Description

CARLISLE

NY3955NE THE ABBEY
671-1/10/21 Abbey Gate and Gatehouse
01/06/49
(Formerly Listed as:
THE ABBEY
Slee's Gateway)

GV I

Formerly known as: Abbey Street Lodge The Abbey.
Gate tower to St Mary's Priory and attached gatehouse. For
Prior Slee, inscribed and dated 1528. Weathered red sandstone
ashlar, some dressings of calciferous sandstone, on chamfered
plinth, string courses and eaves cornice; clasping buttresses
carried up on each angle as stone chimney stacks. Graduated
greenslate roofs with coped gables.
2-storey, single-bay gate tower, with attached low 2-storey,
2-bay gatehouse at rear right. At the top of Abbey Street and
was the main gate from that street into the Priory, now a gate
into the Cathedral grounds. The Abbey Street facade has a
large central rounded archway with triple chamfer; the vaulted
arch has a further recessed round archway fitted with double
gates and a left rounded-arch pedestrian gate. Over the arch
is a 3-light Tudor window with hoodmould; gabled above. The
rear is similar to the facade but with a Latin inscription on
the arch and the window above without hood.
The gatehouse projects with a gable and then a half gable and
appears to be contemporary with the tower but sash windows
have been inserted, some are perhaps in the original
surrounds. From the roof crease on the left of the archway it
appears that there was a corresponding gatehouse symmetrically
placed on that side, which was demolished to make way for the
Bishop's Library, nearby, in 1699 (or during the Civil War).
For further details see Perriam, CWAAS,Trans.NS LXXXVII.
INTERIORS not inspected.
Included in this listing is the fragment of wall which extends
over Dean Tait's Lane to join with No.48 Abbey Street and now
cut by a C19 archway; this could be the remains of an earlier
gate tower on this site, or an adjoining Priory building.
(Cumb. & West. Antiquarian & Archaeological Soc., New Series:
Perriam DR: LXXXVII: The Demolition of the Priory of St Mary:
P.142-4).

Listing NGR: NY3981055958

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17530539

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)