Morpeth Town Gates (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Morpeth.
In the historic county of Northumberland.
Modern Authority of Northumberland.
1974 county of Northumberland.
Medieval County of Northumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ1958644
Latitude 55.17194° Longitude -1.69493°

Morpeth Town Gates has been described as a probable Urban Defence.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Oldgate
The entrance to Oldgate from the market place is dominated by the clock tower which sits in the middle of the street and was probably constructed in the first quarter of the 17th century. A gate or barrier is shown blocking the west end of the street on the 1604 plan (HER 11199)
Newgate Street
As with Oldgate, the 1604 plan shows a gateway or barrier blocking the end of the street (HER 11198). (Northumberland Extensive Urban Survey)

Listed as New post-Conquest medieval defensive circuits consisting only of gates based on circumstantial or secondary evidence only. (Bond 1987)

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N11198; N11199.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2013, Medieval Walled Towns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 157 (listed as gates only)
  Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 38, 218, 270
  Bond, C.J., 1987, 'Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Defences' in Schofield, J. and Leech, R. (eds) Urban Archaeology in Britain (CBA Research Report 61) p. 92-116 online copy
  Hodgson, J. 1832, History of Morpeth (London) p. 59
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, Oliver, 2006, ''Castles of Communities': Medieval Town Defences in England; Wales and Gascony' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 75-86
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Northumberland County Council, 2009, 'Morpeth' Northumberland Extensive Urban Survey doi:10.5284/1000177 download copy

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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