(Click this Old St James the Apostle Church text link to see the largest size)
This ancient house of religion was destroyed during World War II and is now a memorial to the people of Dover "who suffered between 1939 and 1945" (see below).
The remains of the north wall of the church's square tower are behind and to the right of the doorway.
On the other side of Hubert Passage to the left of the church is The White Horse Inn, ex-The City of Edinburgh public house. An information board once outside the pub stated:
Said to have been erected in the reign of Edward III (1312-1377). In 1365 the premises was occupied by the Verger of St James' Church which stood next door. With the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, the house was no longer connected to the Church.
The houses in the background front onto Castle Hill Road that leads up to Dover Castle.
The photo was taken from St James Street. Running along the bottom is Maison Dieu Road to the left of the junction and Woolcomber Street to the right.
St James' Church, known locally as 'the Tidy Ruin' was founded in Saxon times and is probably one of the Dover churches mentioned in the Domesday Book:
Georgian Woodcut Engraving of Old St James Church, Dover
The building was used not only as a church but also by the Barons of the Cinque Ports for several of their official Courts until 1851. The Court of Shepway, the governing body of the Cinque Ports, met here under the Lord Warden, as did, from 1526, the Court of Lodemanage, the body which licensed Cinque Ports Pilots (see next section).
By 1860 a larger church was needed and with the opening of New St James' in 1862 the old church fell into disuse for some years, until it was restored in 1869.
The church was virtually destroyed in the Second World War by German shells fired from France. The large front doors and the original Lord Wardens Bench were taken out and given to Dover Museum where they can still be seen. After the war, in 1948, the ruins of the church were not demolished but kept as a commemorative monument to the people of Dover who, like the church, suffered greatly from the bombs and long-range guns of the 1939-1945 War.
The White Horse Inn next door to the church is said to date back to about 1300, although most of the building visible today dates from the 18th Century.
St James' Street, of which little now remains, ran from the church to the Market Square. It was one of Dover's busiest thoroughfares and the main Stage Coach route until Castle Street was opened up into the Market Square.
The woodcut illustration was designed and engraved by wood engraver, George Wilmot Bonner (1796–1836) of London. The work, made before 1837 and probably after 1828, was commissioned by the Old St James Church congregation. William James Linton (1812 - 1897) was Bonner's apprentice during this period.
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852), was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century. He is often referred to as the "Duke of Wellington", even after his death, when there have been subsequent Dukes of Wellington.
Wellington rose to prominence as a general during the Peninsular campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, and was promoted to the rank of field marshal after leading the allied forces to victory against the French at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813.
Following Napoleon's exile in 1814, he served as the ambassador to France and was granted a dukedom. Also in 1814, Wellington had his portrait painted by the artist Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769 - 1830), later president of the Royal Academy (1820). The sitting was held in Lawrence's home at 65 Russell Square, London.
During the Hundred Days in 1815, Wellington commanded the allied army which, with a Prussian army under Blücher (Blucher), defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.
Wellington was twice prime minister under the Tory party and also became Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in 1829.
In keeping with tradition, the installation ceremony took place at the Bredenstone (3) on the Drop Redoubt of the Western Heights.
Wellington held the post of Lord Warden for the rest of his life and in this role, he presided over the last meeting of the Court of Lodemanage that took place in Old St James Church in 1851.
Wellington died, aged 83, of the after effects of a stroke culminating in a series of epileptic seizures, on 14 September 1852, at Walmer Castle - his honorary residence as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, which he enjoyed and at which he hosted Queen Victoria.
His body was then taken by train to London where he was given a state funeral on the 18th of November, causing "as much of a stir in the mass media of 1852 as did Sir Winston Churchill's in the middle of the twentieth century."
1844 image is a "daguerreotype", an early form of photography invented and developed by Louis Daguerre (1787–1851) together with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.
An 1814 description of the Court of Lodemanage (4):
The court may be considered as a branch of the admiralty court for the Cinque Ports; and the admiral anciently presided at it; and it was held under his authority, after it was separated from the parent stock. The jurisdiction of the court was at first confined to the regulating of the hire for the piloting of ships; and the wages of the pilots were named the lodemanage, from their managing and guiding the vessel.
The members of this society were called lodesmen, and lootsmen, and leadmen, from the Belgic word loot, which signifies lead; and they were also called pail lootes, or men, who measured the depth of the water, over shoals in the narrow seas, by heaving the lead. They were distinguished by their name, from those who navigated ships in the open ocean; and they acquired their knowledge of bays, and the entrance into harbours, by sounding, and remarking how much water there would be, at any given time, both during the flowing and the ebbing of the tide. They were also capable of conducting ships clear of sand banks, between Dover and the rivers Thames and Medway; and to the ports of Flanders, Holland, and the East country.
