The 12 Gates of our Town Wall

Beginning at the first of our two still standing gates and moving clockwise, the twelve gates of Coventry's city wall were:

• Cook Street Gate (sometimes referred to as Tower Gate) - built c1385, still standing.
• Swanswell Gate (previously known as Priory Gate) - completed c1440, still standing.
• Mill Lane Gate (originally known as Bastille Gate) - rebuilt 1512-14 - demolished 1849.
• Gosford Gate - demolished in 1765.
• New Gate (entrance to the London Road; the first gate to be built.) - demolished 1762.
• Little Park Gate - described as "in ruins" on Bradford's 1749 map of Coventry.
• Cheylesmore Gate - allowed to decay - a few courses of stone still remained in 1870.
• Greyfriars Gate (The main route to Warwick) - demolished 1781.
• Spon Gate (also called Bablake Gate) - built 1372 - demolished 1771.
• Hill Street Gate - built c1395, rebuilt 1423.
• Well Street Gate.
• Bishop Gate (the Bishop's route out of Coventry to Lichfield) - demolished 1764.

With the exception of the still extant Swanswell and Cook Street gates, demolition dates have been found for all but three minor gates; Well Street, Hill Street and Cheylesmore. Bradford's plan of 1749, however, shows all gates still appearing complete except Little Park gate, labelled as in ruins.

In March 1870 W.G. Fretton read a paper about Coventry's defences past and present, and took a walk around the remains. Much more remained than today, including an almost complete south section of wall along Parkside, which incorporated the only surviving postern (secondary) gate. Fretton recorded that "No portion of Little Park Gate is left", however the lower few courses of stone of Cheylesmore gate can be seen in a sketch he drew, and he described it thus: "a portion of one side of this gate remains, the slide of the portcullis still existing.". He also informed his audience that Well Street and Hill Street gates had completely disappeared.

During the time the wall stood, and even while it was still in progress, many alterations and improvements were made, either purely for maintenance or in order to increase its defensive effectiveness. One such change was ordained in early 1451 by the "worthymen" of the city, which was to add to every gate a portcullis - something they had already been designed for, but evidently had not yet fitted with.

The previous year a rather less expected change was ordered - a spire to be built besides Gosford gate "as it had been in olden times" - at the wardens' cost! But not before, however, the usual request for every man to cleanse the ditch outside his own ground in the Gosford vicinity.

See the 1610 map of Coventry to find out how the wall and gates were arranged. In this modern day map you can see the exact course that the wall would have taken had it still been standing today. I have highlighted the surviving sections of the wall in red and linked each of them to the relevant parts in this section so that you can easily locate the remains for yourselves using the photographs.

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