We don't have any photos of this building yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?
Latitude: 51.3626 / 51°21'45"N
Longitude: -2.3449 / 2°20'41"W
OS Eastings: 376080
OS Northings: 162671
OS Grid: ST760626
Mapcode National: GBR 0QQ.FZ9
Mapcode Global: VH96T.90PR
Plus Code: 9C3V9M74+22
Entry Name: Gate Piers at South End of Ralph Allen Drive
Listing Date: 11 August 1972
Last Amended: 15 October 2010
Grade: II
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1394607
English Heritage Legacy ID: 510007
ID on this website: 101394607
Location: Combe Down, Bath and North East Somerset, Somerset, BA2
County: Bath and North East Somerset
Parish: Non Civil Parish
Built-Up Area: Bath
Traditional County: Somerset
Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Somerset
Tagged with: Gatepost
RALPH ALLEN DRIVE
656-1/67/1362 Gate piers at south end of Ralph Allen Drive
11/08/72
(Formerly Listed as:
RALPH ALLEN DRIVE Lodge and Gate Posts)
GV II
Pair of large gatepiers. c1740, by John Wood the Elder.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar.
A pair of large piers, set each side of the Drive where it joins North Road at the top of the hill, close to Top Lodge [q.v.].
The main rusticated piers approx 1.2m square and 4m high. Moulded bases mainly concealed by later road and pavement surfaces, and wide moulded capping with double blocking course carrying very large horizontally moulded urns. Inner faces of piers have hanging stiles to modelled console heads.
One of three similar pairs of remaining gate piers to the Prior Park estate. These, now without gates, have been repositioned so as to straddle road exit: the east one is probably in its original position while west one has been moved: Ralph Allen Drive was formerly a private carriage drive and acquired by Bath City Council in 1921; the road was widened using unemployed labour and re-opened as a public thoroughfare in 1922. A wooden sign high up on the eastern pier still bears the words 'Private road'. This pier also bears the letters LWP, for Lyncombe and Widcombe Parish. The spectacularly large urns were intended to display the quality of Bath stone quarried nearby in Ralph Allen's quarries and its ability to be worked on a massive scale.
SOURCES: Maurice Scott, 'Discovering Widcombe and Lyncombe, Bath' (2nd ed. 1993), 72; Gillian Clarke, `Prior Park. A Compleat Landscape¿ (Bath 1987), 40.
Listing NGR: ST7608062671
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.
Other nearby listed buildings
