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April 30, 2024The West Gatehouse and Llanthony Road by Dr Chris Barnes
The West Gatehouse and Llanthony Road:
For centuries, the remains of Llanthony Secunda Priory’s West Gatehouse have probably been the site’s most remarkable and iconic standing monument. Sited on what is now Llanthony Road, the gatehouse has been much admired by travellers, tourists, artists, and commuters throughout its history. This blog will examine the gatehouse’s history and its historic relationship with both sides of its gate.
Blog Contents:
The Gatehouse's Construction and Use, c.1500
The West Gatehouse was the main entranceway into the Priory Precinct. There were also gatehouses from the South (discovered during the construction of nearby Llanthony Place) and East, besides another major gatehouse leading into the inner precinct (discovered during the construction of Gloucestershire College). The West Gatehouse was initially sited on a raised trackway that ran between Hempsted and Southgate Street in Gloucester.
The gatehouse’s current remains were built on the site of an even older entranceway sometime between 1494 and 1500. Today, only the pedestrian access remains, but some of the arch support for the vehicular access can still be seen branching out of it’s left-hand side. The gatehouse was two storeys high, with a small room above housing a porter with a window and wooden shutter. The gatehouse is pinnacled, crenelated, and faced with oolite ashlar.
The gatehouse, and the adjacent precinct wall, which was also constructed around this period, was intended not only to serve as a clear and secure boundary for the site, preventing trespassing individuals, but also to act as a grand entrance to welcome people into Llanthony Secunda Priory.
An interpretation of the gatehouse in full is pictured here:
An interpretation of the West Gatehouse and Priory c.1530.
Image and Reconstruction: Llanthony Secunda Priory Trust ©
The Three Coats of Arms: Royalty, Prior, and Patron
We can be fairly certain about the date due to the three coats of arms that are still just about distinguishable above the pedestrian entrance, those of the de Bohun family, Prior Henry Dene, and King Henry VII.
The Gatehouse's Coats of Arms (c.1896).
The Gatehouse's Coats of Arms (2023).
Patron: the de Bohun Family
Beneath the window and on the left-hand side is the coat of arms for the de Bohun family. The de Bohuns were great benefactors to the priory over many centuries, and many were buried within the priory’s chapter house and church (click here for more information). The arms themselves are: 'azure, a bend argent between six lions rampant or'.
The de Bohun Armorial Arms.
Image: Sodacan, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Prior: Henry Dene
Beneath the window and on the right hand-side is the coat of arms of Prior Henry Dene. Henry Dene was a significant figure within Llanthony Secunda Priory's history and certainly deserves his own blog entry in the future! Dene was Prior of Llanthony Secunda Priory between 1467 and 1501. Whilst prior, he also held roles as Justice of the Peace for Gloucestershire (1493-9), Privy Councillor and Chancellor of Ireland (1494-6), Lord Deputy of Ireland (1496), Bishop of Bangor (1494-1500), Bishop of Salisbury (1500-1501) and Keeper of the Great Seal (1500-1502). In 1501 Dene was elected Archbishop of Canterbury, subsequently resigning the priorate of Llanthony. His principal work at Llanthony Secunda was to rebuild the priory church itself in the 1490s. He was evidently also responsible for the Western Gatehouse. The arms themselves bear the same personal arms as the sinister side of his archiepiscopal seal: 'A chevron between three choughs'.
Henry Dene's Armorial Arms.
Image: Llanthony Secunda Priory Trust, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Royalty: King Henry VII
Above the window is the royal coat of arms for King Henry VII. Henry VII was the first Tudor monarch, seizing the crown in 1485 and holding it until his death in 1509, and perhaps most famous now for being the father of the infamous King Henry VIII. It has been suggested that the gatehouse was constructed either for or in commemoration of the visits of King Henry VII in 1500 and 1501. Henry VII visited Llanthony Secunda Priory on at least three occasions. He issued letters, writs, and commissions as Dene’s guest here in December 1500, May-June 1501, and August 1501. When Dene was appointed archbishop in August 1501, Henry served him the grant of temporalities to him whilst here at Llanthony. The gatehouse would have served a grand entrance, literally fit for a King.
The Royal Arms of King Henry VII.
Image: Sodacan, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Dissolution and Decay, 1538-1775
When the priory was dissolved in 1538 and later purchased by Arthur Porter, former under steward to the priory and a local gentleman, for £723 in 1540, many of these auxiliary buildings were leased out as either tenements or for agricultural purposes.