The following is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under the terms of the Click-Use Licence (PSI licence number C2010002016):
Building Details:
Building Name: REMAINS OF ST JAMES'S CHURCH
Parish: DOVER
District: DOVER
County: KENT Postcode:
CT16 1QG
Details:
LBS Number: 177821
Grade: II
Date Listed: 30/06/1949
Date Delisted: NGR: TR3226141553
Listing Text:
In the entry for:-
TR 3241 WOOLCOMBER STREET (East side)
1/15 Remains of St James's Church
GV 30.6.49 II
the address shall be amended to read: CASTLE HILL ROAD
1/15 Remains of St James's Church
GV 30.6.49 II
WOOLCOMBER STREET l. (East Side) 1050 Remains of St James's Church TR 3241 1/15 30.6.49.
II GV
2. Originally a Norman building but restored in tile C19 (C19 = 19th Century). There is a Norman zigzag arch (6) and the side elevation, built of flints, has a blocked entrance filled with Norman fragments (the "Devil's Door"). The rest of the church is of Caen stone, with stone quoins.
There is a C14 addition on the South side of the Nave which was used until 1851 as a Court house for the Chancery and Admiralty Courts of the Cinque Ports, and for the Court of Lodemanage. The last Court of Lodemanage was held by the Duke of Wellington here in 1851. The seat and bench used by the Duke of Wellington and the Barons of the Cinque Ports have been transferred to St Mary's Church (St Mary the Virgin).
This building was not used as a church since the middle of the C19 when the garrison Church in the Castle (St Mary-in-Castro) was restored. The building was very badly damaged by shelling from the French coast during the last war. AM.
Remains of St James Church and White Horse Inn form a group.
Listing NGR: TR3226141553
Source: English Heritage.
The following is © Crown Copyright. Reproduced under the terms of the Click-Use Licence (PSI licence number C2010002016):
Building Details:
Building Name: WHITE HORSE INN
Parish: DOVER
District: DOVER
County: KENT
Postcode:
Details:
LBS Number: 177822
Grade: II
Date Listed: 17/12/1973
Date Delisted: NGR:
TR3225041565
Listing Text:
WOOLCOMBER STREET 1. (East Side) 1050 White Horse Inn TR 3241 1/157
II GV
2. Late C18 (C18 = 18th Century) to early C19. 2 storeys, the front elevation stuccoed. Tiled roof with 2 hipped dormers. Stone coping. 3 sashes with verticals only, I a triple sash. C19 right side bar front. Central doorcase with fanlight. Plinth. Side elevation of brick which has an extension of 2 storeys roughcast.
White Horse Inn and Remains of St. James's Church form a group.
Listing NGR: TR3225041565
Source: English Heritage.
(1) Source: information board inside the ruins (abridged)
(2) From Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
(3) The Bredenstone, or "Devil's Drop of Mortar", is part of the remains of the West Roman Pharos, a lighthouse or watchtower. The East Pharos still stands on Harold's Earthwork in the grounds of Dover Castle (see St Mary-in-Castro thumbnail below).
(4) Excerpt from "The History of the Town and Port of Dover and of Dover Castle (With a Short Account of the Cinque Ports)".
Volume I dedicated by the Reverend John Lyon, Minister of St Mary the Virgin of Cannon Street, to John Gunman, Esquire, on May 14th, 1813, and published the same year.
Volume II dedicated to Jonathan Osborn, Edward Thompson, and John Shipdem on April 21st, 1814, and published the same year.
(5) Grade II: buildings that are "nationally important and of special interest".
(6) The arch is Norman but photographs confirm the zig-zag engraving was added during the 1869 restoration (a Victorian embellishment).
The main photo first appeared at:
Old St James Church and the White Horse Inn, St James Street, Dover
Other Dover Memorial images include:
Other Dover Church images include:
The Saxon Church of St Mary-in-Castro and Roman Pharos, Dover Castle
Dover Unitarian Church Listed Building at Sunrise, Adrian Street, DoverSee all Dover Architecture, Listed Building, and Urban photos.
A History and World War II photo.
Clickable thumbnails of all church- and urban-related photos on the main Panoramio Images of Dover website are available on this blog at Church and Cemetery Page and Urban Page (also linked to below the blog title).
The Panoramio photos are each accompanied by a Google Earth satellite map. However, the images are smaller than those on the Images of Dover Blog and the captions are less well formatted.
John Latter / Jorolat
Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town
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