Stourbridge Town Gates (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Heath Gate

In the civil parish of Stourbridge.
In the historic county of Worcestershire.
Modern Authority of Dudley.
1974 county of West Midlands.
Medieval County of Worcestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO900842
Latitude 52.45580° Longitude -2.14837°

Stourbridge Town Gates has been described as a Urban Defence although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

In the introduction to his listing Bond writes "Another primary function of ramparts and walls- arguably for most of the time an even more important one- was the control of people and goods entering the town. The gates served as points of collection of tolls and could be an aid to policing and the exclusion of undesirable or diseased persons. Indeed, a number of small towns had gates without and additional linear defences other than the rear boundaries of their burgage plots."
The description of the gates of Stourbridge in the mid C17 (VCH) as being readily opened and shut by a boy suggests these were little more than simple gates between post with no defensive quality.
Given map reference is for parish church. Heath Gate will have been south of this. The northern entrance to the town was the bridge.

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. 266
  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
  Willis-Bund, J.W., 1913, 'Parishes: Old Swinford' VCH Worcestershire Vol. 3 p. 213-23 online transcription

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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.

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