Monument Type(s):

• TOWN GATE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)

Summary

The site of a gate in Ludlow Town Wall, PRN 01177.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA2281 - 1982 watching brief at 116 Tower Street, Ludlow by Shropshire County Council
• ESA5000 - 1998 DBA of land at Lower Galdeford by Marches Archaeology
• ESA8004 - 2016 DBA of land at No.9 Tower Street, Ludlow by Border Archaeology

Description

Galdeford Gate. (wall plaque). A gate in Ludlow Town Wall, PRN01177. <0>

Builders' excavations during the rebuilding of 116 Tower St (aka 116 -119 Lower Galdeford St) exposed a section of masonry at some depth. On being informed of this PAW and CR visited the site and recorded what had been exposed. The masonry lay exposed in the integral side passage of 119 Lower Galdeford Street. It had a neat, curving outer face of dressed stones describing the arc of a circle calculated to be c 3.25m radius. Outside the face the builders had not dug more than a few cm below the c 1.7m below modern street level at which the face had appeared. Within the arc the masonry appeared to have been disturbed previously. The builders had followed this down to a layer of in situ stonework c 2m below street level. There was no trace of an inner face in this undisturbed level. It seems likely that this stonework represents the base of a tower, probably part of the Galdeford Gate. The only surviving gate in the town wall, Broad Gate, comprised an entrance passage flanked by two semi-circular drum towers. <1><2><3>

Galdeford Gate is mentioned in the mid 16th century. "Galdeford Tower" contained a gaol in 1603. In 1274, two Cleobury men are recorded as having imprisoned the Galdeford gatekeeper after he refused to allow them to leave the town without paying a toll. <4>

CMHTS Record Sheet. <5>

CMHTS Report. <6>

Noted by Leland in the second quarter of the 16th century. <7>

The walls contained eight gates. Galdeford gate’s function would not have been entirely defensive, as it would have fulfilled an economic purpose as well, namely, the collection of tolls for access to the town and its markets. The earliest direct documentary record of the Galdeford Gate dates to 1284/1285, when Agnes Gold granted a ‘small house with appurtenances situated inside the gate of Galdeford’ to the Burgesses of the town. ->

-> The Borough Rolls for 1308 contain many entries for the re-roofing and repair of the Galdeford Gate, suggesting it had fallen into a poor state of repair. Furthermore, the Chamberlain’s Accounts of 1576/1577 record entries for ‘mending the drawebridge at the Galfords gate’, suggesting that the town ditch was outside the Galdeford Gate, and that the gate itself possessed a drawbridge. ->

-> Remains of the medieval Galdeford Gate were identified during a watching brief undertaken in 1982 at Nos 116-19 Tower Street, immediately opposite the site (<1><2><3>). The watching brief revealed the substantial footings of a curved masonry structure, located c.1.7m below the modern street surface, describing the arc of a circle approximately 3.25m in radius. The masonry structure was recorded as having a ‘neat, curving outer face of dressed stones’; however, the inner face displayed considerable evidence of previous disturbance. In-situ stonework was recorded to a depth of c.2m below street level. ->

-> It is possible that the Galdeford Gate (later used as the Town Gaol) possessed a number of towers, as reference is made in documentary sources to a ‘Burgess Tower’, a ‘Chenser’s Tower’ and a ‘Thieves’ Tower’. A possible second mural tower, also appears to be recorded on the Ordnance Survey 1885 Town Plan at c. SO 5130 7473. ->

-> Joseph Smith’s 1719 panoramic engraving of Ludlow (reproduced in source) shows the Galdeford Gate as a large square crenellated tower dominating the E side of the town. Whilst this may be a slightly inaccurate portrayal of the morphology of the Tower, given that it is likely that the medieval Gate possessed two rounded drum towers, Smith’s engraving does give a sense of how the Gate would have dominated the E side of the town of Ludlow. ->

-> The old medieval Galdeford Tower was demolished in 1764 and was rebuilt under the supervision of the architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard (see PRN 06157). <8>

<00> Shropshire County Council SMR, Site and Monuments Record (SMR) cards, SMR Card for PRN SA 01765 (Card index). SSA20722.

<01> Ward Penny A, 1982, Site Visit Form (Field recording form). SSA6200.

<02> Ward Penny A, 1982, Four Slides of Possible exposure of the remains of Galdeford Gate, Ludlow (Photograph). SSA6199.

<03> Ward Penny A, 1982-Sep, Five Photographs of the possible remains of a Tower of the Galdeford Gate, Film 209, Frames 7 to 9 and 12 to 13 (Photograph). SSA12903.

<04> Faraday M A, 1991, Ludlow 1085-1660: a Social, Economic and Political History, p39, 115 (Monograph). SSA11536.

<05> Dalwood Hal, 1993/ 1996, CMHTS SMR Records Shropshire: Ludlow, Ludlow 1765 (Record form). SSA19968.

<06> Dalwood Hal et al, 1996, Archaeological Assessment of Ludlow, Shropshire (CMHTS) (Historic landscape survey report). SSA12072.

<07> Stone Richard, 1998, Land at Lower Galdeford, Ludlow, Shropshire: report on a desk based assessment (Deskbased survey report). SSA20999.

<08> Connors, O, 2016, Archaeological desk-based assessment: No. 9 Tower Street, Ludlow, Shropshire, pp.8-11 (Deskbased survey report). SSA29094.

Sources

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