XV. THE WELLINGTON PERIOD.
From 1829, the Duke of Wellington, as Lord Warden, had been the Chairman of the Harbour Commissioners, but until after the death of Sir Henry Oxenden in 1838, he usually deferred to Sir Henry's opinion with regard to new works and repairs, but after that time the Duke of Wellington definitely took the lead. Mr. James Walker, C.E., sometime President of the Institute of Civil Engineers, was then m charge, the first works taken in hand in 1841 being the continuation of the quay on the eastern side of the Pent down to the wall across the bottom, Messrs. Tredwell, of Folkestone, carrying out the work by contract at a cost of ;^5,ooo. They also continued the quay 407 feet along the bottom of the Pent, leaving, near the south-eastern angle, a space for gates 60 feet wide to communicate with an intended approach to the outer harbour. These quay walls were carried down 30 feet to provide for deepening of the Pent bottom.
The Harbour Commissioners moved slowly in dealing with the improvements of the interior of the harbour, and in the meantime the funds were accumulating to enable them to do the work without the intervention of Parliament. During the Lordwardenship of the Duke of Wellington a meeting of the whole Board was only called once a year, and at the Harbour Session in November, 1842, it was resolved to enlarge the tidal harbour by taking in the land at the north-east corner, then covered with warehouses, hotels and dwellings ; and they gave directions for Mr. Philip Hardwicke to make a report on the property to be taken, and to Mr. Walker, to provide plans and specifications for the work. During the ensuing year those orders were carried out, and at the Harbour Sessions in 1843 Mr. Hardwicke brought up his report on the property along both sides of Union Street, and it was decided that it all should come down with the exception of the Union Hotel on the side next the Commercial Quay and Latham's Bank and warehou.ses on the side next the Basin. The property then ordered to be removed consisted of the Vork Hotel, which had long been the favourite house for continental travellers, the Dover Castle Iim, the Duke of Cumberland Inn, and a whole row of residences (including the old residence of the Bazelys), which occupied the north side of Union Street abutting on the Pent. There was also removed a house overlooking the sea near where the Esplanade Hotel now is, which had been the property of Mr. William Knocker when he was Mayor and Receiver of Harbour Rents, but it had been sold to Messrs. Fector. The fort named Amherst Battery was also removed, and the North Wall promenade was made on its site in 1850. At a special meeting of the Harbour Commissioners held at the residence of the Consulting Engineer, Mr. James Walker, in London on 4th May, 1844, the tender of Mr. Bray, of Leeds, was accepted for excavating about five acres to add that much space to the outer tidal harbour, and to build the necessary walls and gates for the sum of ^40,10-^, and a tender from Messrs. Hunter and English for ironwork at ^4,738 was also accepted. At the same period Mr. H. P. Mackenzie obtained from the Ordnance Department a contract at ;^3,7oo to build the Ordnance Quay and Wharehouses on the east side of the Pent.
The e.KCavation for the enlargement of the harbour commenced in the summer of 1844, and by January, 1845, the granite walls in line with the gateway were up. At that time an abnormally high tide overthrew 60 feet of the wall and greatly impeded the work. On the occasion of No\ember Harbour Sessions, 1845, the Commissioners inspected works under Mr. Bray's contract, which was then making good progress, there being 250 men employed. The quay walls were finished about mid-summer 1846, the remaining part of the work was chiefly the excavation which made the northeast corner of the outer harbour, adding an area of about five acres. This was done with great rapidity, about 1,000 tons of mud and earth per day being excavated, and a large portion of it was deposited between the new work and the sea, forming a new IS^orthwall promenade. Mr. Bray also made the great gates between the new work and the Pent providing the machinery to work them, and he also erected an iron bridge for public vehicular traffic over opening in Union Road, the ironwork for it being supplied by Messrs. Hunter and English under their separate contract. This bridge was finished on the 13th November, 1846, and was opened on that day by the Duke of ^\'cllington, who drove over it in his phaeton, and while the guns from the Drop Redoubt fired a salute, the structure was officially named the " Wellington Bridge."
From the opening of the Wellington Bridge until the final dissolution of the Board of Warden and Assistants was but fourteen years, and the Duke of Wellington's Wardenship terminated with his death nine years before the old order was changed; but during the whole of the period, up to 1861, all the important work done at the harbour was but the wincHng up of the projects, which had been undertaken while the Duke was at the head of affairs. The finances had been brought into a satisfactory state by expenditure being kej^t within the income, and the works left to be finished were aided by a growing income arising from the revenue from Passing Tolls having increased to the substantial sum of ;!^io,ooo a year. The trouble about the Harbour Bar had finally been overcome by the Admiralty Pier in 1850, having been carried out into the true tide, which permanently kept the shingle out of the harbour. There was a little anxiety when the railway opened and threatened to attract part of the Channel passenger traffic from Dover I>y a new route to France being opened via., Folkestone Harbour and Boulogne, but as that entailed very little loss of revenue the Harbour Commissioners did not feel called upon to spend money to deepen the Outer Harbour to allow the Channel steamers to enter and leave at all times of the tide, which it was not j)ossible for them to do at Folkestone with the accommodation then existing there. The townspeople, howe\'cr, were very anxious that Dover should have that advantage over Folkestone and they formed a company to construct a landing pier opposite Waterloo Crescent, but that project was so long in maturing that the building of the Admiralty Pier began before the landing jetty was commenced, and as it was known that the Admiralty Pier would be used for landing passengers as soon as a short length of it had been completed, the subscribers to the Landing Jetty had the pleasure of receiving back their money.
The other works left to be completed after Bray's contract for enlarging the outer harbour finished were the strengthening of the Castle Jetty, the construction of groynes in the bay, the erection of a new swingbridge at the Crosswall, the construction of a vSli])way at the top of the Pent, and the dcc[jeiiing of the Pent, together with the coi'Struction of Northampton Street and the quays alongside it.