Monument record MDO19004 - Medieval Gate, Gallows Hill, Dorchester

Speed's map of Dorchester shows 3 gates on the south side at South Street, Acland Road, and Icen Way (Gallows Hill). None of the gates are named as such. <1>

The gate found by Mr Jowett on Gallows Hill appears to have been Roman. Mr Moule thought it may have been the Durngate documented in 1410. <2>

[SY69639045]. Gate jambs were found close to Culliford House while a drain was being dug many years ago by Mr Jowett, the town surveyor. In October 1642, mention is made of three south gates. <3>

Early development plans consulted in the Borough Engineer's Office show the only drain that could have been constructed by Mr Jowett as extending from Culliford House to the NW, ie some 50m inside the Roman defences and not on the line any road. No trace of antiquity was found, but the site is accepted as in line with the defences, although the evidence for it being Roman is doubtful. <4>

(SY696904) Gallows Hill. The local antiquary E Cunnington claimed that the foundations of what he called the East gate had been exposed and desroyed `between the SE angle of the walks - where Culliford House now stands - and the S end of Woolaston Terrace. Whatever these remains were, and they were presumably substantial, their evidencet position about the end of Linden Avenue shows that they were too far behind the SE corner to have belonged to a gate in the defences as they are known to us, despite the suggestion that they may have been foreshortened at this corner. However, although a road towards the industrially important area of Purbeck is as likely to have proceeded from the East Gate, there is nothing improbable in the idea of a Roman predecessor to the gallows Hill Gate, even if it did not conform to the known street grid. The only evidence for a street leading to it is to be found in the narrow road of doubtful date at Culliford House, but the possibility has been noted of an interruption in the town ditch e of Culliford Road which ould be consistent with the existence of a Roman gate. <5>

<1> Speed, John, 1610, Small scale plan of Dorchester (Map). SDO19854.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1891, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, xxxi (Serial). SDO7.

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1893, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, 50 (Serial). SDO8.

<4> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 20-Aug-1954 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<5> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 550 (Monograph). SDO150.

<6> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1430748 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:35PM