6The exact fate of the gatehouse during this period is uncertain. It is possible that the room above the gatehouse had become a family's house by the 1640s. In January 1644 an order was made at the city’s quarter sessions of the peace stating that Francis Taynton, his wife, and four children had dwelled ‘in parte of the buildings belonging to the late dissolved priory of Lanthony called the Gatehouse’. Francis Taynton and his wife had evidently died, leaving four small children with any form of maintenance. The court ultimately ordered that Clement Rogers, gent., and all other occupants of the site and lands of the dissolved priory should pay a total of 6 shillings weekly towards their maintenance.
This reference may, however, refer to a separate gatehouse on the site. It is certain that a ‘Middle Gatehowse’ was still standing in 1634 when it was leased, alongside other parts of the site, by Viscount John Scudamore to Edward Spencer. This gatehouse was likely the one that separated the inner precinct (by then mansion house) and the working outer precinct, the foundations of which were discovered in an archaeological dig in 2007 prior to the construction of Gloucestershire College. There was also a South Gatehouse that was converted into a dwelling house following the dissolution. This gatehouse was likely pulled down in 1720, and may be a more likely candidate for the Taynton's lodgings.
Nevertheless, at some point the West Gatehouse's large archway over the vehicular access fell. Much damage was caused to the site when the Royalists used the site as a camp and artillery post during the Siege of Gloucester in 1643, and it is possible that the building was damaged then and deemed not worthy to repair. It is certain, however, that only the present remains of the gatehouse were left standing by 1775.
The order for the occupants of Llanthony to pay poor relief to the Taynton children (1644).
Image: GBR/G3/SO/4, Courtesy of Gloucestershire Archives.
Romantic Ruin, 1775-1850
By the late 18th century, as the new ‘picturesque’ movement swept the country influencing art and aesthetics, Llanthony Secunda’s gatehouse had become an idyllic ruin. This movement lauded nature in its most rugged and natural state, elevating ruins to symbols of romantic fascination and majestic magnificence. Irregular, anti-classical ruins across the country suddenly become the subject of tourism and art. A number of engravings and paintings of the gatehouse survive from this period.
Image: Francis Grose, 'Antiquities of England and Wales, 1773-76' (1775).
Engraving by John Coney, from Dugdale's 'Monasticon Angelicum' (1823).
Such was the alluring beauty of the gatehouse, that the politician George Selwyn even wished to move it to his own residence! In September 1753, Horace Walpole wrote to Richard Bentley after visiting the priory. He describes the remains of ‘a pretty old gateway, which G. Selwyn has begged, to erect on the top of his mountain, and it will have a charming effect’. Selwyn, was MP for Ludgershall between 1747 and 1754, MP for Gloucester between 1754 and 1780, Mayor of Gloucester in 1758 and 1765, before returning as MP for Ludgershall between 1780 and 1791. He was infamous for spending 44 years in the House of Commons without every having made a speech. Whilst in Gloucester, Selwyn lived at his ancestral manor, Matson House, and the mountain referred to was nearby Robinswood Hill. It is quite a thought that our gatehouse's fate was almost to be sat at the top of Robinswood Hill!
George Augustus Selwyn (standing); Richard Edgcumbe, 2nd Baron Edgcumbe; George James Williams, by James Scott, published 1865 by Henry Graves.
A ‘Rude Dwelling-house’ and a Sighting of the Virgin Mary, c.1850-1930
In 1884 a report in the Gloucester Chronicle detailed that ‘under or close to the old gateway of the demolished Abbey of Llanthony a rude dwelling-house has been constructed. Persons who have been employed on the farm and have worked at the neighbouring docks have lived there’. The house can be seen in this painting attributed to William Smith:
A watercolour of the farmyard at Llanthony in the 19th century.
Image: Watercolour attributed to William Smith (1820-1893). Courtesy of the Museum of Gloucester, Art01123.
Curiously, the 1884 newspaper report alleged that nearly all people who lived in that house professed their belief in having seen a vision. It continues to say that a woman who lived in ‘the house under the arch of the old ruined gateway’ had apparently seen, as she was lying in bed one morning, a beautiful female or lady rise from the floor of the room and stand before her. Her face was reputedly ‘more lovely than any human she had beheld before and was as bright as the golden sun. Her raiment was as lovely, as lustrous, as translucent and transparent as that delicate texture which is woven in the loom of the rainbow. The woman could not be alarmed, for there was such a heavenly sweetness in her look and radiant smile. She vanished in a moment in a golden mist of dazzling splendour, leaving behind her the pleasant odour of flowers’. This vision was believed to have been the Virgin Mary. Furthermore, when the article’s author passed by the site, some children exclaimed, pointing at the door, ‘That is where the vision of the lovely lady appears’. People living there since had also claimed to have seen ‘the lovely’ or ‘the beautiful lady’.
