XII. SIR HENRY OXENDEN'S DAY.
Sir Henry Oxenden, who was one of the Commissioners for fifty-four years, was once the youngest Commissioner, having been apptjinted at the age of 28 years. That was in 17 with his (lehiys and his unrehahle estimates. About two years afler Mr. .N'ickalls resigned, in 1791, Mr. Oxenden (for he had not th(>n come into the l)aronetcy) undertook the direction of the Harliour works, as a (•ommissioner, without payment. He was of an ingenious turn of mind, having previously invented a saihng carriage, formed nkc a boat, on wheels, which, litted with sails, was one of the wonders of the Eighteenth Century as it careered over Barham Downs. When he took charge of the Harbour works in 1791 the \orth Pier was in a dangerous state, and he rebuilt between sixty and seventy feet of it in a masterly manner. Anyone who now walks the .\orth Pier head may see the splendid piling that he jilaced there more than 120 years ago. The gates in the Crosswall, put in by Mr. Nickalls, left the opening without a bridge for the townspeople to pas.s over. Mr. Oxenden designed a bridge, which English and Dutch engineers pronounced impracticable, but that opposition stimulated Oxenden to confound his critics. He had it l>uilt in his own carpenter's shop at Broome Park, and it having been brought to Dover in his own waggons, it was hung at the first attem[)t, and continued to swing without failure for fifty years. For this proof of his ingeruiity he was elected a ]<"ellow of the Royal Society of Engineers. Dover Harbour works were his pet hobby during the time of five Lord Wardens — the l^arl of Holderness, tlie Earl of Guilford, Mr. Pitt, the Earl of Liverpool, and the Duke of Wellington ; but after about ten years of active control, County affairs and the business of his estate demanded a good deal of his time. Meanwhile, Mr. Mcon, who had been Harbour Master, undertook the direction of the works, and other resident engineers followed, but while they were in office Sir Henry Oxenden was in power. His word was law, and the men employed worshipped him. For one reason, because he was very kind — too kind to keep the wages l)ill down, for wherever he was men were tumbUng over each other to wait upon him and execute his orders.
His greatest period of activity and enthu:>iasm was in 1S36, when he was eighty years of age. The last and most successful scheme of sluices to drive away the Harbour bar was then brought to completion. It is said that " Xo man is a hero to his own valet," but it is quite '^ertain that Sir Henry Oxenden's steward regarded him as a groat engineer; and to see him as his steward saw him in r<.'gard to the Dover Harbour \Vorks, it will be interesting to introduce some reminiscences which the steward wrote of his master. "To see," wrote the steward, " the time that he devoted as well as the energy and activity that he then displayed in the jirosecution of those works was truly astonishing to everyone, particularly when his advanced age was taken into con.sideration. I well recollect that on many occasions, to suit the tide, he has left Rroome at four o'clock in the morning; and, after examining the progress of the works, would drive back to attend to stime necessary business at home; and then, having refreshed himself, would take a fresh horse and go down to Dover again; and, after looking keenly over the works, would drive round to Walmer Castle and dine with the Duke of Wellington, or with the Earl of Guilford at Waldershare, or Mr. Rice at Dane Court. On those occasions, to avoid the night air, his faithful Cheeseman (the coachman) would come home with the gig and take back the close carriage to fet(^h him home. On the following morning he would be as ready and active as if he had done nothing the day before; and, let the weather be what it might, off again to attend to his duties at Dover. This undertaking, in laying the sluices, lasted the greater part of two years, and on no occasion during that time do I ever remember that he flinched from his duty. At the completion of these works, so sanguine did Sir Henry and others feel of their success, that the first time of the running of the sluices was almost a day of rest for all labourers on the estate. Sir Henry's own men were allowed to go to Dover to see the wonderful sight."
Although this foregoing extract was penned by an admiring servant, it does not need to be much discounted. Independent testimony fully corrolwrates all that he has written as to Sir Henry Oxenden's zeal on behalf of Dover Harbour. It so happened that the extension of the Admiralty Pier into the true tideway a few years later rendered the ingenious sluicing arrangements unnecessary, but, as long as it was required, this last work of Sir Henry Oxenden for Dover Harbour was the most effective of all the contrivances for dispersing the shingle from the Harbour mouth. At the same time, truth requires it to be stated that at that date, Sir Henry being eighty years of age, could do little more than take a kindly interest in the work and encourage the workers. He was recognised as the Managing Commissioner up to the last, but his management was expensive, because he treated the men on the Harbour as he clid the labourers on his own estates — never dismissed a man because he was old or infirm. The allowance that his fellow Commissioners made for Sir Henry's infirmities was such that, although they saw the deterioration arising from natural decay, they would not allow his authority to be superseded ; and when he died, two years after the sluices were first used, and only two days after his last vi.sit to Dover to inspect the Harbour enlargement then in progress, the Commissioners met, and, on the motion of the Duke of Wellington, the following minute was recorded: — "That at this, the first meeting of the Commissioners after the death of Sir Henry Oxenden, Bart., the Lord Warden and Assistant Commissioners are anxious to pay a tribute of warm and grateful regard to their deceased friend, and to record the lively sense they entertain of the zealous and active attention paid by him during his connection of fiftv-four vears with Dover Harbour to the advancement of its interests." After the meeting the Duke of Wellington, with his fellow Commissioners and a crowd of Dover people, walked to the pierheads to witness the operation of Sir Henry Oxenden's six-culvert sluice on the bar, the effect of which demonstrated the utility of Sir Henry's last great work at Dover Harbour. This Oxenden incident, with its mellowing influence of human interest, throws a kindly light over the management of Dover Harbour by a Iwdv that, owing to its method of selection, had little connection with or interest in the Town and Port.
It will be necessary now to look back to the year 1802, when the Commissioners called in Mr. John Rtnnie and his partner, Mr. Ralph Walker, to report generally on improvements that might be made in the Harl)our. Tliey presented a well digested scheme. The main thing required was the rebuilding of the pier-heads, which had long been contemplated, more especially the South Pier. They thought that in doing so they should endeavour to so build it as to get rid of the shingle which periodically lodged there, and they thought that might be effected by making the South Pier-head the most prominent point of the coast. There were three ways of doing that: — (i) By removing Cheesman's Plead; (2) by shortening Cheesman's Head a little and lengthening the South Pier a Httle ; or (3) by extending the South Pier into the tideway and leaving Cheesman's Head as it was. Their estimate for rebuilding the South Pier with stone without altering its position was £25,000; for rebuilding and extending 130 feet, £39,000; or for rebuilding and extending 270 feet, £64,000. They also suggested the dee])ening of the basin. Their proposals were rejected by the Commissioners mainly because they did not believe tlie extension of the Pier wou'd kecj) the shingle out.