for Edward VII. Lister’s antiseptic surgical method was employed by the surgeons and the King survived. Park House now displays a Blue Plaque.

Other Articles about Deal on This Site

The Pubs of Old Deal

The Many Pleasures of Deal, Kent

The Other Towns Called Deal

Deal Kent Photography Opportunities

The Pubs of Old Deal

Posted on by Nigel Williams

The British Pub is world renowned, and for good reason. In towns and villages across the country pubs have played a vital role since our earliest history. Pubs in Deal have played a fascinating variety of roles over the course of the town’s history. It’s a story that is well told in Andrew Sargent’s excellent book ‘Drinking in Deal’. They book, together with the extremely informative The Old Pubs of Deal and Walmer by Steve Glover and Michael Rogers are the main sources for this article.

The pubs of old deal ship inn
The Ship Inn, Middle Street, Deal

Deal Boatmen

Deal was an important port for many years – see the article The Historic Town of Deal on this site for more on this. Accordingly, many of the pubs in Deal, particularly those around Beach Street, were frequented by the Deal Boatmen. Some pubs, such as the Rose and Crown, even had an early license for those boatmen returning home early in the morning. Pubs were places for the boatmen to socialise but also to wait, and in some cases, watch for salvage opportunities and other work. The Fountain and The Napier Tavern, both which were on the seaward side of Beach Street, had look out verandas. Today, The Royal Hotel is the only surviving property on the beach – the others were demolished in 1924 when the road was widened.

In addition to the boatmen, Deal’s pubs were frequented by sailors on shore leave from their ships anchored in the Downs and Royal Marines from the barracks in the town. Occasionally the marines caused trouble in the town and Drinking in Deal provides several accounts of drunken vandalism and disorder. One of the more amusing stories occurred in 1863 when a marine was caught under the bed of the landlord’s daughter in The Deal Hoy. He escaped, only to be apprehended later that day, not far away in The Bowling Green.

Emergency Accommodation – for the Living and The Dead

Deal’s pubs also served as emergency accommodation for shipwrecked or injured sailors. The proximity of the Goodwin Sands meant this was a regular occurrence over the years. In 1702 it was recorded that 400 infirm seamen were being cared for in the town. The Great Storm of 1703 battered the coast for 9 days, during which The Navy lost 387 men on the Restoration, 220 on the Stirling Castle, 387 on the Mary and 269 on the Northumberland.

The Ship Inn was one of the pubs that took in survivors from the steamship Strathclyde which sank in 1876 with the loss of 38 lives.  The Antwerp (now The Bohemian) took in survivors from the Great Storm of 1877 which did a great deal of damage along the Kent coast. Corpses, including those of drowned sailors, were sometimes taken to pubs until the town had its own mortuary around 1890. This was common enough for the coroner of West Kent to complain in 1879 that he had told publicans repeatedly not to receive corpses in their houses as ‘a licensed house was for the living, not the dead’. Inquests were often held in Deal’s pubs until forbidden by law in 1902.   

Multipurpose Establishments

Pubs in Deal had a wide variety of uses. The New Inn doubled as the local excise office between 1840 and 1884; Public Auctions were held at several pubs – most notably The Black Horse, whilst The Rose and Crown acted as a milk collection point as it had early morning license. Military pensions were paid from The White Horse in 1878 and the Deal Fire brigade, along with many other organisations, associations and clubs, used the town’s pubs for meetings and dinners.

Inns and Stabling

The town’s Inns also acted as staging posts for travellers. In Deal, some travellers would come ashore from the Downs and continue their journey by coach and horses to London. The Swan in Queen Street (now Queen Street Tap) had stabling for 20 horses and 6 coaches in 1838, and The Walmer Castle in South Street was a terminus for the coach to London and the mail coach. The Inns and pubs would also house itinerant tradespeople of all kinds.

Smuggler’s Haunts

Deal has a history of smuggling and some pubs were used as receiving houses as well as unofficial stations for the boatmen. In particular, The Fountain, a very old pub of weatherboard construction that stood next to the Royal Hotel on the beach, was reputed to have a strong association with smugglers. According to an article in the East Kent Mercury posted in the Dover Kent Archives “Many a successful run was planned in the bar of the Fountain Hotel and there were secret panels, false stairs and a tunnel all used by the smugglers. The Fountain lost its smuggling association when the activity came to an end in Deal but it became notorious again in 1905 when the licensee was murdered by one of the barmen.”

The same source posts an article from the Kentish Weekly Post in 1813. It describes how two Customs Officers, having seized a boat on the beach with a quantity of smuggled spirits on board, were violently assaulted by a number of smugglers. They emerged from The Port Arms, one of the town’s oldest pubs, which stood on the beach at the time, and carried away the casks.

Disreputable Deal Houses

There were both reputable and disreputable public houses in the town – and Deal had plenty of both. The Jolly Boatman was one of the pubs with a reputation as a ‘receiving house’ used by smugglers but it also provided cheap lodgings to vagrants and itinerant travellers and was something of a doss house. It was squalid enough for an outbreak of Cholera in 1831, and in 1858 a lady apparently fainted from the noxious odious odour of ‘night soil’. Cholera returned in 1866 resulting in five deaths, after which the pub changed its name.

The Sir Sydney Smith was perhaps one of the most notorious pubs of the 1860s after the landlord, Joseph Maxted, managed to secure a 4AM license. According to The Old Pubs of Deal and Walmer; “The pub became quite a den of iniquity, frequented by the most unsavoury characters. In ensuing year, police were called on several occasions to ‘quell riots within’. There were frequent complaints of fighting with obscene and filthy language being used and accusations of a brothel being operated on the premises.” The Park Tavern had a similar reputation with complaints received by the magistrates that women were exposing their breasts to passers-by from their rooms at the tavern. Two years after those complaints were received the landlord was assaulted and threatened with shooting.

The reputation of each public house was highly dependant on the character of the landlord. Henry Edward James Webb took over The Park Tavern in 1876 and built a reputation for an orderly house throughout the 55 years he was landlord there.

What’s in a Name?

Rose Hotel old pubs of Deal Kent
The well faded sign for the Rose Hotel in 2016

Many of the names of Deal’s pubs reflected its strong nautical links. The Deal Cutter, Deal Lugger and Deal Hoy were all named after local boat types. The Walmer Castle was not named after the nearby fortification but an ill-fated Deal Lugger. In a similar vein, there was also an Anchor, Hovelling Boat, Fishing Boat, Boatswain, Lifeboat, Waterman’s Arms and Jolly Sailor.

There were pubs named after Lord Nelson, and fellow Admirals Keppel, Keith, Rodney and Sidney Smith. These naval leaders were most famous for their actions in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars when the town of Deal was booming. Admiral Nelson visited the town during that time and was a frequent visitor to The Three Kings, now The Royal Hotel. Admiral Keppel was also a visitor to the pub that was renamed in his honour in 1778. For more on Nelson and other famous visitors to the town see my post Deal’s Illustrious Residents and Visitors.

