Monument Type(s):

• TOWN GATE (13th century - 1200 AD to 1299 AD)
• PRISON (17th century - 1640 AD? to 1660 AD?)

Summary

Broad Gate was probably built after 1284; earliest documentary reference is in 1318. The dungeon in the eastern tower was used as a prison during the Civil War. It is protected by Grade I Listing.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA5472 - 1966 Architectural Survey of Ludlow by Manchester University School of Architecture/RCHME

Description

C13 gate-house to Town Wall; C16-C18 domestic additions; now dwellings.
Rubble; roughcast; plain tile roof; brick end stacks; brick stack with decorative spurs. 2-storeys over entrance passage and associated basements; 5-window range: C20, 6/6 sashes with C18 sashes with board glazing bars and small old glass to centre. Machicolated parapet and gable with lead panel.
Entrance, in left return, has steps and handrail to C18, 6 fielded panel door in moulded case with moulded and enriched hood on clustered-shaft pilasters. Recessed wing to left has two tiers of 6/6 sashes with stucco keyblocks. C19 iron railings between entrance and drop to roadway, rising from stone coping of rubble wing wall. Entrance passage displays ceiling joists and retains portcullis arch and blocked arrow slits at base of drum towers. Plank door and two fixed lights to right of entrance arch. Right return of brick and rubble, with three 6/6 sashes and, in gable, one 6/9 sash in moulded case. Lower Broad Street facade displays stuccoed bay over passage, with 2-light casements with glazing bars and one 6/6 sash in moulded case over; coped gable.
Flanked by stuccoed drum towers; to right with sandstone quoins of (blocked) arrowslits, the upper flanked by C18, 2-light windows with casements; band over; parapet in front of gable with brick stack having decorative spur; to left, stucco with parapet and brick stacks over, obscured by pair of 6/6 sashes in altered openings under timber lintel; 6/6 sash over plank door with fixed light over, under timber lintel.
Early C19, 2-storey wing to left, of rubble with C20 plain tile roof. 2-window range of 8/8 sashes; entrance to left has C20, 6-panel door in ornamental entablature on moulded pilasters; 8/12 sashes under stone gable, with massive rubble stack, with brick superstructure. (Lloyd D: Broad Street - its houses and residents through eight centuries: 1979-; Clifton-Taylor A: Six English Towns: 1970-: pp154-155) <1>

Broad Gate probably built after 1284; earliest documentary reference is in 1318. Gate and defences probably built in late 13th century. The dungeon in the eastern tower was used as a prison during the Civil War <3>

CMHTS Record Sheet <4>

CMHTS Report <5>

Drawn by students from Manchester University School of Architecture in 1966. Copied from microfiche. <7>

Panelling, with carpenters' mitres at all four corners, occurs in one of the rooms. The panels are raised and fielded and the one over the fireplace has a bolection-moulded surround; the work could be early C18 particularly as the panels are large and rectangular. The overmantel in the rear bedroom has a view of Ludlow painted directly onto the plasterwork; it must date between 1772 and 1794. Photographs of S front, panelling and painting.<14>

Easel type painting of Dinham Bridge c.1730-1740 in first-floor chamber. <15>

<00> Shropshire County Council SMR, Site and Monuments Record (SMR) cards, SMR Card for PRN SA 11006 (Card index). SSA20722.

<01> Department of National Heritage (DNH), 1993-Aug-09, 14th List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, p.95 (List of Buildings). SSA11136.

<02> Watson Michael D, Unknown, Broad Gate, Ludlow (1 Slide) (Photograph). SSA13216.

<03> Lloyd D J & Moran Madge, 1978, The Corner Shop - a History of Bodenhams from the Middle Ages, p11-12 (Volume). SSA11565.

<04> Dalwood Hal, 1993/ 1996, CMHTS SMR Records Shropshire: Ludlow, Ludlow 11006 (Record form). SSA19968.

<05> Dalwood Hal et al, 1996, Archaeological Assessment of Ludlow, Shropshire (CMHTS) (Historic landscape survey report). SSA12072.

<06> Woodhead C et al, 1967, Ludlow: Microfiche from Manchester University (Building survey drawing). SSA21322.

<07> Woodhead C et al, 1967, Ludlow: Microfiche from Manchester University (Building survey drawing). SSA21322.

<08> Department of the Environment (DoE), 1974-Mar-15, 2nd List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, p111 (List of Buildings). SSA805.

<09> Pevsner Nikolaus, 1958, Buildings of England (Shropshire), p187 (Monograph). SSA110.

<10> Clifton-Taylor A, 1979, Six English Towns, p154-155 (Monograph). SSA22891.

<11> Lloyd D J, 1979, Broad Street - Its Houses and Residents Through Eight Centuries (Volume). SSA11566.

<12> Rosenbaum M, 2005, Ludlow's Building Stones. A walk to show how the town has benefited from Ludlovian geology (Leaflet). SSA23336.

<13> Newman J & Pevsner N, 2006, Buildings of England: Shropshire, P381 (Monograph). SSA23518.

<14> Moran Madge, 2003, Vernacular Buildings of Shropshire, pp. 137, 201, 202, 340 (Monograph). SSA22146.

<15> Davies Kathryn, 2008, Artisan art: vernacular wall paintings in the Welsh Marches, 1550-1650, p.158 Gazetteer no 94 (Monograph). SSA29284.

Sources

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