Thornton Abbey; Gatehouse
Thornton Abbey; Plan of gatehouse
Of gatehouses of abbeys and priories, many still remain, some of which, like those at Bridlington, Tewkesbury, and Whalley,[320] are of great size, and were capable of offering defence, if necessary. But by far the most important of monastic gatehouses is that at Thornton abbey in Lincolnshire, a magnificent building of brick with stone dressings ([302]). The licence to the abbot and convent to “build and crenellate a new house over and beside their abbey gate” bears date 6th August 1382.[321] The gatehouse is an oblong of three lofty stages with half-octagon turrets at the angles. The single archway on the ground-floor is approached through a narrow barbican, set obliquely to the building ([331]). On each side of the entrance is a bold half-octagon buttress. The inner face of the entrance is flanked by half-octagon turrets, in the southern of which is the vice which gives access to the upper floors. There are no straight side-passages as in the Exchequer gate at Lincoln, where the porters’ lodges are between the main and lateral entrances; but at Thornton an archway was built in the south wall of the central passage, and a diagonal side entrance constructed, with a wide inner archway. The outer entrance ([303]) was protected by a portcullis, and the lodges and turrets on either side had loops to the field. On the first floor of the gatehouse is a spacious room, which communicates by mural passages with the first floor of the angle-turrets and with galleries in the adjacent walls. These are all provided with loops, so that the approach to the monastery was effectually commanded. This gatehouse is nearly contemporary with the West gate of the city of Canterbury, which was begun by Archbishop Sudbury about 1379;[322] but the Canterbury gateway takes the orthodox form of a central passage recessed between two round towers, which are bold projections from a rectangular plan, and its architecture cannot compare with the moulded archways, elaborate ribbed vaulting, and canopied niches of Thornton.[323]
stokesay: hall
stokesay castle from south-west