Summary

The site of a gatehouse built in about 1375 as part of the defensive circuit of the city. The gate had several names throughout its history, including Dern Gate, Bastille Gate, Earls Mill Gate, Mill Lane Gate and Down Water Gate.

Monument Type(s):

• GATEHOUSE (Later Medieval to Victorian - 1375 AD to 1849 AD)
• TOWN DEFENCES (Later Medieval to Victorian - 1375 AD to 1849 AD)

Protected Status: None recorded

Full description

1> Bastille Gate (site.
2> Also known as Mill Lane Gate, Dern Gate, Down Water Gate and Earls Mill or
Earls Milne Gate. Erected c1375, it was the last gate to be demolished, in
1849.
3> Depicted.
4> Dernyate in 1411 and the Derneyate called the Bastell in 1480, lay at bottom of
Earls Mill Lane just S of river. Occupied c 1675, survived until 1849.
Appears to have been a rectangular 2- storeyed building with embattled
parapets, but an extra storey was added when it was converted to a dwelling
c.1675.
5> Depicted with turret or cupola on roof, & gate was pierced by a single arch.
6> Called Mill Gate as it was the entrance to the Earl's Mill (which existed in 1087); Bastill gate because a Hospital for old people stood about where Cope Street is now.
7,8> Mr A Brown, aged 96 in 1933 remembers the Gate when occupied when he was 10years old. It was taken down in 1847 and he kept part of the old lock from the door as a memento.

<1> 1961, OS 1:2500, - (-MAP). SCT813.

<2> Nowell C, 1924, Some Account of the Gates, Towers, and Wall of the City of Coventry, - (--MONOGRAPH). SCT650.

<3> Speed, John, 1610, Map of Coventry, - (-MAP). SCT807.

<4> Pugh, R. B. (ed), 1969, Victoria County History: A History of the County of Warwickshire - Volume VIII, 8: 22-3 (--VOLUME). SCT683.

<5> Bradford, Samuel, 1748, A Plan of the City of Coventry, - (-MAP). SCT805.

<6> Austin's Monthly Magazine of Instructive and Useful Information, 1932-1939, Extracts from "Austin's Monthly Magazine" of articles written by Mr J.B. Shelton 1932 - 1938, Vol. XXV No.313 (--ARTICLE). SCT1615.

<7> Austin's Monthly Magazine of Instructive and Useful Information, 1932-1939, Extracts from "Austin's Monthly Magazine" of articles written by Mr J.B. Shelton 1932 - 1938, Vol.XXV No.314 (--ARTICLE). SCT1615.

<8> J. B. Shelton, 1949, The Story of Twenty-Two Years Excavations in Coventry, p.9-10 (-MANUSCRIPT). SCT1614.

Sources and Further Reading

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• ECT397 - Observations at Cox Street/Priory Street 1933
• ECT680 - Conservation Management Plan Condition Survey for Medieval Defences

Related records

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