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Deal Castle

Deal Castle is one of a chain of castles built by Henry the Eighth along the south coast of England ostensibly to protect the country from French and Spanish attack. To allow his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, Henry had switched the religion of England from Catholicism to Protestantism. This led to short lived fears of invasion from catholic France and Spain. Although the threat of invasion was never serious, a huge building programme of shore line defence began in 1539. A chain of forts built along the south coast included Camber Castle in East Sussex, Walmer Castle, and Sandown Castle in Kent, Southsea Castle at Portsmouth, Hurst Castle and Portland Castle in Dorset, Calshott Castle at Southampton, Yarmouth Castle on the Isle of Wight and the sister fortifications of Pendennis Castle and St Mawes Castle in Cornwall. The functional appearance of these castles belies their largely symbolic role. The threat of invasion was brief, but the effect of changing a religion was explosive, and indeed the aftershocks of the changes of the fifteenth century remain with us today, most clearly in the divisions between people in Northern Ireland. Religions are designed to hold people together and maintain hierarchy and discipline. With the change of religion and the possibility of division, perhaps the country needed to feel itself pulled together by the illusion of imminent invasion, which apparently could only be countered by the building of huge forts. The symbolism was taken further in the use of stone from demolished monasteries going into the building of the forts. The solid walls of these forts, almost all of which survive, is the physical manifestation of a struggle of ideas and beliefs. They are solid, squat and functional, and yet they have all the symbolism of the churches they were built from. I'm not saying that Henry the Eighth actually decided to build castles as symbols: he wasn't the most subtle of men. But he needed the reassurance of unity as much as anyone. The south coast castles were not really built to face an external enemy. Instead they were designed to create a symbolism that would prevent divisions appearing from within.

Deal Castle was one one of the first of the south coast forts built, and is one of the biggest. It guarded the stretch of water between the shore, and the Goodwin Sands, a treacherous area of sandbanks and shallow waters a few miles off the Kent coast. As with most of Henry's castles along the south coast, the only time Deal Castle was involved in combat was during the Civil War of the seventeenth century. Perhaps this is fitting for a castle built at a time when England was threatened by disunity from within, as much as it feared invasion from overseas. The garrisons at the three Kent castles, Deal, Walmer, and Sandown, initially sided with the Parliamentarians, only to change their allegiance to the Royalists. They were besieged by Parliamentary forces and held out for three months, before their final defeat. Deal Castle had its battle damage repaired in the eighteenth century, and became an active fort again during the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of the nineteenth century. But in keeping with the theme of castles reflecting internal tensions it might be remembered that the French Revolution out of which Napoleon emerged led to great fears of a similar civil upheaval in Britain. It is often suggested that war with France helped keep Britain together during the turbulent years at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. It was good to see a coastal fortress keeping all those foreigners out. In a very real sense, however, the tensions were internal. The castle which seemed designed to keep foreigners out was actually working more symbolically, to keep British people together.

Opening Times: the castle is open daily from 1st April to 30th September, 10am - 6pm. The castle closes at 5pm on Saturdays. The property is closed outside this period.

Directions: Deal Castle is close to the centre of Deal on the south east Kent coast. Follow the A258 from Dover or Sandwich. Click here for an interactive road and satellite map centred on Deal Castle. The castle looks strangely like a Tudor Rose from above.

Access: the gatehouse and ground floor are wheelchair accessible, but there is a spiral stairway to upper floors, and a flight of stairs down to the interactive display in the basement area. There are no adapted toilet facilities, and there are two steps to the shop. If you are disabled it is advisable to contact the property beforehand for arrangements to be made for you.

Contact:

phone 01304 372762

web site: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server.php?show=conProperty.179