Naturally there were also pubs in Deal with names that were common across the country such as The Kings Head, The Black Horse, and The Rose.

‘That Man Made Me Miss My Destiny’

Through Admiral Nelson’s victories against Napoleon Bonaparte are well known, Sidney Smith’s role in his downfall is not so well remembered. In fact, his actions were significant enough that Bonapart said of him: “That man made me miss my destiny”.

Another British military hero, the Duke of Wellington, also had strong links with the town as he resided in Walmer Castle as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The Wellesley Arms was named after him. It seems fitting that John Ferris, another old soldier, who took over the pub in 1867, was a veteran of the Charge of the Light Brigade of 1854. Much later, during WWII, both Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower would be visitors to The Royal Hotel.

Pub Signs with a Story

Pub names became compulsory in 1393 during the reign of Richard II along with the requirement to hang a sign outside. Given the low level of literacy of their customers, Publicans initially opted for signs that were easy to recognise such as a crown or bull. By way of contrast, the New Inn, was applied liberally to new establishments making it hard to determine the history of the old pub of that name in Deal High Street.

Many of the signs for pubs in Deal and Walmer were painted by Bill Pearce, Charrington’s artist. These included signs for The Rose Hotel (pictured here), The Walmer Castle and The Drum Major.

The rose shown on the sign for the Rose Hotel is of a Noisette rose, which was brought to this country from France by the Rev. Henry Honeywood D’Ombrain, the first vicar of St. George’s Church which is adjacent to The Rose Hotel. He was instituted as the Vicar in 1852. A well known plant breeder, his work was noticed by Darwin, with whom he corresponded.  Darwin quotes D’Ombrain’s findings in his The variation of animals and plants under domestication of 1863.

The Walmer Castle was named after a Lugger of the same name, which was lost with all hands off the Isle of Wight in 1892. The ill-fated boat, shown on the pub sign throughout the 1970s, was previously named The Petrel. She had been renamed and refitted after she was found drifting and full of water off Brixam, in an incident where four Walmer boats were lost. Among those drowned in the second tragedy were the skipper and owner, Henry Axon, who had missed the previous disaster having left the Lugger to act as pilot for another boat.

The Many Pubs of Deal

When I was growing up in Deal in the 1980s it was still the habit of much of the town to go to the pub every Friday and Saturday night. My friends and I made a selection each weekend from a circuit of pubs: The Kings Head and Port Arms on the seafront; The Black Horse, New Inn and The Rose on the High Street, or The Walmer Castle in South Street. Occasionally we’d diversify and visit The Pelican, Clarendon Hotel or Pier Hotel – all of which were on the sea front. If we were in Walmer it would be The Lifeboat, The Stag or Lord Nelson.

We had a lot of choice as there were still a great many pubs in the town. I was told the apocryphal story that that there was once a pub in Deal for every day of the year, and there were still enough pubs in town that I believed it. Research shows this to be an exaggeration; according to Drinking in Deal, at its peak in 1871 Deal had 79 Public Houses and 16 Beer Houses, which is still a large number for a population of around 8,000 souls at the time.

This is confirmed by Victorian ‘density indicators’, which were based on the size of the population and the number of licensed houses. In 1899 Deal’s was 1,057, far higher than the nearby coastal towns of Dover (646), Ramsgate (615) or Folkestone (556).

The Rise and Fall of the Beer House

Part of the growth in Pub numbers in Deal can be accounted for by the new Beer Houses that were a result of the 1830 Beerhouse Act. This allowed a ratepayer to brew or sell beer on or off the premises for a payment of two guineas to the Excise. These houses were not permitted to sell wine or spirits but were also not under the control of the magistrates.

The Act was intended to increase the availability of beer so that the the population might be weaned off stronger alcoholic drinks such as gin, which had established an evil reputation in the previous century during the gin craze. The act resulted in the opening of thousands of new drinking establishments and many new breweries throughout the country. The Saracen’s Head in Alfred Square started as a beer house, as did The Prince Albert across the road and The Railway Tavern near Deal Station.  Before the act Deal had had 39 Public Houses. 

In 1869 new legislation brought the licensing of new beer houses under the control of the magistrates and many became Public Houses. Some never made the transition. The Deal Lugger was refused a license in 1867 and 1869 and remained a beer house until it closed.  

Lost Pubs and Survivors

Deal has lost many of its old pubs – but many wonderful establishments remain. My favourites, in no particular order, are the Deal Hoy, The Kings Head, The Royal Hotel and The Ship. In nearby Walmer I am fond of The Freed Man, and just along the coast in Kingsdown The Zetland Arms is always a pleasure to visit.

When I first wrote this post during the lockdown of 2020, the pubs of Deal, like those throughout the rest of the country, were closed due to the Corona Virus. However, the culture of Britain’s pubs is inextricably linked with our tradition of resilience and the old houses mentioned have survived, just as they have through all the other turbulence of their long histories.

More About Deal on this Site

There are more articles and several black and white photography galleries featuring Deal on this site:

Web Sites For Deal Pubs

The History of Deal, Kent

Posted on by Nigel Williams
History of Deal
The view from Deal Pier, January 2022

The history of Deal is unique in that the town was once a port without a harbour.  Central to Deal’s history is the sheltered anchorage, known as The Downs, which lies between the Deal shoreline and the notorious ‘ship swallower’ the Goodwin Sands, which acts as a breakwater for ships in the channel.  Hundreds of ships could be anchored in The Downs at once, sometimes remaining for weeks at a time. Whilst at anchor, the ships required provisions that were supplied from Deal and the town became a thriving port.

Three Castles and a Duke

By the time of Henry VIII the importance of the Downs made the coastline worthy of protection. There is a Tudor artillery fortress at Deal (constructed 1539–40). Another is close by at Walmer. This evolved into a stately home where the Duke of Wellington stayed in his role as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports until his death at the age of 83 in 1852. The Duke, then Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur Wellesley, also lived in Wellesley House in Walmer just before the Peninsula War of 1807. A third castle at nearby Sandown was lost to the sea.

A Major Port

Deal gained special status in the 12th century when it was granted a Royal Charter as part of the confederation of five ports (The Cinque Ports). The confederation provided the crown with ships as required in return for exemption from tax and tolls.

Unlike nearby Sandwich, which lost its status due to changes in the coastline, Deal retained its strategic importance. In the eighteenth century the town was still one of the four great ports of England, along with Portsmouth, Rochester and Plymouth.

