Abbey Gate And Gatehouse

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SE ABBEY PRECINCTS 639-1/8/96 Abbey Gate and Gatehouse 07/08/52 (Formerly Listed as: ABBEY PRECINCTS Abbey Gateway and Gatehouse)

GV I

The great gate of the Abbey of St Edmund. Begun after the riots of 1327 but before 1346; completed after 1353. Barnack stone. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and battlements. The west facade is richly decorated: a broad segmental entrance arch has 3 niches over it and a large ogee gable above has foiled circles to left and right. Buttresses to each side with ogee-headed steeply gabled niches in 3 tiers, the top tier relating to the upper storey, which has 5 tall blank niches. The taller centre niche has a crocketed gable, flanked by 2 circles containing 6-pointed stars. The east facade has a shafted doorway: leaf capitals to the shafts and an arch with a double quadrant moulding. A large transomed 3-light window to the upper storey. The entrance arch leads from the Angel Hill into an outer chamber with a longer principal chamber beyond it; between them are C17 timber gates with heavy outsize dumb-bell balusters. INTERIOR: the inner side walls of both chambers have large blank arches with bold flowing tracery; both originally had vaulting with ribs and tiercerons, now fragmentary. The principal chamber on the upper storey has the remains of an original fireplace. Scheduled Ancient Monument. (BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 138; Official Guidebook: Whittingham AB: Bury St Edmunds Abbey: London, HMSO: 1971-: 29).

Listing NGR: TL8554464220