Monument Type(s):

• PRISON (Medieval to Early 19th century - 1066 AD to 1825 AD)
• TOWN GATE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)

Summary

A town gate of medieval date and a prison of medieval to post medieval date.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA1974 - 1960 field observation by the Ordnance Survey
• ESA7590 - 2015 Conservation management survey of the town walls, Shrewsbury, by SCAS

Description

The street immediately below the castle [PRN 01097] was crossed by two gates 40yds apart: North Gate [PRN 01443] and an upper gate which adjoined the Old School Buildings [PRN 10131], immediately below the Dana steps. Used as a prison in the Elizabethan period, referred to as a Jersey Schoole in 1650, in 1753 became the town Bridewell and it was demolished in 1825. <1a><1b>

The lower gate, known as Castle, or North Gate, stood just below Meadow Place. The other gate, variously described as Upper Castle Gate, Over Gate, School Gate, the Jersey House, Pavement Gate or Burgess Gate, adjoined the Old School buildings immediately below the Dana Steps. The upper gate, used as a gaol in Elizabethean times, was referred to as Jersey Schoole in 1650. In 1753 it became the town Bridewell, and was demolished in 1825. The lower gate had been removed some years earlier. <1b>

No trace of either gate was found during field investigation. Their sites are occupied by a modern roadway. <1c>

The space between this gate and the Castle Gate (SA 1443) was fenced on each side with an embattled rampart. Semicircular arch with round towers on each side with a chamber above. The north tower was used in 1808 as a prison and the south tower as the gaoler's house <2>

The Upper or Burgess Gate had a semi-circular arch, 'armed with a double portcullis', flanked on each side by a great round tower ' whose walls were of vast thickness'; above the arch was a spacious chamber used as a prison. On the ground floor of the north tower, entered by a door and steps below the level of the street, was a small dark and damp room used as a place of confinement (said Owen) for disorderly soldiers; in the south tower were the gaoler's quarters. Owen also quoted from a MS in the Schools Library recording repairs by the burgesses (who were responsible for its upkeep) to the stonework and the addition of the royal arms in 1580 [<2>]. ' Topographer', writing in 1898, quoted from the Shrewsbury Chronicle for 1786 containing an invitation for tenders for the demolition of the Upper Castle Gate [<3>]; it does not, however, appear on Rocque's map of 1746 so it may only have survived in a truncated state prior to final demolition. A series of sometimes acrimonious published correspondence between 'Topographer' and 'Proud Salopian' settled on the precise site of the gate as 'between the arched entrance into Holt's wine stores [? =21 Castle Gates] and the end of the Schools chapel where a new window has been inserted' [<4>]. The form of the gate, with its circular towers, suggests a possible 13th-century date. The site may have been affected by the reduction of Castle Gates in 1825 by Samuel Butler <5>

A conservation management plan was prepared in 2015 for the entire circuit of town walls surrounding Shrewsbury (excluding around Shrewsbury Castle at the NE corner). This provides a general historic overview of the development of the town defences, together with detailed analysis and management recommendations for individual sections (in gazetteer form in volume 2). This gate is identified as 3a. <6>

Sources

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.