The Roper gateway, St. Dunstan's Street, Canterbury
THE ROPER GATEWAY, ST. DUNSTAN'S
STREET,CANTERBURY
TERENCE PAUL SMITH
INTRODUCTION
When John Roper died in April 1524 he left property in 'Candlewicke
Street' ( = Cannon Street), London, and lands in northern Kent
which fall into three groups: a western group in Eltham (Well Hall),
Bexley, Charlton, Chislehurst, Greenwich, Kidbrook, Lee, Mottingham,
and Woolwich; a central group - south-east of Sittingbourne -
in Doddington, Kingston, Lynsted, and Norton; and an eastern
group in Canterbury (St. Dunstan's and St. Stephen's, Hackington),
Blean, Herne, Reculver, Swalecliffe (Chesterfield), and Whitstable.1
Of these, the most important were those at Eltham Well Hall, which
formed the family home, and Place House, St. Dunstan's, Canterbury,
where the nearby church contains the family chantry chapel.2
Place House in the extra-mural parish of St. Dunstan's at Canterbury
lay somewhat east of the parish church on the opposite side of
St. Dunstan's Street.3 Nothing remains of it apart from the brick
entrance gateway, now set between eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury
buildings, fronting onto the pavement.4 John Roper's will
mentions the 'pryncypall place, with the barnes, stables, courtlages,
1 Anon., 'Archbishop Warham's Letters', Arch. Cant., ii (1859), 149-74: 'The Will
of John Rooper, Esq.', 153--74, passim.
2 John Roper inherited Well Hall 'from his mother Margery, daughter and coheir of
John Tattersall' and 'resided mostly at the mansion of it': E. Hasted, The History and
Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, Canterbury, 1797-1801. re-issued East
Ardsley, 1972, vol. 9, p. 35. For the Roper Chantry Chapel at Canterbury see:
T. Tallon-Brown, 'The Roper Chantry in St. Dunstan's Church, Canterbury', Antiq.
Journ., xl (1980), 227-46.
3 Cf. Hasted, op. cit., 34: 'THE PLACE HOUSE, or St Dunstan's place, situated
near the church, on the north side of the London road.'
4 The building west of the gateway contains several bricks bearing the initials
'JWP', 'JC', 'HB', and 'GC', and the date 1776; I am grateful to Rupert Austin for
pointing this out: pers. comm., 21 March, 1989.
163
TERENCE PAUL SMITH
Fig. !. Roper Gate, Canterbury: Location plan based on first edition Ordnance
Survey, 1874.
and gardeyns, with theyr appurtenances, in the paroche of Saincte
Dunstons without the walles of Caunterburye ... ', 5 but otherwise
there is virtually no known documentary evidence relating to the site.
DESCRIPTION
The gateway occupies some 21 ft. (6.40 m.) of the street frontage. It
is 1 ft. 6¾ in. (0.48 m.) thick at the bottom and 9½ in. (0.24 m.) thick
'The Will of John Rooper, Esq.' (n. l), 156.
164
THE ROPER GATEWAY, CANTERBURY
at the top, which is now some 27 ft. (8.23 m.) above pavement level;
there is, however, some damage here.
At the bottom of the eastern side is a portion of brickwork 4 ft.
10 in. (1.24 m.) long at its maximum and 5 ft. 9 in. (1.76 m.) high. It is
of red bricks measuring 9½-9¾ x 4¼-4½ x 2¼-2½ in. (24.1-24.8
x 10.8-11.4 x 5.7-6.3 cm.) with four courses occupying 12 in. (30.5
cm.). They have a rough texture with many (flinty?) inclusions and
are laid in good English Bond. No black bricks are included. The top
of the walling is finished by a saw-tooth course, a normal course of
stretchers, and a slightly projecting course of headers. At its western
end this string-course appears to have been brought to a straight
edge, with a closer for this purpose in the projecting course of
headers. The walling beneath, however, continues slightly further
westwards. At its eastern side the walling is now keyed into a later
stone buttress, some of the bricks having been hacked for this
purpose. The more or less staight edge at the western side is also
made up partly of hacked bricks.
The rest of the gateway is built from red bricks measuring 9 x 4 x 2
in. (22.9 x 10.2 x 5.1 cm.), four courses occupying 10¼ in. (26 cm.),
and is laid in English Bond slightly less consistent than that described
above. There are numerous black headers and a few black stretchers,
some highly glazed and all apparently due to overfiring rather than to
deliberate manufacture. For the most part they are included
haphazardly, though they are occasionally used decoratively, as
detailed below.
The principal feature is the entrance archway. The lower half of
each jamb has been rebuilt; the upper half is continuous with the
four-centred arch-head, with no capitals. The voussoirs of the
arch-head are slightly tapered, probably by cutting or rubbing from
ordinary fabric bricks. The jambs are made up of specials: an outer
ogee-moulded brick, a central double-ogee or wave-moulded brick,
and an inner ogee-moulded brick. The arch-head is contained within
a square label of specials: bricks with a double-ogee on one side and a
straight chamfer on the other side of one header-face. The vertical
sections are doubly returned so as to run up contiguously, though
continuing to a higher level. Some 2 ft. 6 in. (0.76 m.) above the
horizontal member the verticals are returned outwards. All the
shaped bricks used in these features show, by creasing and pitting,
that they were moulded to shape before firing, although there are
also chisel-marks indicating that they were given a final 'finish' in
situ.6
6 This point was brought to my attention by Rupert Austin, pers. comm .. 21 March,
1989.
165
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TERENCE PAUL SMITH
Diamond
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