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Information ResourcesCourt's The Wine MerchantsCourts 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.
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 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;
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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.
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.