Smuggling, Hovelling and Heroism

Farrier Street in the Historic Town of Deal
Farrier Street, Deal

Amongst this maritime activity was extensive smuggling.  Deal’s smuggling activities were so notorious that Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger had the town’s Luggers burned on the beach. Smuggling soon resumed however, with the support of at least some of the community. In 1801 smugglers were aided by a local mob who attacked the revenue men when they forced a lugger onto Deal beach.

The author of a Lloyd’s report in 1869 observed: “Deal might have been built for smuggling … The streets run parallel to the beach, and close to it, and are connected by numerous narrow alleys, out of which open doors leading into yards and sheds. The beach extends some miles, and at various parts of it, on the shingle itself, stand roomy wooden sheds, belonging to the boatmen. The cargoes of a whole fleet of ships, once landed on the beach, might be so effectually disposed of in these yards and sheds, in a few hours, that not a trace of them would remain.“

The Deal Lugger

The Luggers, which weighed up to 30 tons, were two masted and could be launched from Deal’s steep shingle banks. They were designed and built by skilled craftsmen for speed, strength and seaworthiness, and were the fore runners of the lifeboats.

Operating Luggers was hazardous. In The Last of Our Luggers and the Men who Sailed in Them (1929), E.C. Pain describes the loss of the Deal Lugger Fawn, run down by a steamer in 1864; Topsy, sunk by a French vessel in 1868, Reform, dashed against the pier in 1871, Walmer Castle, which foundered off Ventnor in 1892, and the Earl of Zetland which had the same fate in 1860. Pubs in Deal and Kingsdown respectively were named after the last two boats. Luggers fell out of use with the disappearance of sailing ships from the Downs at the end of the nineteenth century, the last, according to Pain, being the Cosmopolite which finished as a relic on Walmer beach.

There is still an example of a later, smaller, design based on the Lugger on the beach at Deal. The Lady Irene was built in 1906 as a trip boat to take holiday-makers on short trips out to sea.  

Painting boat, Lady Irene historic town of Deal Beach Kent
Lady Irene undergoing maintenance on Deal beach in 2017

Deal’s boatmen used their Luggers for salvage and to rescue shipwreck victims as well as for smuggling, and were known for their fearless seamanship. Accordingly, the boatmen, whose work was known as ‘hovelling’ developed a reputation for both villainy and heroism simultaneously.

In 1858 the Collector of Customs at Deal asserted that ‘this place has long been notorious for the lawless character of persons who flock by hundreds to disasters merely for the sake of plunder.’ However the author of Our Sea Coast Heroes, published in the 1880s, had an entirely different perspective: ‘The race of boatmen now existing at Deal has never been surpassed for those generous qualities which have rendered their forefathers famous…. There is no danger to themselves which they do not habitually incur in their endeavours to save life or property. They are indeed a race of heroes who go forth on their mission of mercy with their lives in their hands.’

You can find a list of Deal Lugger Rescues on the Skardon’s World website.

The Lifeboat Station

Because of the difficulties in reaching ships wrecked on the Goodwin Sands there were several lifeboats stationed along the coast. The Walmer station was established in 1856, followed by North Deal, which closed in the 1930s when Walmer received a motor boat, and Kingsdown. Only Walmer is still operational.

The Walmer lifeboat Charles Dibdin (ON 762) was one of 19 lifeboats which took part in the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. She was manned by a naval crew, and no details are known about the trip, but she came back decorated with holes in both sides. Since 1856 Walmer crews have received 28 awards for gallantry.

The Naval Yard and Timeball Tower

Time ball Tower historic town Deal Kent
The Timeball Tower

A naval yard was built in Deal in 1672. This provided for the ships anchored in the Downs. Over time, this grew to several acres in size. It was not a dockyard as Deal offered no dock, so small supply boats were kept at the yard, which remained an important part of the town until it closed in 1864.

Deal has one of only seven surviving timeballs in the UK. The Timeball Tower is four-storeys high and stood at the entrance of the Naval Yard. The ball fell at precisely 1 PM each day, triggered by an electrical signal from the Royal Observatory. This allowed the ships’ marine chronometers to be checked or reset, which was vital for accurate navigation. The tower stands on the site of an earlier Shutter Telegraph and Semaphore station, used for the suppression of Smuggling.

In 1805 news of victory at Trafalgar, where the Royal Navy annihilated the greatest threat to British security for 200 years, and the death of Britain’s greatest war hero, arrived in Deal by schooner. It was subsequently transmitted to the Admiralty in London from the Deal telegraph station.

Nelson visited Deal whilst his fleet was at anchor in the Downs. Nelson Street (in which I rented a cottage in the summer for many years) was named after the Admiral, as were two Lord Nelson pubs (one in Deal and one in Walmer) and two Deal Luggers – the Brave Nelson and the Nelson.

A High Density of Pubs

The history of Deal actually started a mile or so inland from the coast, in an area now known as Upper Deal, where the ancient Parish church of St. Leonard’s stands with its distinctive cupola, once a landmark to shipping. In the seventeenth century development shifted closer to the beach in Lower Deal along the three streets that run parallel to the shore – Beach, Middle Street and Lower Street (now the High Street). There are numerous narrow streets and alleys that cross these three main streets, such as Farrier street in the shot above. These were ideal for taking smuggled goods quickly from boats on the beach down into the town.

At one time these narrow streets also contained a very large number of pubs. At its peak in 1871 the town had 79 Public Houses and 16 Beer Houses for a population of around 8,000 people. The Victorians recorded ‘density indicators’ based on the size of the population and the number of licensed houses. In 1899 Deal’s was 1,057, far higher than nearby Dover (646), Ramsgate (615) or Folkestone (556). See the post The Pubs of Old Deal for more on this subject.

Deal – Garrison Town

Deal was a garrison town for over two hundred years. A cavalry barracks for the 15th Light Dragoons built in 1793 was expanded to accommodate infantry before becoming home to the Royal Marines in 1869 where they remained until 1996. The last unit to leave, preceded by 41 Commando, was the Royal Marines School of Music, which had moved to Deal in 1930. The school relocated to Portsmouth, where it remains today.

In 1989 part of the Royal Marines School of Music was bombed by the IRA resulting in the deaths of 11 musicians, and 22 injuries. There is a memorial bandstand on Walmer Green where concerts are still regularly played in the summer months.

Deal – Mining Town

Coal was first discovered in Kent as part of excavations to build a Channel tunnel in the late 19th century, though the first commercial coal was not mined until 1912. Numerous bore holes were drilled resulting in collieries at Betteshanger, Chislet, Snowdown and Tilmanstone. In the late 1920s farmland on the outskirts of Deal at Mill Hill was acquired to build housing for the miners. Mill Hill remained a vibrant mining community until the pits were closed. Betteshanger, where my stepfather worked for 23 years, was the last colliery in Kent to close in 1989, just a year short of the centenary of the discovery of coal in the area.

