You can leave your car in the free car park in River Recreation ground, opposite the Mill
1. Start by Mill and pond
The former outbuildings have now been rebuilt into houses. Once they housed drying rooms (for get the moisture level in the grain right for milling) and storerooms. The estate of white-boarded houses was built in what once were meadows owned by the Mill. Today the Mill and pond are in the care of the Crabble Corn Mill Trust - a local charity run by volunteers (new helpers welcomed!).
2. Former River workhouse (corner of Byllan
Rd)
Built after the 1791 "Gilbert Act", this mansion-style
Georgian building and the adjoining stables and workshops
housed the Overseer and about 150 paupers from River and
nearby villages. The accomodation included a hospital for
the elderly, sick and infirm; and dormitories for other
paupers, the homeless and tramps passing through. They were
given very basic food and lodging, and expected to do work
in the workshops if they were able.About another 100-200
village paupers were given cash and food handouts, but
continued to live at home.
It was replaced in 1836 by a mucher bigger and starker building on the then outskirts of Dover, which is now part of Buckland Hospital. River's Poor Law Guardians wanted to keep separate from the town. So many paupers lived in the slums of the town cntre around St. Mary's church that they feared a heavier charge on the local ratepayers.
3. Back to Lower Rd - Bridge over River
Dour
You see the small size of the stream which once owered
13 mills on its way from the source to Dover Harbour.
4. Up Lower Rd to - River Co-op
One of the earliest Co-ops in the south of England -
this society was started in 1879 by workers from River paper
mill led by Radford Evans (picture left), a foreman
at the mill. They were fed up with the high prices and often
poor quality goods supplied by local shopkeepers - a common
complaint of working people in Victorian days. Each
contributed 5p (one old shilling) into a fund. The society
bought tea, coffee, cocoa and corned beef from a supplier in
Faversham to sell to their members.
By 1880 they had 65 members, and started buying in bulk - flour, sugar and a pig. Regrettably, many local merchants - including the Mannerings who owned Crabble Corn Mill - refused to supply the new society.
By 1885 they a successful shop in Dover town centre. With £2,000 they bought a plot in Lower Road River, and built the store that you still see today. It included the Society' bakery and Assembly Rooms on the upper floor.
5. Further up Lower Rd - Newsagent's shop
The River Co-op Society opened their first shop here in
1881.
6. Continue to where Minnis Lane joins Lower Rd -
Dublin Man O'War Pub
This palatial pub was built at the turn of the century,
largely serving the paperworkers from the papermill across
the road (now in ruins). It replaced a previous pub of the
same name in River St.
Go up Minnis Lane to the bridge over the river - site
of old paper mill
There was a paper mill on this site from the late 17th
century. By 1821 it had one of the first paper-making
machines, as well as making paper by hand. The waterwheel
was used to drive "tilt hammers" to crush rags into pulp,
the raw material for paper. This was boiled up to braek down
the fibres, and the watery mixture was spread over wire mesh
to drain and make shhets of paper.
In the late 19th century they did a good trade in a special brown paper used to wrap ammunition for the army, and in blue bags used for selling loose sugar. The mill closed down in 1918 at the end of the First World War, and its chimney was demolished in 1928.
You can still see the ruins of the old paper mill as you enter the grounds of Kearney Abbey park from Minnis Lane.
7. Walk up the path along the river, through the woods
of the park to Kearsney Abbey lake
These woods have grown up over the old millpond of the
papermill since it stopped working in 1918.
Kearsney Abbey was never a real "Abbey" where monks
lived...
It was built in 1820 by a Dover banker, John Minet-Fector.
Fector financed many of the local mills and other
industries.
All that remains of his mansion is the ornate billiards room - which is now preserved as a cafe.
8. Kearsney Abbey's ice house
This mound was used to store ice. In the 19th century,
before fridges were invented, country houses used to buy
supplies of ice brought by ship from icebergs or glaciers in
Iceland. The ice was kept cool by the stream flowing through
the base of the mound. Icecream was a favourite Victorian
delicacy - then only affordable by the rich, who could
afford an ice house, and servants to beat up fruit and cream
to freeze.
9. Kearsney Abbey siphon
Water was siphoned from the river into this concrete mound,
into a pipe which fed the fountain which sometimes still
spouts up in the middle of the lake. There is no pump or
motor - it all works by water pressure in the closed pipe
system.
10. Russell Gardens
This is thought to be the site of an old mill-pond. The
flour mill was by Kearsney Abbey mansion, and perhaps
demolished when the mansion was built in 1820.
11. Minnis Lane
Here was the terminus of the tram route out from Dover.
Dover's tram system opened in 1896 - one of the first in the
South of England, and part of the town's ambitious plans to
expand as the Harbour was improved.
The tram lines were extended out to River in 1905, in the hopes that this would prompt more resdiential development (which did not happen until much later). A tram ride to River was a favourite Sunday outing for Dover people. Buses replaced the trams in January 1937.
Then back to Crabble Corn Mill - drop in to the cafe for a cup of tea, a home-baked cake and a few minutes rest to recover!
Please let us know if you enjoyed this walk.