Court's The Wine Merchants
Courts the Wine Merchants 140
Snargate St.
Stephen Court was born in Acrise in
1761. He married Mary Rogers at St. Mary's, Dover, in 1784 and by
1788 Stephen had taken over the 'Fleece' pub in Snargate Street. He
purchased his freedom as a victualler on 17 April 1789 and would
have to have been in business for at least a year and a day.
According to his later advertising, he
began his business of importing wine and spirits in 1807 although
the lease of his Snargate St. premises (with Dover Harbour Board)
begins in 1814; perhaps he was elsewhere as his sons all joined him
as wine merchants before 1814 - John (born Dover 1785) in about
1808, Thomas in about 1810, and Rogers Stephen (born Dover 1788) in
1812; Rogers served his apprenticeship as a brandy merchant with
his father and was given his freedom in 1812. John and Thomas
quickly disappear (John is last mentioned as a brandy merchant in
1816, although he died in 1813, and Thomas as a Porter Merchant in
1811) and Rogers is soon running the business solely with his
father. The wine merchants business may have been run by John
initially; the Holdens Directory of 1816 (published 1815) lists
only John as a wine merchant. However, John had died on the
18th April 1813 at age 27 so Stephen, still running the
'Fleece', may have directly taken over the business and moved it to
140 Snargate St. following Johns death.
As well as leasing the shop and
premises from Dover Harbour Board, the Courts' leased 2 plots of
land behind, from Thomas Rutley and Thomas Papillon. On this land
Stephen and Rogers built terracing for vines, tea gardens, 2
summerhouses, and dug an extensive network of vaults into the
cliffs behind, with plastered and painted walls and chalk carvings.
The terracing up the cliffs was laid out as gardens, growing the
different varieties of grapes that the wines they sold were made
from, and also other exotic fruit such as figs and dates. A
summerhouse was built at the top of the terracing and further along
the cliff-face they built a folly in the shape of Dover Castle
silhouetted against the sky. These became tourist attractions and
customers could taste-test products sitting on the terracing and
have tours of the vaults.
Stephen retired in 1827 and passed his
business leases on to Rogers who continued to expand the Wine
Merchants business. Stephen died in 1834 and was buried at
Whitfield. Rogers purchased the Papillon land in 1833 (and the
Rutley land was bought in 1850 by his son Stephen). He was a town
councillor and was made Alderman in 1838. He married Nancy Gilbee
at Dover in 1813. She died 1823 and Rogers married on the
2nd February 1826 to Eliza Payn, daughter of Anthony
Payn, the proprietor of the York Hotel. Rogers died in 1847 and his
estate was left to his sons Stephen Court (born Dover 1821) and
Henry Payn Court (born Dover 1826), who had been working in the
business since 1842 and 1848 respectively.
Henry died in 1851 and the business
passed entirely to Stephen. Stephen and his wife Frances moved to
the manor house Archers Court , at Whitfield, probably originally
purchased as a home by Rogers. Frances died in 1855 and Stephen
remarried his niece Elizabeth Foster in 1856. Stephen expanded his
business empire and was a major property owner; by his death in
1857 he owned or leased the Sceptre Inn, the Mail Packet Inn, the
Burlington Inn, the Elephant & Castle Inn (Charlton), the Hope
Inn, the Rose Inn (late Paris Tap), the Royal Exchange, The Bell
Inn, the Robin Hood Inn, 2 Wellington Terrace (Charlton), 3 Market
St., 137 Snargate St, 142 Snargate St, 44 Limekiln St, and parcels
of property in Seven Star St., Commercial Quay and Trevanion St.
The rents from these properties alone brought him an income of
several hundred pounds.
Stephen's widow Elizabeth inherited
the business which was run by her husbands youngest brother, Percy
Simpson (born 1832), who lived over the shop. In 1873 Elizabeth
assigned the Wine Merchants business and its goodwill to Percy
Simpson Court and her stepson, Stephen Court junior (born 1847),
co-partners, after which the business traded as Court & Co.
Ltd. Stephen had little to do with the business and seemed to have
been a 'black-sheep'; he was not entrusted with his fathers
business, just drawing an income from it. Not long after 1873 he
fled his wife to live in Cherbourg with his 'housekeeper' Harriet
Morris, where he died in 1879.
Percy opened a retail wine shop at 12
Bench St., keeping the offices and bonded warehouses at Snargate
Street. His nephew and Stephen's youngest brother Ernest (born
1855) joined the firm in 1878 but seemed to soon disappear. He
married c.1880 to Frances of Tunstall and they lived at Beauxfield
House, Whitfield.
Percy was a Colonel in the Cinque Port
Artillery Volunteers, a borough magistrate and a town councillor
from 1865. He was made Alderman in 1874 and was Mayor in 1875 and
1877. He died in 1896. None of his surviving children, 3 boys and 3
girls, had joined Percy in the Wine Merchants business so the
entire business was sold in 1896 to J.W. Bashford.
Bashford may have just been a
speculator or property acquirer as the Snargate St. business is
soon closed and 12 Bench St. sold to a milliner.
The house fronting 140 Snargate St.
was leased out as apartments while the shop, yard and vaults behind
seem to have been used informally for storage. During the First
World War the caves were converted to air raid shelters. After the
War the premises were in use by the Channel Fuel Co., coal
merchants but were again empty by 1930.
The house was either demolished
through war damage in 1939-45 or was deliberately removed in 1939
when the caves were again converted into an air raid shelter. The
shop and yard in front of the caves were certainly cleared by the
end of the war when the site (and the caves) were taken over as a
builders yard by R. J. Barwicks (based in Market St.). Barwicks
left in the 1970's (the caves are still known as Barwicks caves)
and the site was usually left empty or occasionally rented by
short-life business's
A new building was erected on the site
in 1997, the Bluebirds club (Dover Sea Angling Club) and the vaults
still survive in the cliffs behind, leased out as storage by the
angling club. These still retain traces of the plastering and
painting as well as the carvings and decorations and the wine bins.
The terracing up the cliff face also survives, though now largely
overgrown; grapes, figs and other exotics still grow wild there.
The terrace summerhouse has long gone but the folly still survives,
partially ruined and hidden from view by trees.
Court entries in Dover
Freeman Rolls;
- Stephen, Victualler, by purchase 17 April 1789
- John, Gent, by Freehold 26 August 1808
- Rogers Stephen, Brandy Merchant, by Apprenticeship 3 October
1812
- Stephen, Wine Merchant, Son of Rogers Stephen, 22 July
1842
- Henry Payne, Wine Merchant, Son of Rogers Stephen, 17 July
1848
- Percy Simpson, Wine Merchant, Son of Rogers Stephen, 30 July
1863
- Stephen, Wine Merchant, Son of Stephen, 30 July 1872
- Ernest, Wine Merchant, Son of Stephen, 29 July 1878