Historic Timber-built Seacoast Piers of Eastern England: Technological, Environmental and Social Contexts Volume 1 of 2 Mark Stiles Johnson PhD University of York Archaeology April 2015 Abstract The aim of this thesis is to initially establish the existence of a class of monument, the timber-built seacoast pier, which has heretofore received virtually no investigation by archaeologists and been merely briefly referred to by a handful of historians. Data sources for this topic are diverse and include documentary sources, material remains, cartographic and pictorial evidence, coastal geomorphology and place-names. Investigation is perforce multi-disciplinary. This study will show that such structures were once quite widespread within the study area of eastern England, and indeed further afield. These structures were far from identical and the varying technical forms of the piers are determined and explanations sought to account for these. The physical backdrop to these piers was the varied and dynamic coastal environment of the eastern seaboard of the North Sea and it is not possible to gain a broad understanding of the piers without reference to this environment. Timber-built seacoast piers required enormous resources to construct. They were regularly subject to damage and destruction and they were costly to maintain. Given such circumstances, communities often struggled to maintain their piers. Occasionally, their resources expended, this battle was lost. More often they limped on, saved by appeal to the wider community, county or crown. The lengths to which communities were prepared to go in order to safeguard their piers demonstrates the enormous value attached to them by the communities and bodies to whom they belonged. Piers came to be important items of infrastructure that were essential to the well being of many local economies and in the meshing together of these with wider economies, regional, national and international. Whilst the technology of seacoast piers is of some intrinsic interest, perhaps the greatest potential of this topic lies in the social and economic spheres. 2 Contents (Volume 1) Abstract 2 Contents 3 (Contents, volume 2) 8 List of Figures 9 List of Tables 15 Acknowlegements 16 Author’s Declaration 17 Chapter 1: Introductory 18 1.0 Introduction 18 1.1 Earlier studies of waterfront archaeology 19 1.2 The absence of previous study of timber seacoast piers 22 1.3 The provision of landing places 25 1.4 Definitions and terminology 27 1.5 The legal and regulatory context of ports 29 1.6 Pier related literature review 31 1.7 Research framework: theory 34 1.8 Research questions 38 1.9 Methodology 39 1.10 Glossary of terms 44 3 Chapter 2: Technology 46 2.0 Preamble 46 2.1 Classification of pier forms 46 2.2 The typological groups defined 47 2.3 Piers with walls of close-piling 48 2.3.1 Bridlington: early 16th-century – 1719 48 2.3.2 Sheringham: 1580s – 1590s 52 2.3.3 Great Yarmouth: mid 16th – mid 20th centuries 53 2.3.4 Southwold: early 18th – early 20th centuries 62 2.3.5 Sandwich: a later 16th-century proposal 65 2.3.6 Hastings: mid 16th – mid 17th centuries 67 2.4 Piers with an earth-fast frame 69 2.4.1 Bridlington: 1719 – circa 1815 69 2.4.2 Cromer: 1732 – 1820 76 2.4.3 Southwold: earlier 20th-century 77 2.4.4 Margate: early 16th-century – circa 1810 81 2.4.5 Broadstairs: early 16th-century – present 86 2.4.6 Dover: 1535 – later 19th-century 92 2.4.7 Folkestone: 16th? – early 19th centuries 100 2.4.8 Rye: mid – late 18th-century 103 2.5 Piers with a free-standing frame 104 2.5.1 Filey: 16th? – 17th centuries 104 2.5.2 Flamborough: Early 15th? – early 17th centuries 108 4 2.6 Other known timber-built piers 112 2.6.1 Newbiggin by the Sea: early 14th?– mid 15th? centuries 112 2.6.2 Hartlepool: early 14th? – early 17th? centuries 113 2.6.3 Whitby: 1307 – 17th-century 116 2.6.4 Scarborough 1252? – late 16th-century 117 2.6.5 Hornsea: 15th-century? – late 16th-century 123 2.6.6 Cromer: 1390 – later 17th-century 124 2.6.7 Ramsgate: early 16th-century – late 18th-century 126 2.7 Pier forms discussion 129 2.7.1 The evidence for regional and chronological variation 129 2.7.2 Explaining variation of pier form 132 2.7.3 The question of design 137 2.7.4 Prefabrication 140 2.8 Buildings and piers 141 2.9 Craftsmen, experts and organisation 147 2.10 Timber and its supply 154 2.11 Related structural forms 157 Chapter 3: Environmental Context 160 3.1 The location and provision of medieval and post-medieval ports 160 3.2 The coastal geomorphology of eastern England 165 3.2.1 Zone 1: Newbiggin by the Sea to Flamborough 166 