Gallows Field

A place of punishment 

This marshland field was once the town’s place of execution. Criminals were hanged or buried alive, and women accused of being witches were drowned in the Guestling Stream which flows next to the field. The last hangings took place in the 1790s, when two soldiers deserting from Dover Castle were arrested and executed here 

Gazen Salts 

Through the gate in the right-hand corner of Gallows Field is Guestling Walk. This follows the Guestling stream, passing by the entrance to Gazen Salts Nature Reserve which was established in 1970. 

The area is a favourite destination for those seeking peace and quiet, and a return to nature. Gazen is a corruption of the name of a former leaseholder of the saltings, John Gason. A salting is an area of low-lying ground regularly inundated with salt water 

The water courses 

The Guestling Stream forms the final section of an artificial watercourse that was constructed during the medieval period to bring clean, fresh water into the town. Within the walled area of the town this stream is known as the Delf. By Gallows Field the stream passes outside the town wall and changes its name to the Guestling, before flowing into the main River Stour. A watermill once existed in this area, but it was ordered to be demolished in 1538 because it was impeding the flow of water along the stream into the Haven 

Manwood Court 

About 92 metres (100 yards) into the town on the right (south side) is Manwood Court. This was established by Sir Roger Manwood in 1563 as a free grammar school for local boys. 

Manwood was a local Barrister who later became Elizabeth I’s Chief Baron of the Exchequer. The school was built with yellow Sandwich bricks in the Flemish style, with crow-stepped gables. It has the date 1564 on the front. There was a large school room in the centre and accommodation for boarders on the floor above, with lodgings for the master and usher at either end. It was the local school until the 1890s when it was moved to more suitable accommodation at the other end of town. 

Today, the 1563 building is divided into two private houses. The re-established school continues to thrive as Sir Roger Manwood’s School on the eastern side of the town. 

Other buildings 

Opposite the bend in the stream, in a private garden, a six-sided concrete pillbox can be seen. This formed part of the town’s anti-invasion defences during the Second World War (1939 1945) and would have been used to defend this end of Strand Street. 

Canterbury Gate used to stand near here. This was the main gateway through the medieval town walls for travellers and pilgrims going to, or coming from, London and Canterbury. It was demolished in 1785 to provide rubble for new roads. 

Early illustrations indicate that the gateway had two projecting circular towers which flanked a central, pointed archway. Excavations in 1929 located the foundations of the northern tower. The ruins of the Roman Fort at Richborough are less than one mile away.