Castle Garth, north gate

Henry II instigated the rebuilding of the castle in stone in 1167-8. Part of an original north gate south-east of the Black Gate is attributed to this late 12th century phase. At the same time, the ditch (see HER 17266) was cleaned out. The North Gate was located on the inner edge of the ditch. Undisturbed Norman clay was interpreted as the entrance passage. A wing wall was located on the west side of the North Gate. The Gate was likely to have been inserted into the earlier clay rampart as a separate free-standing structure. The excavators suggested that there must have been a north curtain wall, founded on the Norman bank. According to Harbottle (1982, 411), the outer abutment was possibly earlier than the inner abutment, stair and parallel walls, and that the space between the parallell walls was a pit for the rear half of a turning bridge of free-standing bascule type.