Rock Gate, (Or Chinese Gateway) With Retaining Wall

656-1/57/1365

RALPH ALLEN DRIVE (East side) Rock Gate, (or Chinese Gateway) with Retaining Wall

(Formerly Listed as: RALPH ALLEN'S DRIVE Middle Gateway, Gate and Retaining wall to east)

13/07/81

GV II Retaining wall with gateway and gate. c1750, restored C19 and C20.

MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar and rubble, sponge stone, softwood gate.

Tall retaining wall contains driveway entrance off Ralph Allen Drive, to west of lower fish-pond, nearly opposite Rock Lodge (qv), with return wall at higher level containing opening with remains of gate. Retaining wall, joined at northern end to main boundary wall to estate, shows rough straight joint in masonry to right of gateway, running full height, and with masonry of higher quality added, possibly to stabilise earlier work. High level, across driveway, wall continues, partly in sponge stone, including stopped ends for gate, upper part, overthrow only remains from gate, with 'Chinese' swept up arch over plain vertical rails.

Restoration undertaken by National Trust renovating gate to original design. Wall, without coping, continues across to main boundary wall.

HISTORY: A picturesque lesser entrance, possibly formed to provide access for stonework in the building of the Palladian Bridge (qv) which lies nearby below. This gate is shown in one of the Thomas Robins drawings of the area, c1758.

The gate, formerly semi-collapsed, has been restored in recent years by the National Trust with the Widcombe Association.

SOURCE: Gillian Clarke, `Prior Park. A Compleat Landscape' (Bath 1987), 57.

Listing NGR: ST7602463469