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#ThrowbackThursday Headgate 2006
Sep
This #ThrowbackThursday we will discuss the 2006 excavation of the Roman gate at Head Gate
Originally, the Head Gate was one of six gates leading into the Roman town but was demolished in 1753 leaving us with little reliable information about its appearance
BT needed to lay some major ducting along the length of Head Street, which resulted in CAT carrying out a watching brief during their work because of the archaeological sensitivity of the area. Previous to this, opportunities to see the gate were rare, with it’s last exposure being during the replacing of pavement along Sir Isaac’s Walk in 1988.
We were lucky, as stone masonry had survived not far below the modern ground level. We were able to uncover and plot three sides of the central pier – which confirmed the 1988 plan of the gate. Roman Head Gate seemed to have been a double-arched structure after all!
The evidence shows that the double-arched plan neatly spans the full width of Head Street, which suggests that when Head Street was laid out (perhaps in the 10th century) the Roman gate was still in its original two-arched form, which was later reduced to a single arch sometime later but before 1610
Hopefully we can add to the puzzle at some point in the future!
