IX. BOROUGH SURVEYORS.
The Dover Corporation did not employ a Town Surveyor until the establishment of the Paving Commission in 1778, and under that body the appointed Surveyor was also engaged in private practice.
The first Surveyor on record was Mr. Richard Elsam, who was also a builder. As Surveyor of the Town he has left no work by which he may be remembered, but he built the Borough Gaol which used to stand where the Market and Museum now stand. He also built the well known Round House for Mr. John Shipdem, the Town Clerk, in Townwall Street ; and most people have noticed the legend, " Elsam 's Cottages," on a row of tenements in Dieu Stone Lane, which he Duilt out of the odds and ends of material left from the erection of the Prison, in 1820.
The next Surveyor engaged by the Town was Mr. John Hall, who resigned in 1848.
There were four candidates for the office in 1848, Mr. George Fry, Mr. Rowland Rees, Mr. Thomas Marks, and Mr. Edward Gotto, all well known men. Mr. Gotto was appointed, and he worked out a plan of Town drainage, which might have been carried out by the Commissioners under the Public Health Act of 1848; but the Paving Com mission, with the new Town Council overshadowing it, was in a moribund condition, and had no heart for opening up new work, so this Sur\'eycr's plans were neglected. Being ambitious, Mr. Gotto sought a field where his energies would be appreciated, and obtained an appointment under the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sev/ers, in July, 1849.
Mr. Rowland Rees was then elected to fill the vacancy as Surveyor to the Paving Commission, but, although he was a man of energy, he could not move the Commissioners to action, so he joined in an agitation to have the whole business of the Public Health transferred to the Town Council. The transfer was effected by the Town Council adopting the Public Health Act in 1850, and on the 14th July in that year Mr. Rees was elected by the Town Council as their Surveyor uiuler the Local Board of Health which then came into existence. Mr. Rees was not required to give his whole time to the Town Surveyorship. He was engaged in private practice as an architect and surveyor, and designed a good many of the houses built in Dover between 1850 and i860. The National Provincial Bank, on New Bridge, was his work. He also had much to do with the Town sewerage and estab lishment of the Waterworks, although in both of these undertakings special professional advice was obtained. In 1861 the Corporation decided to have a Surveyor who was not engaged in private practice, and they offered Mr. Rees ;^30o per annum if he would accept the post, but he refused. About that time he became the Engineer of the Dover Harbour, also launching out as a leading politician, eventually becoming an Alderman and a Mayor.
Mr. John Harvey, a Gloucestershire man, was appointed Surveyor on the 6th August, 1861, and he held the office with much abihty until his death on the 5th November, 1879. His work was mainly routine, but in one respect he changed the aspect of the streets of Dover. When he came all the side-walks were of shingle, with the exception of a Uttle York paving in the central streets; but he introduced a special kind of asphalt, which he trained men to prepare and lay down, and after he had been in Dover ten years he was able to report to the Council that he had put down in the Dover streets 13,483 square yards of that asphalt paving, at an average cost of tenpence per yard.
Mr. Matthew Curry was the next Borough Surveyor. He was appointed in 1880, selected from 148 applicants, at a salary of £450 a year. He held the post eight years, and then resigned to take an appointment in making a foreign railway.
Mr. Walter Thomas was appointed Surveyor in 1888. The salary offered on this occasion was reduced to ^300 a year, yet there were 158 applicants for the post. Mr. Thomas had been the Town Surveyor of Dorchester, and did not claim to have had very wide experience. Owing to some complaints of irregularities, he resigned in 1895, after holding office seven years.
Mr. H. E. Stilgoe, a rising man of much ability, was appointed Surveyor 14th March, 1895, selected out of 147 applicants. He had been Surveyor of the Sandgate Urban Council, and had carried out sea defence works there very efficiently. This Surveyor held the office eleven years, during which time, in addition to ordinary work, he designed and prepared plans and specifications for the Dover Electric Tramways ; and plans for street widening, a scavenging depot, new waterworks headings, new schools, and the Pier Viaduct. Everything that Mr. Stilgoe undertook he did well, the only complamt against him being that his works were rather expensive. During his eleven years at Dover his salary was raised from ;^35o to ^600, and at the end of that time he resigned to take a post as Surveyor under the Croporation of the City of Birmingham.
Mr. W. C. Hawke was appointed Surveyor on the 26th June, 1906, selected from 149 applicants, the salary being ^^500. At the time of his election Mr. Hawke was Engineer in charge of the Admiralty Harbour Works at Dover. In addition to the routine work of the Town, the long-projected Pier Viaduct was taken in hand after Mr. Hawke had been Surveyor about eight years, together with a Pier District re-housing scheme, but, owing to the European War, those schemes are not yet completed. Mr. Hawke, holding a commission in the Cinque Ports (Fortress) Royal Engineers (T.), went on active service in France, his place being filled by Mr. R. Crummack as deputy.