Boom and Bust

Deal has enjoyed and endured periods of boom and bust over the centuries. It was booming during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars but declined as a port afterwards, leading to William Cobbet’s harsh commentary on the ‘villainous place’ in 1823. The town started to attract more visitors after 1847 when the railway arrived. Charles Dickens attended the celebrations that accompanied the opening of the South East Railway line, of which Deal was the terminus. The town also benefited from the late Victorian growth in seaside holidays, particularly after the 1871 Bank Holiday Act which was accompanied by a rise in disposable income for much of the population.

Boats and Angling

Morning Haze historic town of Deal
Morning Haze on Deal Beach

Deal ceased to be classified as a port in 1881, but became popular for angling. In October 1957, 11,000 anglers attended the first National Angling Festival for 18 years. Events like these continued to be popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s and the town had several tackle shops for the anglers. There were also had many fishing boats on the beach, some of which were available for charter to fisherman or divers who wanted to explore the wrecks on the Goodwin Sands.

These boats started to disappear as government requirements for licensing and equipment became more stringent and there are few working boats on the beach today. I’ve been photographing boats like FE 371 ‘Denise’, DR 28 ‘Morning Haze’, DR 110 ‘Moss Rose’, DR 181 ‘Fair Port’ and the old Deal Trip boat ‘Lady Irene’ for many years. The letters identify the port of origin and are typically DR for Dover, FE for Folkestone or R for Ramsgate. Some of these (like Denise for example) are potters and and are surrounded by lobster pots. You can find photographs of them in the Deal Gallery

Seaside Town

Today it is a highly rated seaside resort with many boutiques, bars and restaurants. The seafront and the conservation area, centred on Middle Street, are both particularly attractive. See my post on The Many Pleasures of Deal for ideas.

Deal Pier

One of Deal’s most notable seaside attractions is the pier. The first was of wooden construction. This was never completed and was destroyed in a gale in 1857. It it was replaced by an iron pier in 1864 which was severely damaged by a drifting ship which had been hit by a mine in 1940 and demolished in 1943.

The current pier, the last intact leisure pier in Kent, was opened in 1957 and is made of reinforced concrete. It was opened by Prince Philip, who remarked that he had a link with the town due to his involvement in the rescue the pier master. The Pier Master, Captain Arthur Vyvyan Harris, had been in a tanker blown up by a mine in 1943 and the-then Lieutenant Philip had helped him up the scramble nets.

The pier provides an excellent view of Deal seafront, as well as the coast from Thanet in the North to St Margaret’s bay in the South. The pier is internationally recognised as an angling venue and features a glass-walled café-bar at the end of the pier.

More on the History of Deal

If you would like to read more about the history of Deal check out the articles on Deal’s famous residents and visitors, or The Pubs of Old Deal There is also a some historical interest in the article The Other Towns Called Deal.

More on Deal on this Website

If you are thinking of visiting, take a look at my post on the top ten attractions the town has to offer – or check out the three black and white photography galleries on this site: Deal Gallery, Deal Gallery 2 and Boats of Deal (film). If you are photographer, Deal Kent Photography Opportunities might give you some ideas. If you are a traveller, you might like to review The Other Towns Called Deal.

The Ruined Manor in the Lost Village of Hampton Gay

Posted on by Nigel Williams
Hampton Gay Manor

The village of Hampton Gay has largely disappeared, leaving only an isolated church and the picturesque ruins of an Elizabethan manor house. The remaining inhabitants reside in the farmhouse and cottages that line the last few yards of single track road; a mile long, single track spur that connects to the road from nearby Hampton Poyle and Bletchingdon.  Once you pass though the pedestrian gate into the fields you can see the outlines of where Saxon dwellings once were from the humps in the grass.

Finding Hampton Gay

Hampton Gay is an ancient spot and much of the surrounding farmland on the nearby circular walk undulates as a result of the use of the mould-board plough in medieval times.  The best way to see it is to walk from Thrupp, a small village just north of Kidlington, and along the canal to Shipton-on-Cherwell.  There you turn right across a bridge over the river Cherwell and arrive at Hampton Gay after a few minutes walk. It can also be reached by on a circular walk from the excellent Bell pub in Hampton Poyle.

By car you’ll need to take the single-track spur road. There are a few passing places but there is a blind bend just past Willowbrook Farm, so please drive slowly and carefully.

Map of Hampton Gay 1833, Ordnance Survey
A 19th Century Ordnance Survey Map showing Hampton Gay and Hampton Poyle

I’ve been visiting and photographing the ruin for many years with all kinds of cameras; a 1916 Kodak, a Rolleiflex 3.5F, a Leica M3 and late model film cameras such as the Nikon F6 and Hasselblad 203FE, as well as one or two digital models. The aspect of the ruins changes greatly according to the season and the light, which makes it well worth a return visit. You can find my photography galleries from those visits at the links below.  Most of the shots are in the main gallery with smaller selections in the following two.   

  1. Main Hampton Gay Gallery
  2. Film Gallery
  3. Tilt Shift Lens Gallery

Village origins

The de Gay family were tenants of the two estates in Hampton Gay in the 12th and 13th centuries – the village name combines their surname with the Old English for a village or farm.  The de Gays donated and sold land from the estate to various religious orders including the ill-fated Knights Templars, the Abbey of Osney, just outside Oxford’s west gate, and the Convent at Godstow.

The manor house at Hampton Gay

All the land owned by religious orders at Hampton Gay were forfeited after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  The crown sold the land into private ownership and in 1544 it was purchased by John Barry, a wealthy glover turned sheep farmer from Eynesham.  After John died, the manor passed to his son Laurence and then to his grandson Vincent, who built the Manor – probably in the 1580s. In 1682 the Barrys mortgaged the manor and then sold it to Sir Richard Wenman of Caswell and in 1691 his widow Katherine sold the manor to William Hindes.  The story of the Barry family at Hampton Gay from the the 16th to the 20th century is an interesting one that I’ve researched. You can read their story here.

Engraving by JC Buckler

The Manor remained in the Hindes family until until 1798. It changed hands again in 1809 and 1849, and in 1862 was bought by Wadham College, Oxford. The full list of owners over the years can be found here.

The Manor House was constructed to the classic Elizabethan E-shaped plan with gabled wings and a crenellated central porch.  The vertical line of the E was the main hall, and the horizontal end lines the kitchens and living rooms. The  central line was the entry porch.

As late as 1870, the building was still largely original including oak panelling, though it had been neglected. By 1809 it was reported to be a ‘Gothic manor’ in a neglected state and in 1880s the house was divided into two tenements which were jointly occupied by a farmer and Messrs. J. and B. New, paper manufacturers.

The Fire at the Manor

In 1887 it was gutted by fire and has never been restored.  

