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tower in Bench Street as belonging to a Church, but simply as 

 a tower ia St. Nicholas Wind (one of the twenty wards iuto which 

 the town was once divided) and belonging to a mediaeval mansion. 

 It had no pretensions to any architectural beauty, being a very 

 plain tower, twenty-two feet square, with walls four feet thick, 

 and its height apparently had nuver been much more than forty feet. 

 There were two rooms in the tower, one above another, their floors 

 were supported by arches from the sides and corners, and a spiral 

 stone staircase led to the top. The one entrance into this tower, 

 a westerly one, had evidently once been protected by a portcullis, 

 for when the work of demolition was going on in 1836, the grooves 

 were found quite perfect, where once this had fitted in. It seems 

 probable, therefore, that the tower had been intended for a place 

 of defence. The mansion, if such it had been, was divided into 

 several dwelling houses and a stable, having been sold to various 

 men at different times, each of whom had adapted his portion 

 to his own needs. One, Mr. llobert Pyall, great-grandfather to 

 Mr. Viney Brown, bought the old tower in 1729 and lived in it. 

 Prior to this, however, we hear that this house and the adjoining 

 one, was in 1608, the residence of the Mayor, one llobert Garrett, 

 the landlord of the George, which is described as being an Inn 

 "next the tower in Bench Street"; and, in 1637, when there 

 were many refugees in Dover, they were in the habit of holding 

 their services, in secret, there. Sometimes this tower was used to 

 confine French prisoners in, and it thus acquired the name of 

 " Prison Tower," and by this name it is spoken of in Lyons' 

 History of Dover, whilst in other places we see it mentioned as 

 Garret's Tower. It stood opposite the Shakespear, with the main 

 thoroughfare (which till 1836 was only eighteen feet wide) between 

 it and the Hotel. In that year it was thought advisable to widen 

 the street, and the last remains of St. Nicholas Tower were with 

 difficulty destroyed. With the aid of gunpowder, however, it was 

 done, and old men are fond of telling of the narrow escapes some 

 of them had, when large pieces of solid umsoniw were thrown 

 considerable distances when the explosions took j^lace. In digging 

 under the buildings a well preserved vaulted chamber was found, 

 with substantially built pillars, and arched roof with carved stone 

 heads at the sjiriug of the arches, apparently about the date of 

 Edward TI. These heads are now in the Museum, but are 

 gradually crumbling away. 



Some people say that it was in the tower of St. Nicholas that 

 there was a bench where men were apt to congregate for gossip or 

 business, and hence the street acquired the name of Bench Street, 

 ■which it bears to the present day ; and in an account of the 

 refugees in Dover " the Bench " is mentioned as the place where 

 they met together and openly discussed their religious views, 

 much to the annoyance of merchants who were there also. Other 



