Gatehouse And Gateway Tower To Vicars' Court

LINCOLN

SK9771NE MINSTER YARD 1941-1/9/239 (South side) 08/10/53 No.1A Gatehouse and gateway tower to Vicars' Court

GV I

Gatehouse, gateway tower and lodgings. Built 1363-1397 during the incumbency of Bishop Buckingham to house the college of Vicars Choral. Reroofed late C17. Restored late C19. Dressed stone, with ashlar dressings and plain tile roof. Crenellated octagonal side wall stack and single rendered gable stack. EXTERIOR: chamfered and moulded plinth, chamfered string course, moulded coped parapet to tower at west end. 2 storeys, 4 bays. North front has to right a four-centred arched gateway with multiple roll moulding, hoodmould and mask stops. To its left, a blocked doorway and to left again, a late C19 casement. Above, to the left, 2 restored segmental pointed windows with hoodmoulds and fragments of tracery. Between them, a small ogee headed light. To the right, 3 shields, and beyond, a larger ogee headed light. South elevation has a string course. To the left, a moulded segmental pointed arched gateway and above it, a Tudor arched casement, both with hoodmoulds. Under the entrance archway, a cusped lierne vault. To west, a single lancet and a doorway, both C19, with chamfered ogee heads. To east, a C19 pointed window and a C17 pointed arched doorway with plank door. South-west corner has a square tower, 3 stages, with small loops. West end has 2 blocked pointed arched openings and the remains of a former gable. INTERIOR has a late C18 stone walled cellar with brick segmental vault. Ground floor has to south-east a garderobe with an ogee arched door and on the south side, a 2 bay blind arcade with chamfered arches and a central corbel. At the west end, a former porter's lodge, with a small fireplace in the north wall and remains of an aumbry in the east wall. At the south end, a stone newel stair. On the first floor, at the north-west corner, a small original fireplace, and at the east end, another fireplace masked by a later surround. On the south-west side, to west, a cusped ogee arched drain recess. Renewed roof, probably late C17, with 5 main beams. (Buildings of England : Lincolnshire: Pevsner N: Lincolnshire: London: 1989-: 489-491; Jones S: The Survey of Ancient Houses

in Lincoln: Lincoln: 1987-: 40-48; Report and overall assessment of listable quality: Hewlings R: Secular properties..... in Lincoln Minster Close: London: 1987-).

Listing NGR: SK9786671728