Some images of the manor before the fire survive. The architect John Chessell Buckler (1793-1894) recorded many historic buildings in great detail, especially in Oxford and Oxfordshire. This included a fine drawing of the Manor at Hampton Gay in 1822 The original is now in the Bodleian Library. There is also a steel engraving by Joseph Skelton in Skelton’s Oxfordshire.

Return of the Barrys

The manor returned to the Barry family in 1928 when Wadham college sold the ruin to Colonel S.L. Barry of Long Crendon, a descendant of the Barrys who built it. Colonel Barry (1873-1943) was a highly decorated soldier who served in the Boer War and World War One. His military appointments and civil posts included membership of His Majesty’s Bodyguard and The Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Justice of the Peace for Buckinghamshire, High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire and Lord of the Manor of Long Crendon, Bucks, and Hampton Gay, Oxon. Colonel Barry’s papers (now deposited at the Oxford History Centre) reveal that during the 1920s and 1930s he compiled research notes, photographs and transcribed deeds, covering the history of the manor and its ownership.

Two mills and three fires

There has been water mill at Hampton Gay on the River Cherwell since the 13th century.  It was a grain mill until 1681 when it was converted into a paper mill. The nineteenth century was a particularly eventful time for the mill.

Ruined Manor at Hampton Gay

In 1812 continuous paper making equipment was installed. Between 1863 and 1873 it underwent reconstruction, but two years after that work was completed it was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt and then re-roofed in 1876. By 1880 it had both a water wheel powered by the river and a steam engine and was capable of producing a ton of paper per day.  It closed in 1887 after a second fire.  That same year, a third fire consumed the manor house. After the fire at the manor, the owners sold the mill and its remaining stock to pay the rent. Some time after 1887 it was demolished. Some remains and waterways still remain.

The train crash

There were rumours that the manor was deliberately burned down for the insurance. More imaginatively, others claimed it was the result of a curse related to one of the worst train accidents to take place on the Great Western Railway.  On Christmas Eve 1874, a Great Western express train from Paddington was derailed on the nearby Cherwell line.  Thirty-four people died in the accident and sixty-nine were injured.

Among those coming to the aid of the victims was Sir Randolph Churchill, father of Sir Winston, from nearby Blenheim Palace. The paper mill was used as a temporary mortuary, and the church a refuge against the bitter cold until a train arrived to take the injured to the Radcliffe Infirmary and the other survivors to Oxford hotels.  According to the story, the residents of the manor house refused shelter to the victims and the curse was retribution for this.

The inquest

Hampton Gay Manor House was used to hold the inquest which opened two days after the accident. The bodies of the accident victims were held at the paper mill for identification and the wreckage was also examined. After the inquiry moved to Oxford the inquest found a tyre failure and braking problems to be the cause.

The agrarian revolt

Hampton Gay is known for its villager’s part in the unsucessful agrarian, or Oxfordshire rising, rising of 1596.   The Barrys enclosed land at Hampton Gay for sheep pasture. The villagers, unable to till the land for their own produce, faced starvation and many joined a revolt.  The plan was for the villagers to come together to murder Barry and his daughter, but this was foiled when the village carpenter turned informant.  One of the ringleaders from the village received the barbaric sentence of being hanged, drawn and quartered.  Subsequently, the Government recognised the cause of the rebels’ grievance and the Tillage Act of 1597 enabled the land to be ploughed and cultivated once again.

The church of St. Giles

The church of St. Giles now stands in picturesque isolation not far from the ruin of the manor house. It has never had electricity and is lit by candle light.  Evidence of its existence dates to 1074 and it was granted to Oseney Abbey by the de Gay family about century later.

Hampton Gay Manor
The Church of St. Giles

By the time of the dissolution it fallen into disrepair after which it became a free chapel, funded by the owners of the Manor.   It was completely rebuilt in the eighteenth century in Georgian style by the owners and re-modelled in the nineteenth century using the Early English Gothic and Norman revival styles.  Nothing remains of the medieval building  except the cross on one of the gables and the reused battlements of the square tower.  One of St. Giles’ two bells is from the mid-13th-century and is one of the oldest in the country.

Fluctuating fortunes

Hampton Gay’s population has fluctuated over the years in line with its fortunes.  In the fourteenth century it had between nine and twelve taxpayers.  In the fifteenth century it was exempted from taxation because there were fewer than ten resident householders.  The Compton Census recorded twenty-eight adults in 1676.   The population increased during the late 18th century – in 1811 there were seventeen families crowded into thirteen houses. The peak was reached in 1821, with eighty-six inhabitants, After the fire and mill closure in 1887 the population fell to thirty and by 1955 there were only fourteen parishioners.  Hampton Gay ceased to be a separate civil parish in 1932 when it was merged with Hampton Poyle.

A strange occurrence

I updated this article, adding the Hampton Gay photo gallery, in June 2020.  That week I came across a post that mentions a photographer observing something out of the ordinary at the ruin.  I found that was curious and a little spooky, as I had seen exactly the same thing a few days previously, but never before.  It was a heavy piece of black cloth, like a curtain, hanging from a second floor window and moving in the wind.  It was only in view for a few seconds and I wasn’t able to photograph it, though the other photographer did.  The black cloth later revealed itself to be a tarpaulin.

Renovation attempts

There have been several proposals to renovate the Manor.  The earliest of these came in 1901 from the distinguished architect T.G. Jackson, famous for his remodelling of Victorian Oxford and whose work includes the iconic Bridge of Sighs.

In 1975 Jiri Fenton, of Oxford University’s department of experimental psychology, purchased the building from Colonel Barry’s daughter. His intention was to restore the Manor as a thank you to the nation for providing him a home when he fled the Nazis in 1939.  His attempts failed due to “crippling inflation and Government red tape”, according to the Oxford Mail.

The Manor with English Longhorn 2022, showing the fallen chimney

In 2010 Christopher Buxton, whose company Period and Country Houses restored and sub-divided English country houses, submitted plans to create a five-bedroom home within a concrete envelope that would support the original walls.  He had also submitted plans four years previously, but neither plans proceeded.  

2023/2024 Restoration

The winter of 2021 saw a noticeable decline in the fabric of the Manor with the large chimney stack on the West side of the building falling some time between late January and early April 2022. However, on a visit in May 2023 I observed scaffolding being erected and over the course of 2023 much work was done to stabilise the ruins. At my last visit in March 2024 the scaffolding was gone and the building was back to its ruined splendour.

The surroundings are also changing, with renovation of one of the old outbuildings and construction of new stone buildings. The work has been done sensitively and looks to be of a high standard but the surroundings of the manor no longer have the aspect of deserted parkland they once had.

