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Monument Types

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

Associated Events

• Cathedral roundabout (Ref: WCM101135)
• College Gates (Ref: WCM101216)

Full description

Medieval ecclesiastical precinct gatehouse.

The College Grates (or College Gates) stood at the end of the High Street and gave access to the cathedral precinct via the lay cemetery (WCM 96352).

In 1750 a design was to be sought from an architect for 'a proper ornamental portico in the Gothick style in order to be erected over the great gate of the cathedral instead of a mean deformed covering now over the gate falling into ruins'. Noake speculated that this was probably for the College Gates, rather than for the Edgar Tower or cathedral porch {1}.

The College Gates appear in the Parliamentary Survey, when it consisted of three rooms, a study and a toploft, and was rented out by the cathedral. The 'turnpike at the college grate' was 'mentioned in 1735, as being made of oak or scantlin; probably the gates had been superseded by a pike or wooden bar'.

The gates and gatehouse were demolished in advance of the construction of College Street. The street was built in 1799, though the Parliamentary Act permitting it was passed c.40 years earlier and supplementary powers were sought by the cathedral in 1788 and 1795. Under these, the interest of the Dean & Chapter in two houses, in two occupancies, at the college grates were bought out by the turnpike trustees. A notice of the agreement included details of the properties: one extended four feet beyond the west wall of the gateway, over a shop, and a stone staircase led up to the first floor {2}.

The gates appear on Doharty's map of 1741 and Young's map of 1779. On the map published by Valentine Green in 1795 they have gone, leaving a gap in the Lich Street frontage where they stood, on the line marked out for College Street.

According to the caption of an engraving 'South side of the College Grates, Worcester' by J. Ross, the gatehouse was demolished in April 1794 to make the new road. The engraving shows, on the south side, a depressed pointed four-centred archway of probable 15th-century character, recessed in four orders. A masonry wall is returning (south) towards the artist on the west side of the gate. Looking through the passage there is an archway with a semi-circular head towards the High Street elevation, though it is framed by a rectangular opening (?timber-framed) immediately outside. There is a plain masonry wall shown above the archway on the south elevation {3}.

Cross-reference to: 96353, The Lich Gate
Cross-reference to: 96385, The Lay Cemetery

Sources and further reading

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