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Monument Types

• TOWN GATE (MEDIEVAL - 1066 AD to 1539 AD (between))
• TOWN GATE (POST MEDIEVAL - 1540 AD to 1900 AD (between))

Associated Events

• Friars Gate, Union Street (Ref: WCM100263)

Full description

Medieval postern gate and bridge over city ditch. City wall continues to S as WCM 96104 and to N as WCM 96107.

First mentioned in 1231, when Henry III ordered the bailiffs to enlarge the postern in the wall to allow easier passage of firewood etc into the city for the friars (see WCM 96029 and 96030 for Greyfriars intramural and extramural sites). In 1246 the friars again received royal permission for construction of a postern, suggesting another rebuilding episode {1}. In 1543-45 the Corporation paid for a new gate and a new bridge over the ditch; they also paid for a gatekeeper. At that time no rents were received from it but by 1767 it and rooms over it were leased out. The gate may have been rebuilt in 1643 when building materials were ordered for it. Beardsmore suggests that it had certainly gone by 1820 when Friars Lane/Blockhouse Lane was enlarged to form Union Street {2}. The 18th-century maps (Doharty 1741, Young 1779, Green’s map of 1795) show a building on the inside of the city wall on the south side of Blockhouse Lane, suggesting that side of the structure survived longest or had been rebuilt.

The so-called 'French visitor's map' of c 1650 shows a square gatehouse and a three-arched bridge.

In 1976 the city wall and associated features were exposed in Union Street during construction of the City Walls Road (WCM 100263). They were salvage recorded by Jan Wills. None of the superstructure of the gate survived but the city wall was thickened at this point. Four sockets in the wall face may have seated horizontal timbers belonging to the bridge over the ditch. The earliest of a sequence of cobbled surfaces under Union Street inside the wall may have represented the metalling of Friars Lane approaching the gate. A sandstone wall footing was found parallel to the city wall and three metres outside it in the partly silted ditch (WCM 96135, WCM 96136): this was interpreted as a support for a bridge trestle. A later bridge phase was represented by a further outward thickening of the city wall and two side walls perpendicular to its outer face, pierced for drainage. These were of poor construction, and incorporated some brick, and may have belonged to the documented rebuilding of the gate and bridge in 1543-45; alternatively, they may have been of Civil War date. Recording of strata inside the city wall showed that its construction had cut through the earlier bank (WCM 96140) also found on sites to the south (see WCM 100156, WCM 100045). The city wall was dated by the excavator to the 13th century or later, on the basis of late 12th/early 13th-century pottery found under the footings. The gatehouse and bridge remains are documented as having been preserved in situ below the roadways. {3}.

Drawings in a City Walls paper file show that consideration was given during 1976 to retaining parts of the gatehouse foundations and the adjoining City Wall to the S as visible features, closing off Union Street. When it emerged that there was insufficient money to do this, the City Architect and Planning Officer asked that the County Council 'ensure that the landscaping that is provided over the wall at this point would in no way hinder a future scheme to display this feature' .

Cross-reference to: 96030, Greyfriars extramural precinct
Cross-reference to: 96149, Civil War blockhouse

Sources and further reading

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