I have two confessions to make. I don’t know Deal that well – and I don’t even live that near.

The first confession is one that I want to change, partly because I’ve spent a lot of my life living in and around Broadstairs, which shares a lot of similarities to Deal – they’re both beautiful seaside towns with strong tourism industries – and so I always feel quite at home whenever I do get down this way.

My main reason for liking Deal is because of my family. I’m related to the rather large Arnold clan that has strong (and ancient) links here. My great-great-great grandfather is Jarvist Arnold, a name a lot of long-term Deal residents will recognise.

In my family, we’ve always been very proud to be related to such a brave man as the one-time coxswain of the Kingsdown lifeboats (one of my middle names is actually Jarvist in his memory), and so we’ve always tried to keep his exploits alive within our family.

Of course, I’ve always known that, the further down the generations you go, you risk losing the stories. It was for this reason my family began looking more into Jarvist’s life and family. It was with this in mind that my parents and I decided to travel down to Deal last weekend*, just to look at some of the places we knew he was linked to and drink in the atmosphere of Deal – his old stomping ground.

I’m telling you all this because I wanted to share an outsider’s experiences of Deal and my attempts to get to know it – and my ancestors – better.

Echoes of Jarvist in the Zetland Arms

The first stop on our journey was the Zetland Arms in Kingsdown. Once an old Admiralty House, the Zetland Arms has a special connection to the Arnold family because Jarvist was its landlord for many years. For me, it was a chance to savour the experience of being surrounded by family history. Over a hundred years before, my 3 x great grandfather had once served pints here.

Sitting there in the pub, it felt as if the ghost of Jarvist Arnold was just behind me. Photos of how the pub looked a century before were around the room, and a lot of it was still as it was then. I could almost imagine Jarvist – a big bear of a man – standing proudly behind his bar, handing drinks out to regulars and strangers alike.

After a while, we finished our drinks, took a short stroll around the outside of the pub to savour the landscape, and moved regretfully on.

Bargain fare at The Sea Cafe

Lunch was served by the “Sea Cafe on the Green” in Walmer, a fabulous place worthy of a mention. It’s an cafe of the sort that you and I would pronounce caff; bacon butties, full English breakfasts and burger and chips were all on the menu, and all of it looked wonderful. My poached eggs on toast were probably the best I’ve tasted, which my mum agrees with (she copied my menu choice, not the other way round, no matter what she tells you), and my dad reports that his ham, egg and chips was superb. And all for less than £11 – bargain.

I knew it was extremely unlikely that the Sea Cafe would have existed in Jarvist’s time, although I soon discovered that the building, at least, may have. I learnt that the building used to be the local public loos! It gives me a certainly sense of family pride to think that Jarvist might yet had visited this building ... for a very different reason to mine though! It certainly put their “Best Breakfast Award” from the Old Farts’ Club to shame (although that it does come in a very close second – and is a sentiment I whole-heartedly agree with).

Exploring Deal town centre

We then took a drive into Deal town and had a mooch around. I’ve always liked the term “mooch” – I define it as trying get under the skin of a town, which was what we definitely wanted to do here.

Most of my previous visits have been for a walk and an ice-cream along the beach or for a whistle-stop meeting at Deal Library back in my librarian days, so it was nice just to watch the world go by for a while and seeing people shop or eat or doing a similar exercise to us – people-watching.

Of course, all of the shops would have changed hands since Jarvist’s day, but it was good to see a lot of the original architecture still there.  I could almost imagine my ancestor strolling round the shops, perhaps buying essentials for his pub, or perhaps a present for his wife or one of their 15 children (no wonder the Arnold name is one of those names that seems to go on and on!).

Two particular buildings stood out for me; the first is the Soundhouse music store. It was a particularly bittersweet moment for me, as its sister ship in Broadstairs has just closed; a fact for which we are the poorer and Deal the richer. The other building was a large red and white building now known as the “Royal Leisure Centre” and might once have been a cinema or theatre. It was sad to see its grandeur now slightly faded and worn – something happening in Broadstairs too. However, it was good to see the building being used rather than just sitting empty. In the current climate, that’s what we need to remember.

It was mid-afternoon by this point and we felt we were still on Jarvist’s trail; in fact, our next stop had an even more direct link. We were headed for the Maritime Museum.

Yes, you read that right – the Maritime Museum by the Tourist Information Centre.

I knew it was there, you see, because I’d checked their website. It was – in fact, it still is – a good website, full of useful information, details about its exhibits, its connections with family history research – oh, and of course, its opening hours. Always useful, to know a place’s opening hours ... even when the place has been closed for a few weeks due to a legal dispute. I knew I should have e-mailed them first.

Still, we were undaunted by this minor inconvenience; it would, of course, have been great to look round, but my next visit to Deal will include a visit to Deal Library’s heritage section instead.

Jarvist remembered

Anyway, there were just two final stop-offs on our Deal visit, and both were more for our own satisfaction than anything else. The first was to Jarvist Place, a cul-de-sac named after my illustrious relative, and the other was to a nearby graveyard – beautiful in its own, quiet way – to visit the final resting place of Jarvist himself, as well as 12 other Arnolds and other well-known local names.

After some contemplative time at Jarvist’s headstone, it was time to leave Deal behind for the day. I was sad to leave; the time I was there reminded me of why I liked the town so much. The people were friendly, the town had a relaxed vibe about it that made me feel immediately welcome and Deal seems rightly proud of its history which, as a history buff, makes me glad - although I wish the Maritime Museum was still going!**

When I come back to Deal soon for a trip to the library, I’ll also be returning to the Sea Cafe for lunch, and might even stop by my ancestor’s pub for a quick drink. Maybe I’ll even see you there!