Droitwich Town Gates (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Droitwich Spa.
In the historic county of Worcestershire.
Modern Authority of Worcestershire.
1974 county of Hereford and Worcester.
Medieval County of Worcestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO899633
Latitude 52.26833° Longitude -2.14861°

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

There are no visible remains.

Description

Possibly had defensive town gates, not associated with wall or bank, now vanished. (Bond)

The territorial area of the borough at present covers 1,856 acres, or less than three square miles. An enlargement followed the Reform Act, which, however, affected the population rather than acreage, and the mediaeval acreage appears to have been approximately what it is now. It does not appear that the urban inhabited area of the Middle Ages was inclosed by any wall; a ditch and toll gates were probably its sole defences. (In an account of 1633 there is an allusion to the 'filling of the pit at Worcester gate.') No murage grant was made to the borough. (VCH 1913)

No murage grant was made to the borough but there may have been a ditch and gates to control traffic for commercial purposes (VCH 1913, 79; Bond and Hunt 1992, 194). (Dalwood and Bryant)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 890420.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

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. 266
  Bond, C.J. and Hunt, A., 1992, 'The town: c 400-c 1900' in Woodiwiss (ed), Iron Age and Roman Salt production and the medieval town of Droitwich (CBA Research Report 81) p. 186-99
  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
  Page, Wm and Willis-Bund, J.W. (eds), 1913, VCH Worcestershire Vol. 3 p. 79 online transcription
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Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dalwood, H. and Bryant, V. (eds), 2005, The Central Marches Historic Towns Survey 1992-6 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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