Hampton Gay Today

The village of Hampton Gay is enjoying a resurgence in traditional (organic and natural) small scale farming.   Manor Farm (whose ownership includes the ruins) and Willowbrook Farm are both passionate advocates for this and their efforts have boosted the population of the hamlet. 

The Manor in March 2024

Manor Farm keeps a herd of English Longhorns who graze in the fields adjacent to the manor and sometimes on the banks of the Cherwell. Though the large curved horns that frame their faces make them look fearsome they are actually rather docile. The breed has a fascinating history. It became endangered until rescued in 1980 by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Since then, Longhorns have made a dramatic, and welcome, comeback. 

Hampton Gay remains one of the most picturesque spots in Oxfordshire, set in a landscape that is ideal for country walks.  The Bell in the nearby village of Hampton Poyle is an excellent hostelry to stop at for food en route or afterwards. There are three circular walks from The Bell, one of which goes to Hampton Gay. The walk is described as a ‘stroll across the meadows to an isolated church and ruined 16th-century manor house.’ and takes about 2 hours.

Brill Windmill

Posted on by Nigel Williams
Brill Windmill
Brill Windmill at dusk, with one of the dexter herd on the skyline

Brill windmill is well known to photographers all over Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire; the hill-top site is also a popular spot for walkers, cyclists and picnickers. To reach the village of Brill requires a climb up a steep hill about 4 miles from Long Crendon and 7 miles from Bicester. At 190 metres above sea level, it’s the highest vantage point for miles around and provides excellent views over the Vale of Aylesbury below.  Brill windmill and the the undulating rough ground where the clay was once worked make it a unique spot. On a windy day it’s an ideal location for long exposure shooting and sunsets from Brill Hill make for a popular spectacle. You can find a gallery of my black and white pictures of Brill here.

Brill – A Rich History

Edward the Confessor had a hunting-lodge adjacent to it; Henry II. kept his court here in 1160, attended by Becket, and again in 1162; King John spent his Christmas here in 1205; Henry III. held his court here in 1224; and Sir G. Gerard, under Charles I., placed a force here in 1642, and repelled an attack by Hampden. The parish comprises 2,600 acres. Real property, £5,873. Pop., 1,432. Houses, 324. The property is much subdivided. The manor was given by the Conqueror to Nigel the huntsman, and has descended from him to Sir T. D. Aubrey, Bart. Stone is quarried; yellow ochre is found; and clay has been worked into pottery here since the time of the Romans, but ceases to be in request. A chalybeate spring in the immediate neighbourhood of the village has some medicinal repute; and a hotel stands adjacent to it for the accommodation of visitors. A grove near the village is probably a relic of Bernwood forest. 

John Marius Wilson’s Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, 1870-72
Brill Windmill
Brill Windmill and undulating ground of the Common

Brill Landscape

“There are fine exhilarating, panoramic views out from the hills. Several large farms are situated on prominent areas of the steep hillsides one of the most notable is Chilton Park. The common land, unimproved grassland and other patches of rough ground add to the sense of a landscape with strong historic associations, which has been left relatively unchanged for centuries.” This fine description of the landscape around Brill is from the Aylesbury Vale Landscape Character Assessment, but the views are so good, it barely does the place justice.

Village Origins

The combination of its hilltop location, good soil and the presence of springs have made Brill an attractive location from the earliest times and it has been occupied since the Iron Age. Even the origin of the name of the village is ancient as it includes both the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic words for hill (Bre-hyll). Surviving Celtic place names are less common in the South of England than they are further North. In the reign of Edward the Confessor the village was known as Bruhella.

Brill Windmill (Film, Nikon F6)

Clay, Pottery and Bricks

Brill is best known for its old post-mill and the clay pits that were dug for the production of pottery and Brill bricks.   The clay pits were in use from Roman times until the last bricks were produced in the 1920s, which is also when the windmill closed as a business. Many of the older houses in the village are built of Brill bricks, as are Thame Grammar School and Waddesdon Manor.

Royal Manor

Brill was a Royal Manor of the kings of Wessex in the Anglo-Saxon period as it lay in the heart of the royal forest of Bernwood.  There was a Royal Hunting Lodge there, sometimes referred to as a Royal Palace.  Edward the Confessor, Henry II and Henry III  stayed there in the 12-13th centuries.

The Civil War and the Battle of Brill

The Royal Lodge at Woodstock became a palace under Henry II, who spent time here with his mistress, Rosamund Clifford, after which Brill became less important; by 1337 it had ceased to be a Royal Manor. It is possible there was a castle at Brill as a map of 1591 has “Castell Hill” marked but this is apparently the only evidence of such a fortification.

Medieval Brill

By the middle of the 13th century Brill had a market and annual fair, but it did not develop into a town, possibly due to competition from the larger markets of Aylesbury or Long Crendon. Brill’s principal industry was pottery which was sold at markets in Oxford surrounding areas. Brick and tile making took over from pottery after the medieval period.

Brill saw action during the English Civil War. A royalist force occupied the village as part of a defensive ring of the city of Oxford where Charles had consolidated his forces. There was an abortive Parliamentarian attack by the Parliamentary commander-in-chief of Buckinghamshire Colonel Goodwin in January 1643 (known as the Battle of Brill). Shortly afterwards Brill was replaced by nearby Boarstall as a garrison and Royalist troops left the following year.

Brill Windmill
Rear view of Brill windmill (Leica Q)

The Spa at Dorton

Nearly two hundred years later the proprietor of the nearby Dorton estate, Mr Ricketts, attempted to turn Brill into a spa town. The mineral spring at Dorton was renowned for its curative qualities and Ricketts opened the spa in 1830. A Grand Fête was held in 1837 and for a short while the resort was fashionable. It consisted of a classical spa building with pump room and baths set in an ornamental pleasure ground. This was reached from an associated hotel in Brill – the Spa Hotel. The drive between the two survives as a public footpath. Tunbridge Wells and Leamington Spa secured Royal patronage for their Spas whilst the rather remote Dorton/Brill business dwindled and closed in the late nineteenth century. The Spa Hotel was pulled down after it sustained damage from a German doodle-bug in World War II.

Brill Tramway

In 1868 the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway was completed and the Duke of Buckingham built a light railway to provide freight access by rail to his estates. An extension to Brill known as the Brill Tramway gave access to a brickworks there, which was followed by passenger facilities in 1872. The Metropolitan Railway took over the line in 1896 and the branch line survived until 1935

A good deal of old Brill survives today; 54 of the village’s buildings are currently listed. The earliest of these is All Saints Church, originally a private chapel whose earliest features date from the 12th century.

Brill Windmill

The rectory manor of Brill had a mill in 1086. This mill would have been water or animal driven as windmills appeared a century or so later. The post mill, which could be turned into the wind is named after the large upright post which the mill’s main structure is balanced on, enabling the mill is to rotate to face the direction of the wind. The high ground at Brill is an ideal location for a post mill. According to the History of the County of Buckingham “a windmill was built here of timber from Bernwood Forest, probably on the site on which John de Moleyns, about 1345, constructed another with oaks felled in his demesne woods.”

