ROMAN ARCHES IN LINCOLN UK.

 

PRIORY GATE - LINCOLN.

A very short distance from the east end of Lincoln Cathedral stands Priory Gate, which marks the location of one of the old medieval gates that gave access to the cathedral close. This gateway, surmounted with battlements as if it still served a defensive purpose, straddles the north end of Pottergate.

 

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NEWPORT ARCH.



The most famous Roman remain in Lincoln, and the best preserved. The gateway straddles Bailgate, at the northern extremity of the old roman city, where the old roman Ermine street struck north towards York. The Newport Arch dates to the start of the 2nd century AD. It gave access from the city to Ermine street, the main roman road north to York. It is famous as the only Roman Arch in Britain still in use for daily transportation. In the fourth century the city walls were strengthened and at that time Newport probably consisted of a central arch for traffic flanked by two smaller pedestrian arches. An upper floor topped the archway and the whole structure was flanked by twin towers. The whole structure would have risen to a height of 26 feet above ground level. The arch we see today is merely the upper section of the inner arch; the outer section was destroyed in the 17th century. There is no record of any attacks upon the arch or the city walls during roman times, though the gates here were attacked in the 13th century, during the battle of Lincoln Fair. It is rather remarkable that the archway still stands, for in 1964 a tall lorry tried to pass under the central arch and became stuck, dislodging bits of the archway which had stood for 1800 years or more. The considerable damage caused by the lorry was repaired, and the arch still straddles Bailgate and traffic still goes through the arch.

 

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Part of the old Roman wall.

 

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THE EAST GATE OF ROMAN LINCOLN.

The ruin that you see here is part of the eastern gateway into roman Lincoln. Several gateways have stood on this spot starting with a wooden gate to the roman fortress, built in about AD 60. The wooden posts inside the ruin mark the positions of timbers from this early gate. The stone ruin is the base of a semi-circular tower - it was one of a pair ( the other is under the road ) which flanked two arched gateways. You can see a doorway into the tower and the start of a flight of steps leading to the upper storeys. Built in the early 200s, this was the last and the grandest roman gateway on this spot. It stayed in use long after the Romans left Lincoln. These remains were excavated in 1963 - 66 and are now preserved as an ancient monument.

 

 

 

An artist`s impression shows how the complete gateway might have looked in the year AD300.

 

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