DEAL, a market town, seaport and municipal borough in the Dover parliamentary division of Kent, England, 914- m. N.E. by N. of Dover on the Southern railway. Pop. (1931) 13,680. It con sists of Lower Deal, on the coast ; Middle Deal; and, about a mile inland, though formerly on the coast, Upper Deal, which is the oldest part. Frequented as a seaside resort, the town derives further importance from its vicinity to the Downs, a fine natural roadtrack between the shore and the Goodwin Sands, about 9 m. long and 6 m. wide, in which large fleets of windbound vessels may lie protected against the north, west and easterly gales. The trade consists in the supply of provisions and naval stores, which are conveyed to the ships in need of them by "hovellers," as the boatmen are called along the Kentish coast. The Deal hovellers, pilots and lifeboatmen are famous for their skill. Boat-building and a few other industries are carried on. St. Leonard's church in Upper Deal dates from the Norman period. The site of the old navy yard is occupied by villas. The esplanade, nearly four miles long, extends through Walmer to the south, and north to the ruins of Sandown castle, and is provided with a promenade pier owned by the corporation. The golf-links is well known. At the south end of the town is Deal castle, erected by Henry VIII. in 1539, together with the castles of Sandown, Walmer and Sandgate. They were built alike, and consisted of a central keep surrounded by four lunettes. Sandown castle was the prison in which Col. Hutchinson, the Puritan soldier, was confined, and is said to have died, September 1664. It was removed on becoming endangered by encroachments of the sea. The "captain" of Deal castle is ap pointed by the lord warden of the Cinque Ports. The town is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18 councillors.
Deal is one of the possible sites of the landing-place of Julius Caesar in Britain. Later in the period of Roman occupation the site was inhabited, but apparently was not a port. In the Domes day Survey, Deal (Dola, Dale, Dele) is mentioned among the possessions of the canons of St. Martin, Dover, as part of the hundreds of Bewsborough and Cornilo; it seems, however, from early times to .have been within the liberty of the Cinque Ports as a member of Sandwich, but was not continuously reckoned as a member before the reign of Henry VI. In the time of Henry VIII. Deal was merely a fishing village standing half-a-mile from the sea, but the growth of the English navy and the increase of trade brought men-of-war and merchant ships in increased num bers to the Downs. Lower or New Deal was then built along the shore. William III. by his charter incorporated the town under the title of mayor, jurats and commonalty of Deal, and he also granted a market and fairs, with a court of Pie Powder. The Cinque Ports were first represented in the parliament of 1265; the two members returned by Sandwich represented Sandwich, Deal and Walmer, until they were disenfranchized by the act of 1885.