Monument Type(s):

• POSTERN (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)

Summary

The site of a medieval postern.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA1991 - 1960 field observation by the Ordnance Survey
• ESA7590 - 2015 Conservation management survey of the town walls, Shrewsbury, by SCAS

Description

LOCATION: Variously located to SJ4896 1274 (from OS 1927 25in map) and SJ4843 1272 (based on <1a>) on OS cards. Neither fit with the topographical description. NGR cited above seems the most logical on the basis of the available evidence. I Burrow comment. 1977. Cripplode or Cripplegate applied to a gate near to the Welsh Bridge, and later to the street leading to the river from Barker St, along the line of the present Bridge St. References to Borough Records to a suit for the defacing and pulling down of a tower and bulwarks here in 1570. The gate in the wall was no doubt very low at this point, and merely allowed for the passage of an old drain or sewer [<1b>]. A wall of white freestone about 8ft thick in which were the remains of the jambs of a postern 10ft wide, were disclosed during alterations at Withies Motor Works in 1905. This is located on the E side of bridge St. Speed shows the gate well off the river bank [<1c>] <1>

Hobbs 1954 gives the earliest occurrence of the name as Crepolustrete, in 1387, with Crepeleload in 1580, and Crippins loade as late as 1681. He asserted that the name first applied to the gate, and later to the street approaching it, now Bridge Street. In the discussion following he went on to support a derivation from OE crypel-geat, a low opening, and suggested that the gate may in origin have been the point at which a local watercourse or Gulph, known from post-medieval corporation documents, ran through the town wall [<1b>]. Although the detail on the Burghley Map is confused in this area, Speed's map of 1610 shows a small gate or postern just north of the fairly distinctive convergence of Barker Street and Hill's Lane, a convergence which, on topographical grounds, could be suggested to indicate a former gate site. The line of the town wall crossing Bridge Street can be accurately estimated from the 1905 observations by J A Morris (PRN 60239), supported by excavation to the west in 1997; these indicate a site for the gate opposite the south side of no.1 Bridge Street. <2>

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 feature is identified as 6b. <3>

<00> Shropshire County Council SMR, Site and Monuments Record (SMR) cards, SMR Card for PRN SA 01456 (Card index). SSA20722.

<01c> Davies R E, 1909/ 1912, Town Walls of Shrewsbury, p183 (Article in serial). SSA5571.

<01a> Smith J T, 1953, Shrewsbury: Topography and Domestic Architecture to the Middle of the 17th Century, p119-120 (Manuscript). SSA4160.

<01b> Hobbs J L, 1954, Street Names of Shrewsbury, p39-40 (Monograph). SSA365.

<01> Ordnance Survey, 1960, Ordnance Survey Record Card SJ41SE47.14 (Card index). SSA5585.

<02> Baker Nigel J, UAD Analysis (SMR comment). SSA20432.

<03> Hannaford Hugh R, 2015, Shrewsbury Town Walls: a conservation management plan (2 volumes), Gazetteer 6b (Management report). SSA28223.

Sources

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