Deal Castle - Deal, Kent (EH)
Deal castle is one of a lengthy chain of forts built in the early part of the sixteenth century by Henry VIII, to defend England and Wales against invasion from Catholic Europe. Once he had irrevocably broken with Rome, the main European powers of France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire could have seen his actions as a threat to their own power and also a re-conversion of Henry's people as a religious duty. Henry was not unaware of the upheaval he had caused both inside and outside his kingdom and he therefore shored up his supporters in England with gifts of land and money seized from the dissolution of the monasteries and built defensive forts around the coast from Hull to Milford Haven.
Deal was built quickly between 1539 and 1540 and is the middle fort of the three 'castles in the Downs', sited between the largely demolished Sandown castle and the much altered Walmer castle. The long shingle beach directly in front of Deal castle contributed to the need of the fort as protection against invasion and it also meant that the anchorage between the coast and the sandbar, or Downs, in front of the shore could be defended from the castle.
The form of the fort is a beautiful petaled flower - a central circular keep topped by a lantern (the present lantern is eighteenth century but replaces an original one), the keep surrounded by six semi-circular bastions, which in turn overlook six larger bastions. There is then a dry moat which is surrounded in turn by a perimeter stone wall, again petal shaped. Each bastion would have been manned by guns at their base level and also on top, providing an all-round cover against the enemy. Each bastion could cover a 60-degree arc of fire and the tapered gunports were said to be designed by Henry VIII himself, with 'splays as the king's grace hath devised'.
The entrance gate-house is inside the western, landward bastion and originally had a drawbridge across the moat. The gatehouse was originally higher, but was reduced in size during the eighteenth century, doubtless when the carved stone panel above the door was damaged. It was probably similar to the carvings at St. Mawes castle in Cornwall, which was also built as part of the defensive chain. Inside the gatehouse you can still see where the portcullis once was, as well as 'murder holes' from which the garrison could attack anyone who had got this far. There is a huge oak door, studded with iron nails for added strength and this is echoed by another door into the main courtyard, off-set from the entrance gate to aid defense.
The squat nature of the castle was a deliberate feature, as the gun emplacements provided ample defense. The great thickness of the walls could withstand heavy bombardment and the low walls provided less of a target. Around the bastions, there are two distinct types of embrasures, wide openings for cannon and smaller ones for hand-guns. Parts of the outer bastions were adapted for use during the Napoleonic Wars, when invasion from France was again a distinct possibility. Here and there in the stonework can be seen re-used carved blocks, some of which came from the destroyed St. Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury. A particularly fine example is in the middle of the wall in the 'Rounds'.
Although built for the then modern warfare of artillery, Henry VIII's castles also included the proven medieval features of concentric rings of defense and the single entrance at floor-level and protected by murder-holes. Attackers could only reach the keep by crossing one third of an enclosed ward protected by gun positions which could cover every inch of their progress.
The keep itself was spartan and functional for most of its life. Deal was built to house a garrison, with stores and ammunition in the basement, the soldiers accommodated in the large ground floor room, with the captain and officers in the room above. Here, alterations towards comfort were made, such as the sash windows in former gun embrasures and the panelled rooms upstairs. The chapel now in the keep was created soon after the First World War; the original Tudor garrison do not seem to have had a chapel. The central staircase was originally a double one requiring considerable craftsmanship in its construction; unfortunately only a small part remains. Attached to the keep in the 1730s was a further set of rooms forming the captain's house. This was destroyed by German action during the Second World War, but consequently, Deal now has more of its original Tudor appearance.
In the basement, a narrow passageway called 'the Rounds' serves as a communication tunnel between the fifty-three gun-ports opening into the moat. From here, ammunition and orders could be passed round the defenders, but the conditions, with smoke and danger in the air, must have been appalling. Even though there are ventilation shafts above the gun-ports, the passageway remains dark and forbidding even today.
During Tudor times, Deal castle did not see active service, but Anne of Cleves was entertained here in 1539. During Elizabeth I's reign however, the castles along the south coast continued to be garrisoned and the sinking of the Spanish Armada in 1588 may well have been distantly witnessed from Deal's keep. The castle finally came under siege during the Civil War. The castle had been under Parliamentary rule since 1642, but during the Kentish uprising, the Royalists had taken the castle. Fairfax and the New Model Army regained Dover castle and then turned their attention to Sandown, Deal and Walmer in the summer of 1648. The garrisons of Deal and Sandown managed to help protect each other long after Walmer had fallen and they were aided by the Royalist fleet off the coast. Parliamentary siege guns were brought in and surrender came on 7 September after news of the Royalist defeat at Preston came through.
The castle was subsequently repaired and the new Captain's house was built and the interior somewhat modernised during the eighteenth century. The Captain ceased to live in the castle only at the end of the Second World War and Deal is now in the care of English Heritage.