Brill windmill in its current form has been dendro dated to 1686 and survived as a working business until 1924 when it finally closed. A roofed wall, or roundhouse, was built around the bottom part of the post in 1864. It was removed in the 1930s in poor condition and rebuilt in 1950 using bricks from a kiln that had been demolished when the last of Brill’s many brick and tile yards closed. It was last restored again in 2009. The mill was purchased by Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher in 1929 to save it from destruction, and was maintained by trustees until taken over by Buckingham County Council in 1947.

A second post-mill once stood on Brill Common.  Parson’s Mill was built in 1634 and stood on the opposite side of the road to the current mill. It was struck by lightning in 1905 and demolished soon afterwards. 

Brill Windmill
One of the Dexter herd at rest (2020)

The Community Herd

There is a small community herd of Dexter cattle that conservation graze the common in small temporary paddocks. These are moved at intervals to avoid overgrazing. I was interested to learn that Dexters are the smallest native breed of cattle in the British Isles and are both docile and hardy. Being so small, they have no trouble at all with the steep slopes of the common. You can track where they are being grazed at the community herd website.

Visiting Brill Windmill

Brill is located near the A41 at South Hills, Brill, Aylesbury HP18 9TQ. From the North and Bicester, take the B4011, leaving the B road on a tight right-hand turn. Follow the narrow road (watch out for cyclists) and the windmill will be on your right. From the South and Thame take the B4011. There is are a couple of exits that lead to Brill. If you end up in the village centre, head for Windmill Street. The windmill will be on the left as you exit Windmill Street. There is a small car park next to the windmill.

To go inside the windmill you need to go at specified times during which the windmill is opened up by volunteers, which is managed by volunteers. The windmill is open for these visits on Sunday afternoons, 2-5pm from Easter to September.  Tickets costs £3 for adults and £1 for children. More details can be found and out of hours visits arranged by visiting the Brill Windmill website.

There is a circular walk that starts by the windmill and descends the hill to walk towards Ludgershall, Piddington and Boarstall.

If you can’t get to Brill there is some drone footage on YouTube from 2015 and 2021 that provides good aerial vie of the windmill and the common.

Pubs Near Brill Windmill

There are two pubs in Brill. The Pheasant is located next door at 39 Windmill Street, HP18 9TG and offers outside seating with views of the windmill. The Pointer is in the village centre at 27 Church Street HP18 9RT and is supplied by their own butchers, which is just next door. A little further out is the The Chandos Arms at 8 The Turnpike, HP189QB in nearby Oakley.

Brill Dog Walking

Brill common is popular with dog walkers and both The Pheasant and The Pointer are dog friendly.

People, Books and TV References

There are several notable people as well as books and TV related to the village, the most interesting of which I’ve included here:

Brill map 1833 Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey map 1833, showing Brill and surrounding area
  • J. R. R. Tolkien used the name and various other features of Brill as the basis for the village of Bree in The Lord of the Rings.
  • Edward Lear, best known for “The Owl and the Pussy-cat” refers to Brill in More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc.
  • Brill makes an appearance seen in two episodes of Midsomer Murders: A Tale of Two Hamlets and The Wolf Hunter of Little Worthy
  • The Great Train Robbers hid at the remote Leatherslade Farm on Brill’s boundary with the village of Oakley In 1963.
  • Martyr Thomas Belson was born in the village circa 1560. He was found guilty of assisting Roman Catholic priests, and was executed in Oxford in 1589.
  • Sir John Betjeman rejoiced that the long arm of ‘Metro-land’ was halted before impinging on “the remote hilltop village of Brill”

More of Brill Windmill

Today Brill windmill is one of the oldest and best preserved in Britain. The steps that extend up to the doors at the rear of the mill are a very popular spot for group photos, whilst small children love to run around the roundhouse. I’ve enjoyed many a great picnic at Brill with my daughters, both of whom are as fond of the place as I am.

I have been taking photographs around Brill for some years with film and digital cameras, sometimes making use of specialist tilt-shift lenses and taking long exposures taken with a dark filter on a tripod. You can view a gallery of my black and white pictures of Brill here.

Sources

I found The Buckinghamshire Historic Towns Assessment Report to be a rich source of information on the history of the village. This, together with Aylesbury Vale Landscape Character Assessment, and the Brill Community herd site have been my main sources for this article.

The Many Pleasures of Oxford

Posted on by Nigel Williams
Radcliffe Camera Oxford

Foundation

The exact date of the foundation of the city of Oxford is uncertain, but the place is ancient.  

It was probably first laid out in the 890s by Aethelred, ealdorman of Mercia, or by his successor Aethelflaed ‘The Lady of the Mercians’. Sited on an important crossing point across the Thames, which formed the frontier between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia, Oxford started as a ford for oxen (Oxenaforda) long before it had an urban identity.

A religious community also preceded the town. It grew up after the death of the Mercian Princess Frideswide in 727. Her church was destroyed in the St Brice’s Day massacre, a priory was built in its place and dedicated to her as St Fridewide’s Priory. This would eventually become Oxford’s Cathedral, where her shrine remains.

Saxon Oxford

Oxford first appears in a document in c.900 in a list of fortified Saxon towns called the Burghal Hidage, and was mentioned in the shortly afterwards in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 912. The Saxon streets of Oxford intersected at a place later known as Carfax – probably meaning four forks, from the latin quadrifurcus. The oldest standing building, the Saxon tower of St Michael at the Northgate, was built in 1040

The Normans

The castle is Norman. After the death of the knight who built it, it was used by Royalty from time to time. The most notable of these visits was from Empress Matilda, who lived in the oldest surviving structure, the Tower of St. George, during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The Norman invasion was hard on the town. The Domesday book recorded that half of the town’s had been laid waste in 1086, but it also recorded the right of the town’s Freemen to graze animals in Port Meadow free of charge – a right still exercised today. 

By the middle of the 11th Century Oxford was one of he more important provincial towns, on a par with Lincoln and and Winchester, and Royal councils were occasionally held in the town.

The University

There is no clear date for the foundation of the University, but there is evidence of teaching in 1096. It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris. The city was well established as an academic centre by the 13th century with University, Balliol, and Merton Colleges all founded during that century.

Town and Gown

Academic life in Oxford was characterised by murder in the stories of ’90s TV detective Inspector Morse, and this violence in academia was foreshadowed by a turbulent relationship between Oxford’s town people and students. The most notorious incident occurred in 1354 in the Swyndlestock Tavern (a bank today), when two students took issue with the innkeeper about the quality of his wine. This dispute quickly escalated into an armed conflict that lasted three days and resulted in around 90 deaths.  Despite incidents like this and regular scholastic riots, by the mid 14th century the University was well established enough for Edward III to pay tribute to it for both its contribution to learning and the services to the state of Oxford graduates.  Several colleges were founded every century and there are now 39 in total.

