Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for WALMER

WALMER, a small town and a parish in Eastry district, Kent. The town stands on the coast; consists of two parts,-Lower W., adjoining Deal,-Upper W., 1¾ mile S of Deal r. station; contains W. Castle, infantry barracks, cavalry barracks, a quondam naval hospital now marine barracks, and a house which was tenanted by the Duke of Wellington when Sir Arthur Wellesley; is a sea-bathing resort; and has post-offices of W.‡ and W.-Road‡ under Deal, two churches, a garrison school, and a national school. W. Castle stands at nearly the south-eastern extremity of the parish; was built by Henry VIII. as a blockhouse; had the same form and design as the neighbouring and contemporaneous castles of Dealand Sandown; became soon the official residence of the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports; has been greatly altered from its original form; commands, from the windows of its principal apartments, a splendid sea-view; contains a small room in which W. Pitt, as Lord Warden, held frequent conferences with Lord Nelson; was the autumn residence of the Duke of Wellington, as Lord Warden, from 1829 till his death in 1852; contains the room, considerably altered, in which the Duke died; was visited, for 23 days, in Nov. 1842, by the Queen; and was occupied in 1848 by Earl Granville. The barracks were built in 1795; occupy an area of 22 acres, have accommodation for 1,100 infantry and a troop of horse; and, at the census of 1861, had 1,149 inmates. The naval hospital was originally constructed simply as an hospital, for 250 patients; was eonverted, after the Crimean war, into a barrack for marines; and, at the census of 1861, was untenanted. The parish church is partly Norman, and richly decorated; but includes a remarkable square addition of 1826. St. Saviour's church is a chapel of ease, built in 1849. The parish comprises 939 acres of land and 140 of water. Real property, £9,002. Pop. in 1851, 2,616; in 1861, 3,275. Houses, 434. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £240. Patron, the Archbishop of C.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Walmer AP/CP       Eastry RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place: Walmer

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