Castlefacts³

Stourbridge Town Gates

Has been described as a Questionable Urban Defence

There are no visible remains

Name	Stourbridge Town Gates
Alternative Names	Heath Gate
Historic Country	Worcestershire
Modern Authority	Dudley
1974 Authority	West Midlands
Civil Parish	Stourbridge

Bond list under 'New urban defensive circuit of 16th/early 17th century' ?Stourbridge (Worcs) ?C16 Gates only Position largely or wholly unknown Documentation circumstantial or secondary evidence only.

Gatehouse Comments

In the introduction to his listing Bond writes "Another primary function of ramparts and walls- arguably for most of the time an even more important one- was the control of people and goods entering the town. The gates served as points of collection of tolls and could be an aid to policing and the exclusion of undesirable or diseased persons. Indeed, a number of small towns had gates without and additional linear defences other than the rear boundaries of their burgage plots."The description of the gates of Stourbridge in the mid C17 (VCH) as being readily opened and shut by a boy suggests these were little more than simple gates between post with no defensive quality.Given map reference is for parish church. Heath Gate will have been south of this. The northern entrance to the town was the bridge.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

County Historic Environment Record

www.dudley.gov.uk/resident/planning/historic-environment/

OS Map Grid Reference	SO900842
Latitude	52.4557991027832
Longitude	-2.14837002754211
Eastings	390000
Northings	284200