Reversals

Oxford’s growth was inevitably accompanied by some  reversals.  In the 12th century a fire burned the city to the ground and the black death of the 14th century reduced the population heavily; as did the sweating sickness epidemic of the 16th century.  The university benefited from these depopulations by buying up vacant property and continuing to grow its estates.

Arrival of Industry

In the late 18th century Oxford connected to Coventry and the Thames, and in the mid In 1844, the Great Western Railway linked Oxford with London.  The city became more industrial when the automotive industry was established in nearby Cowley by William Morris, who built the Morris Garage in Longwall street in 1910.  The need for more space bought a move to a factory 1913 at Cowley and mass production followed, resulting in  Cowley expanding into a large industrial centre.  Despite its canal and railway links, the city had remained a tight knit , conservative and academic town, with the the university press the only large-scale employer.  The car industry transformed Oxford into one of the major industrial cities of southern England, though happily the architectural gems of the old city have been well preserved, also being spared the devastation meted out to so many other cities during World War II.

The sights of Oxford

As you might expect from such a historic city, there are numerous sights to be enjoyed in Oxford, which particularly photogenic, though it is often very crowded, especially in the summer. Here are my top ten:

  1. Cowley Road Festival OxfordThe cobbled Radcliffe Square containing the iconic Radcliffe Camera (part of the Bodleian Library), and surrounded by the ancient trio of Brasenose College, All Souls College and the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, with its excellent view from the top of the tower.
  2. The old pubs of the city, including the Kings Arms (1607), near Radcliffe Square; the Eagle and Child, frequented by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis and located on St Giles; the old coaching inn of the Lamb and Flag, also on St Giles; the 13th century Turf Tavern, and the Bear, one of the oldest of all, with its wood panels and collection of 4,500 ties.
  3. The Covered Market, which opened in 1774 and contains a fantastic selection of fresh produce, cafes and boutique stalls.
  4. Bohemian Jericho, which contains Freud, one of the most notable cocktail bars in the city, located behind the ancient looking Greek columns of St Paul’s Church on Walton Street and the excellent Indian cuisine of the Standard, also on the same street.
  5. The Sheldonian Theatre, designed by Christopher Wren for the University with its busts of the Philosophers or Emperors.
  6. Christ Church Meadow which borders the Rivers Cherwell and Isis (the local name for the Thames) which is ideal for a stroll.  The buildings of Oxford’s largest college are also very beautiful, though even busier now with visitors since the filming of the Harry Potter films.  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland were also inspired and written there.  The Tom Tower is one of the most imposing sights – the upper part of the tower was which was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, who had himself been a student at the college.
  7. The eclectic collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, founded by Lieutenant-General Augustus Pitt Rivers, an anthropologist who collected more than 20,000 objects from around the British Empire.
  8. The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, on Beaumont Street, which was the world’s first university museum, and will content the culturally curious for several hours at a time.
  9. The ethnically diverse restaurants, shops and people of Cowley Road, with its annual carnival. This started in 2000 and now attracts crowds of up to 45,000 people, with live music and food stalls outside the many restaurants.
  10. The ancient grazing land of Port Meadow and the nearby pub The Trout, located on the banks of the Thames.

I lived in Oxford in the late ’80s and early ’90s, moving up from Deal in Kent, my home town.  Initially I rented a room in a crumbling gothic mansion in Norham Gardens, where I taught English to foreign students.  It was post graduate house populated by academics including a semiotician, several mathematicians and a philosopher.  I was asked to show my rather less distinguished Degree certificate to the landlady before I was able to move in.  Later, as Academic Representative for a German language school, I lived in a damp basement flat in Iffley Road – which gave me the opportunity to get to know the nearby Cowley Road.   During that time I came to be very fond of the City of Oxford and have lived in the county ever since.

I have been photographing the Radcliffe Camera for over 20 years, but the image included in this post is the first one I actually feel does it any justice.  It was taken on a wet, cold evening in January 2014 when hardly anyone was around and the sky was full of drama.  I took the shot with an old school 24mm  ƒ/2.8D prime lens originally designed for film cameras mounted on a Nikon D600 (a troublesome body I intend to trade in for a D500 at some point).  The Cowley Road Festival shot were both taken on a Nikon Df with an AF-S 24-120mm ƒ/4 lens.

The Many Pleasures of Deal, Kent

Posted on by Nigel Williams

I spent the first 18 years of my life in Walmer, the village that adjoins the town of Deal in Kent. When I was 18 all I wanted to do was to leave for the excitement of London, but by my thirties Deal had become my favourite place to return to. I brought my young family to Deal often and we rented a cottage in Nelson Street which is situated in the picturesque conservation area of the town. I’ve travelled extensively over the years but Deal remains my favourite place to visit and I visit as often as I can.

Morning Haze In Praise of Deal Kent
The Morning Haze on Deal Beach

A Port Without A Harbour

Deal, Kent is unique in once having been a port without a harbour.  The anchorage known as The Downs located between the Deal shoreline and the Goodwin Sands  provided shelter for ships in the channel, and Deal became a thriving port, later defended by several castles.  It has a fascinating history, equally famed for heroism and villainy. Over time it has been a garrison town, a mining town and lately a thriving seaside resort. See the post on The Historic Town of Deal for more on this subject.

The Many Pleasures of Deal

There are many pleasures to be had whilst staying in Deal.  Here are ten of my favourites things to do in the town, in no particular order:

  1. A stroll along the broad promenade and then onto the pier (said to be the same length as the Titanic but actually 200 ft longer)
  2. A walk through the winding narrow streets of the conversation area to admire the restored cottages and town houses, and perhaps to visit one of the fine old pubs like The Ship Inn, The Deal Hoy or the Royal Hotel.
  3. Coffee or a bite to eat in the Black Douglas (run by the descendants of the Scottish knight)
  4. Sitting out on the seafront in front of the picturesque Kings Arms
  5. Shopping for fresh fish at Jenkin’s fishmongers
  6. Lunch or dinner at 81 Beach Street
  7. Shopping in the boutiques of the High Street (Deal was the inaugural High Street of the year for the Daily Telegraph in 2014)
  8. Browsing the produce and bric-a-brac at Deal Market on a Saturday morning
  9. A visit to the nearby visit to the picturesque former fishing village of Kingsdown immediately south of Walmer and the beachside pub The Zetland Arms
  10. And of course…taking pictures of one of my favourite places in the world – my first Deal Gallery can be found here and the second here.