The Old Eastgate,
removed in 1768, as too narrow and inconvenient for one of the principal entrances to the city. It consisted of a beautifully formed Gothic archway, flanked by two massive octagonal embattled towers, connected by a substantial building, two stories in height, over the gateway, the roof of which was raised to a level with and embattled in the same manner as the flanking towers to which it formed the centre. From the bearings on four shields which ornamented the front of this gate, it is conjectured to have been erected during the reign of Edward III.
A Roman gateway appears to have occupied the same spot at a still earlier period; for in pulling down the Old Eastgate in 1768, two wide circular arches of Roman architecture were discovered within its workmanship.
With all due admiration for the spirit of useful improvement which dictated the erection of the present Eastgate, we cannot avoid expressing our regret that the old one no longer remains to gratify the eye of the antiquary and the man of taste. Although the present gate is undoubtedly much better adapted for the entrance of carriages of all kinds, yet the Cestrians of the last century, who remembered the glories of the old structure, must have been but ill reconciled to its substitute.
Having thus completed the circuit of the Walls of Chester, as they at present stand, it only remains to notice that there was formerly an outer gate in Foregate-street, about half a mile from the Eastgate, called