Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A number of groynes were built on the seaward side of the long wall of the great pent in the early post medieval period. These are visible on numerous cartographic sources dating to this period. (location accurate to the nearest 50m based on available information)

Monument Types

• GROYNE (Post Medieval - 1584 AD to 1641 AD)

Full description

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A number of groynes were built on the seaward side of the long wall of the great pent in the early post medieval period. These are visible on numerous cartographic sources dating to this period. Paul Ive who was involved in the third period of late Medieval/early post medieval development of the harbour, was employed as the work-master in charge of building groynes to stabilise and increase the long bank of beach. (1)

The groynes are clearly visible on two 16th century plans of Dover harbour produced by Thomas Digges. The first dates to 1588 and is the first appearance of these groynes on any mapping, they do not appear on an earlier plan (again by Digges) dating to 1581, it is therefore clear that they were part of the Elizabethan scheme of works on the harbour which included the creation of the ‘Great Pent’.(2) Three groynes are visible on the 1588 map, the first is attached to the north eastern side of the ‘North Pier’, this is labelled ‘Poynes Groyn’. The second is on the south east corner, on seaward side of the great pent wall, this is labelled ‘Ive’s Groyn’. The third is again on the seaward side of the long wall of the great pent, this time near the north east corner, and this is labelled ‘North Groyn’.(3) On the later map, dating to 1595 all of these are detached and are depicted as partially submerged masses of rock, well out to sea, suggesting that at this point they had fallen out of use and been abandoned. This suggestion is backed up by the fact that in the key they are labelled as ‘decayed’. (4)

Groynes or piers are shown in this area on two plans produced by William Eldred dating to the mid-seventeenth century (5-6) though it is not clear if these are the same as those depicted on the earlier maps.

<1> Stephen Johnson, 1994, Making mathematical practice: gentlemen, practitioners and artisans in Elizabethan England (Monograph). SKE32014.

<2> Alec Macdonald, 1937, Archaeologia Cantiana: Plans of Dover Harbour in the Sixteenth Century Vol. 49 (Article in serial). SKE31789.

<3> Thomas Digges, 1588, Plan of Work at Dover Harbour (Map). SKE31986.

<4> Thomas Digges, 1595, The state of Dover Haven with the New workes (Map). SKE31987.

<5> William Eldred (?), 1631, Plan of lands belonging to the Priory and now to Master Buffkyn (Map). SKE31988.

<6> William Eldred, 1641, The Platt of Dover Castle Towne and Harbor (Map). SKE31804.

Sources and further reading