Lincoln Cathedral Close Wall (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Lincoln.
In the historic county of Lincolnshire.
Modern Authority of Lincolnshire.
1974 county of Lincolnshire.
Medieval County of Lincolnshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK97787175
Latitude 53.23378° Longitude -0.53663°

Lincoln Cathedral Close Wall has been described as a certain Fortified Ecclesiastical site.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The Dean and Chapter received licenses to crenellate the Cathedral. The first for a 12 foot wall (issued 1285 and repeated 1316) the second to raise the wall and add turrets (issued 1318). Defences to protect the clergy from night attacks and the licences required the gates to open during the day. The boundaries of the Close at Lincoln can still be traced and, in many places, the wall is extant. The building is of a 12ft high stone wall with gates was permitted by royal licence in 1285. Licence to crenellate was given in 1308 or 1316. The monument consists of parts of wall constructed in the late C13 or early C14, forming a polygonal bay jutting from the enciente of the colonia, to enclose land around the westward extension of the cathedral within the colonia. Apparently intact in 1722 with three of four towers. The scheduled parts of the close wall are: a) South of the cathedral, North of the Old Palace, much patched. b) Off Winnowsty Lane, a ruined square tower and a small section of wall. c) In gardens between Eastgate and Pottergate including a fairly well preserved tower. d) This section of wall is 15-18ft high, rubble built with a line of four corbels for a lean-to structure at the west end. There is a forced opening blocked with bricks. e) Priory Gate, a single pointed arch without flanking towers c. 1330. There was an elevation survey done of part of the wall in 1995. (Lincolnshire HER)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1285 May 8 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).
A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1316 Feb 24.
A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1318 Dec 6.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1005009, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number li114
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 70180; 70155.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Heritage Connect Lincoln
  Abaroth's World
Books
- Osborne, Mike, 2010, Defending Lincolnshire: A Military History from Conquest to Cold War (The History Press) p. 55, 62, 63-4, 64, 65, 66
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of the East Midlands (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 53
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 167
  Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press) p. 143-4
  Jones, Michael J., 1993, 'Medieval Lincoln' in Bennett, S. and Bennett, N. (eds), An Historical Atlas of Lincolnshire (University of Hull Press) p. 32-3
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1
  Hill, J.W.F., 1948, Medieval Lincoln p. 115-6, 121-3
Periodical Articles
- Coulson, C., 1982, 'Hierarchism in Conventual Crenellation: An Essay in the Sociology and Metaphysics of Medieval Fortification' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 26 p. 69-100 see online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1893, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward I (1281-91) Vol. 2 p. 161 online copy
  Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1898, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward II (1313-17) Vol. 2 p. 436 online copy
  Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1903, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward II (1317-21) Vol. 3 p. 257 online copy
  Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1891, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1327-30) Vol. 1 p. 219 (Commission to survey walls in 1327) online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Mouraille, R. and Trimble, D., 1998, Structural Survey of Cathedral Close Wall Pottergate Lincoln (A.P.A. Report No. 44.98) online copy
  Brann, M., 1995, Lincoln Cathedral Close Wall Survey (Phase 3) (City of Lincoln Archaeology Unit 221) online copy
  HBMC, 1988, Scheduling record: AM 107. SAM 114

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It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

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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