City gate no longer quite so imperious

It’s fair to say that Riding Gate does not look quite as impressive as it did in Roman times. Today, a concrete bridge connects the city wall over the junction of Watling Street and the ring-road. Walk underneath and on your left you’ll find the Dane John and Canterbury’s priciest car park - and to your right you can head down Rose Lane to the shops at Whitefriars.

It was rather different 1,750 years ago. Riding Gate was one of the original six main gates that formed part of the fortifications the Romans built between AD 250-270. The others are Burgate, Northgate, Queningate, Westgate and Worthgate.

Riding Gate’s name is thought to derive from the original Roman bricks which gave it a red appearance. It was also monumental in size. When the adjacent roundabout was re-constructed in 1985, the Canterbury Archaeological Trust were able to investigate the site and found the gate had two carriageways and two guard chambers. Its size is put down to the fact that it was on the Watling Street, the main route from Dover to London.

In the 11th century, records show St Edmund’s church was built on the southern carriageway and only removed in 1349. The gateway was temporarily blocked again during Sir James Wyatt’s rebellion in 1553. It

seems the gateway caused problems as there are many references to its repair and improvement over the next 200 years. Clearly the Roman arch had fallen by this time as a timber bridge was built in 1576. When Alderman Simmons created the Dane John Gardens in 1791, he also built a brick arch over the gateway. Within 10 years a house had been built under it, leaving room only for pedestrians to pass.

By 1884 a cast iron bridge, created by the Biggleston company, spanned the gateway until 1942 when this area was damaged by bombing. It was only repaired in 1970 when the present concrete bridge was built, making it possible to walk along the walls again from Burgate to Worthgate. The unwanted iron bridge was removed to a new life in Heathfield Safari Park, East Sussex, where it forms part of a model railway track.

■ Pictures and information used with kind permission of Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society. Visit www.canterbury-archaeology.org.uk.

Left, brick archway built over the gateway by Alderman Simmons around 1791; right, cast iron bridge created by the Biggleston company in the 1900s

Today a park and ride bus travels through Riding Gate - where Roman legions would have marched in the third century AD

Canterbury Archaeological Trust’s reconstruction of how Riding Gate looked in the 18th century

How it looked in Roman times Picture: Canterbury Archaeological Trust