Macclesfield Town Defences (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Macclesfield.
In the historic county of Cheshire.
Modern Authority of Cheshire.
1974 county of Cheshire.
Medieval County of Cheshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ9274
Latitude 53.26074° Longitude -2.12703°

Macclesfield Town Defences has been described as a certain Urban Defence.

There are no visible remains.

Description

No remains of medieval earthen ramparts. (Bond)

About the year 1100, the town was fortified, and we find that whilst it continued the residence of the Earls of Chester it was surrounded by a rampart, or walled fence, which had three principal gates, called, respectively, Jordangate, Chestergate, and Wall, or Wellgate, which names are still retained although no vestiges of the gates remain. The former, it is said derived its title from Jordan de Macklesfield living here in 1347, one of a family of Stayley, who held considerable property in this Chapelry, and the proper name of the river in this part, is by some considered to be the Jordan, but we find no mention of it under this title. The question is not very easy of solution, unless we suppose the stream flowing through Macclesfield and Sutton to be called the Jordan till its juncture with the Shrigley Brook, which perhaps, originally might be called the Bollin, giving name to Bollington and afterwards styled "The Dean," but certainly so called before 1470, as the name of Dean Row then occurs. The second gate was so called from being the principal entrance from the Chester side of the Borough. Wallgate seems to be a corruption, and the name derived from the Town Wall, or, as others assert, from a very ancient well, which formerly supplied water to the inmates of the Castle which stood here in the Fifteenth Century. (Finney)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Creighton, O.H. and Higham, R.A., 2005, Medieval Town Walls (Stroud: Tempus) p. 269
  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
  Finney, Issac, 1873, Macklesfelde in Ye Olden Time online copy
  Ormerod, G., 1819, History of the County Palatine and city of Chester (London) Vol. 3 p. 364, 451 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, Oliver, 2006, ''Castles of Communities': Medieval Town Defences in England; Wales and Gascony' Château Gaillard Vol. 22 p. 75-86

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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.
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