However, when the reporter spoke to a local corn porter, Harry Dyke, he rebuked the claims, exclaiming his belief that they were simply pretending to have seen the vision to try and invent an excuse for getting out of their agreement with the landlord, as they were tremendously behind on their rent!
This house appears to have been demolished at some point between 1921 and 1946, but the base of this house’s walls can still be seen abutting the rear of the gatehouse today.
The rear of the gatehouse, with the remains of the 19th Century house's walls at its base.
During this time, the gatehouse was often photographed, both for personal use and as greeting cards. A few examples of which follow:
A photograph of the gatehouse taken around 1880.
Image: Courtesy of Gloucestershire Archives, SRprints/GL60.33GS.
A photograph of the gatehouse in 1896.
Image: Compiled by Sydney Pitcher. Courtesy of Gloucestershire Archives, SR38/29157.28GS.
A photograph of the gatehouse taken around 1896.
Image: Courtesy of Gloucestershire Archives, SRprints/GL60.28GS.
Llanthony Road: Rural Trackway to Commuter’s Journey, 1500-2024
The majority of the current admirers of the Western Gatehouse will no doubt pass by it, often twice daily whilst stuck at the traffic lights, in and out of the City of Gloucester and Gloucester Quays. However, the road was very different only one hundred years ago, let alone five hundred.
Initially, the portion of the road beside the gatehouse, now known as ‘Llanthony Road’, was a continuation of ‘Hempsted Lane’. This road was a raised rural trackway, with the river and marshes on the opposite side. Illustrations such as this highlight the differences throughout time:
The gatehouse and lane leading to Hempsted around 1830.
The gatehouse and road leading to Hempsted in 2023.
Image: Google Street View.
Gloucester’s industrial revolution in the late 18th and 19th centuries saw an ever-increasing amount of use. Those often stuck in rush hour traffic around the priory may even find solace in the fact that traffic complaints were a regular occurrence following the construction and completion of the Gloucester Docks, the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, and the Gloucester and Dean railway yard in the early 20th century. For example, one anonymous complaint to a local newspaper in 1911 cited the time often required to wait with his bicycle at Llanthony Crossing, Llanthony Canal Bridge (ten minutes or more), and finally the GWR Crossing (eight to ten minutes) in succession each day, and begged for ‘the rotten road’ as far as Llanthony Abbey to be repaired, ‘and so prevent serious accidents’.
From 1850 the portion of road appears to have been interchangeably referred to as both ‘Hempsted Lane’ and ‘Llanthony Road’. An official change to the former seems to have officially taken place before 1947, with the new OS map labelling it as very much part of ‘Llanthony Road’. With all the additional traffic, it was clearly no longer able to claim itself as a lane!
It is notable that the gatehouse has suffered significant damage to its façade since the increase in local activity. Pollution from nearby works and passing vehicles has ultimately caused the decay of the coats of arms, in particular. Evidently decipherable 100 years ago, the arms’ details are unfortunately no longer visible.
In July 2023 the dual carriageway and segregated cycleway of footpath at Llanthony Road was fully opened and in operation. Thorough engagement between the council, contractors, Historic England, and Llanthony Secunda Priory Trust saw the size of the adjacent footpath increase, an historic lamppost moved away from the significant wayside cross within the early-16th century precinct wall, the use of sympathetic materials, and ultimately helped to ensure the future protection of the gatehouse and precinct wall.
Llanthony Secunda Priory Trust remain committed to protect and preserve the remains of the West Gatehouse, so that it may continue to be enjoyed by travellers, tourists, and commuters for years to come. If you would like to donate to our cause, please click here. Alternatively, please help support our cause us through visiting us, checking out our events, or consider us as a venue for your next event!
The gatehouse undergoing conservation work in 2010.
Sources
Cotswold Archaeology, Llanthony Secunda Re-formation Project, Llanthony Priory, Gloucester: Archaeological Watching Brief (October 2002).
Dugdale, W. Monasticon Anglicanum (1693), Vol. II. (London, 1846).
Gloucestershire Archives, GBR/G3/SO/4.
Horace Walpole’s Correspondence with John Chute, Richard Bentley, the Earl of Strafford, Sir William Hamilton, the Earl and Countess Harcourt and George Hardinge (New Haven, 1973).
Hughes, P., and J. Rhodes., Llanthony Priory Gloucester: A Historical Evaluation (unpublished, 2003).
Rhodes, J., ed., A Calendar of the Registers of the Priory of Llanthony by Gloucester, 1457-1466, 1501-1525 (Bristol, 2002).
‘A Reported Miracle at the Gloucester Llanthony’, Gloucester Chronicle, 6 September 1884.
‘Level Crossings’, The Citizen, 3 January 1911.