3.2.2 Zone 2: Holderness 175 5 3.2.3 Zone 3: Eastern North Norfolk 180 3.2.4 Zone 4: Norfolk/Suffolk borders 185 3.2.5 Zone 5: Isle of Thanet 201 3.2.6 Zone 6: South-east coast 205 3.3 Discussion 215 3.3.1 Environmental problems: solutions, active and reactive 216 3.3.2 Silting 216 3.3.3 Erosion 219 3.3.4 Storm damage 219 3.3.5 Further environmental consideration 221 Chapter 4: The Social Context 226 4.1 Ownership 226 4.1.1 Estate and manorial ownership 226 4.1.2 Crown ownership 232 4.1.3 Lessee ownership 237 4.1.4 Municipal ownership 242 4.1.5 Commissioner ownership 248 4.1.6 Private ownership 257 4.1. Ownership summary 258 4.2 Control 261 4.3 Funding 272 4.3.1 Recurring ordinary income 275 6 4.3.2 Extra-ordinary income 278 4.4 Summary 291 Chapter 5: The demise of timber-built piers 293 5.1 Balanced technological, environmental and social connections? 293 5.2 The case for timber: for and against 294 5.3 Early forms of stone piers 299 5.4 New administrative and social contexts enabling change 305 Chapter 6: Timber-built seacoast piers: a European context 309 6.1 Known examples 309 6.2 Some conclusions and the scope for broader European study 332 7: Conclusions 334 8: Bibliography 341 7 Contents (Volume 2): Individual case study notes Scope and contents Case study 1: Newbiggin by the Sea Case study 2: Hartlepool Case study 3: Whitby Case study 4: Scarborough Case study 5: Filey Case study 6: Flamborough Case study 7: Bridlington Case study 8: Hornsea Case study 9: Sheringham Case study 10: Cromer Case study 11: Great Yarmouth Case study 12: Southwold Case study 13: Margate Case study 14: Broadstairs Case study 15: Ramsgate Case study 16: Sandwich Case study 17: Dover Case study 18: Folkestone Case study 19: Rye Case study 20: Hastings 8 List of Figures Figure 1 Distribution of timber-built pier sites within the study area 44 Figure 2 The south pier at Bridlington c. 1700 by Francis Place 52 Figure 3 Town and piers of Great Yarmouth c. 1570 58 Figure 4 Detail of Figure 3 (reproduced from Palmer 1854) 58 Figure 5 Section: Great Yarmouth north pier by John Coode,1902 60 Figure 6 Plan of Great Yarmouth north pier by John Coode, 1885 61 Figure 7 Photograph, Great Yarmouth north pier, earlier 20th-century 62 Figure 8 Extract of 1830 plan of Southwold harbour by T.W. Ellis 63 Figure 9 Engraving of Southwold piers, 1822 64 Figure 10 Map of 1548, Roger’s proposed cut to Sandwich with pier/s 65 Figure 11 Photograph of c1870, showing timber pier remains at Hastings 69 Figure 12 Bridlington harbour mouth with the new timber piers of 1719 70 Figure 13 View of Bridlington south pier 70 Figure 14 Simon Goodrick’s plan of Bridlington piers, 1814 72 Figure 15 Inner face of Bridlington north pier in the early 19th-century 73 Figure 16 Exterior of Bridlington north pier 74 Figure 17 Breakwater adjacent to Bridlington north pier 74 Figure 18 Reconstruction of a typical bay unit, post1719 piers, Bridlington 75 Figure 19 The pier at Cromer circa 1813-1821 77 Figure 20 Southwold, section drawing of 1902 North Pier rebuilding 78 Figure 21 Southwold, plan of 1902 North Pier rebuilding 79 9 Figure 22 Photograph of rebuilding of Southwold North Pier, e. 20th-century 79 Figure 23 Photograph of extant timber-built pier remains, Southwold 80 Figure 24 Photograph detail of extant pier remains, Southwold 81 Figure 25 View of the pier and part of the town of Margate, J. Lewis, 1736 83 Figure 26 The ‘defended’ shoreline west of the pier, Margate 1790 84 Figure 27 Margate. Boy’s map of 1811 showing outline of smaller stone- clad timber pier and new larger stone pier beyond 85 Figure 28 Mid 19th-century view of part of the outer face of Broadstairs pier 86 Figure 29 Mid 19th-century view of part of the head of Broadstairs pier 87 Figure 30 Broadstairs. Pier frame exposed by storm damage, 1897 89 Figure 31 Ordnance Survey map of Broadstairs pier, 1870s 90 Figure 32 Ordnance Survey map of Broadstairs pier, 2010 90 Figure 33 Broadstairs. Photograph detail of elevated walling 91 Figure 34 Broadstairs. Photograph of timber to inner wall of pier 92 Figure 35 Modern plan of the Henrician pier works at Dover 1541-51 93 Figure 36 Dover harbour c.1540 95 Figure 37 Extract from Anton Wyngaerde’s ‘Dover from the Sea’ c. 1540 95 Figure 38 Detail of the piers of Dover harbour in 1595 96 Figure 39 Plan of Dover Harbour in 1661 97 Figure 40 View of the head of the south pier, Dover, early 19th-century 98 Figure 41 View of the pier heads at the entrance to Dover Harbour in 1851 99 Figure 42 Pier heads at Dover harbour in the 2nd half of the 19th-century 99 Figure 43 Folkestone.