Peterborough Blue Plaques
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Information on the following blue plaques can be found on this page. Please click on the relevant image.
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Deacon's School |
Parish Burial Ground |
Arthur James Robertson |
Thomas Hake |
Angel Inn |
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Town Hall |
Lido |
Town Bridge |
The Customs House |
Abbot's Gaol & |
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11 Deacon's School
Plaque location - on the north side of Cowgate on the building now occupied by The Pizza Parlour - location map
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Thomas Deacon, born in 1651, was a local wealthy wool merchant and philanthropist. He became a Peterborough Feoffee in 1679 and was appointed as a governor of the Town Estates in 1683. He owned a number of properties within the City and surrounding area, including the New Manor, Longthorpe (Longthorpe Tower), which he acquired in 1701. In 1704, he was appointed High Sheriff of Northamptonshire, of which Peterborough was part of at the time.
In 1721 Deacon endowed a school for 20 'poor boys of the city' so that they could learn to 'read, write and cast accounts'. It was expected that these boys would go on to become apprentices.
The buildings which formerly stood on the site were part of the endowment and already housed a school. However, the school traditionally dates its commencement from the 'proving' of Deacon's will in 1721. Deacon died on the 19th August 1721 and is buried in Peterborough Cathedral.
By the 1880's the buildings had become unsuitable and the Charity Commissioners strongly advised the building of a new school. The school moved to Crown Lane (later Deacon Street) in 1883 and again in 1960 to Queens Gardens. Until the introduction of comprehensive education Deacon's was one of the city's three grammar schools, the others being King's School and the County School for Girls.
Deacon's became a voluntary controlled co-educational comprehensive school in 1976 and a grant maintained school in the 1990s. It became a specialist Technology College in 1994.
In 2007 the new Thomas Deacon Academy, designed by Sir Norman Foster and Partners, costing nearly ‹50 million was opened on the same site.
Thomas Deacon's magnificent classical monument is situated at the far end of the Cathedral and is well worth a visit. The reclining figure of Deacon is the masterpiece of the distinguished sculptor Robert Taylor Snr. The white marble monument depicts Deacon in a powdered wig, his elbow resting on a pillow and his hand upon a skull. The inscription and that of his wife Mary below detail the various charities that they had supported in the city.
Information compiled by Toby Wood.
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12 Parish Burial Ground
Plaque location - on the retaining wall at the west end of Cowgate, adjacent to Crescent Bridge roundabout - location map
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On this spot you are standing on the site of Peterborough's burial ground. Prior to this Peterborough people were buried in the lay-persons cemetery on the north side of the Cathedral. Having accommodated several generations of townsfolk, the lay cemetery had become extremely overcrowded. So the Parish Vestry, at a meeting in June 1803, agreed that it was expedient to purchase an area of land for use as a new parish burial ground. Their attention was drawn to a 3 acre field at the end of Cowgate. Subscriptions (towards the cost) were canvassed, and raised £857. The purchase price (£540) and the cost of surrounding the site with a brick wall were paid for in the financial year 1804/05. The first burial was that of Mrs Elizabeth Money in March 1805. This site continued to be used for the burial of parishioners until March 1859 when it too reached its capacity, and a new cemetery was opened on a site between Eastfield Road and Broadway.
Ed. Photo file caption above reads "St John's grave yard Cowgate"
Nationally, the years 1827-1830 saw the highpoint in the activities of 'body snatchers', who stole the bodies of recently interred persons from graveyards and sold them as anatomical specimens available for dissection by medical practitioners and their trainees. Even our local graveyards were subject to their attentions and in November 1830 the parish burial ground was violated by them. As a result the walls around the burial ground were repaired and surmounted by iron railings.
However, a greater threat came on the early 20th century with the campaign to replace the Cowgate level crossing (over six sets of rails) with a bridge. On the Cowgate side the only suitable location for new approach roads to the proposed bridge was across the open space occupied by the burial ground. In 1911 work began removing those gravestones which were directly in the line of the new approach roads, and Crescent Bridge was opened in 1913.
All visual evidence of the graveyard finally disappeared completely in the 1970s and 1980s with the building of Crescent Bridge roundabout and construction of Queensgate.
Ed. Photo file caption right reads "St John the Baptist Peterborough Parish Church's burial ground in Cowgate"
Information compiled by Richard Hillier.
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13 Arthur James Robertson
Plaque location - at No 50 Cowgate, the last shop on the south side of the road, and formerly known as Robertson's All-Sports - location map
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Son of a Glasgow doctor, Arthur Robertson was born in 1879 and attended Kelvinside Academy in Glasgow then, from the age of fourteen, Peterborough's King's School. His first recorded athletics achievement was winning the One Mile race at King's in record time. Ed. photo left shows Arthur with his brother Dubs.
He was a brilliant all-round sportsman but initially concentrated on cycling, only taking up serious athletics at the age of 25 after a cycling injury. In 1906 he transferred from Peterborough Athletics Club to join the successful Birmingham Club, Birchfield Harriers, and the following year won the Midland Counties Ten Mile title, was runner up in the two miles steeplechase and well placed in the one mile, ten mile and four mile distances at the AAA championships. In March 1908 won both the English and International Cross-Country Championships. In the 1908 Summer Olympics he became Birchfield Harriers' first Olympic medallist, winning gold for Scotland in the three-mile team race at White City and silver in the steeplechase. In September that year he set a world record at 5000 metres in Stockholm.
He retired from athletics in 1909 and returned to cycling and playing football for Peterborough Town Football Club. From 1922 onwards he took over a cycle dealership at 39/41 and later 97/99 Bridge Street from his brother, and became a director of Peterborough Town Football Club. From 1952 Robertson's All Sports was established at 46/48 Cowgate and finally in No 50, run by his son and retaining the name long after Arthur's death in 1957.
Ed. photo right from 1908 Arthur is far left.
Arthur had a mercurially short athletics career in which he scaled the heights of national and international success. In 2004 he was posthumously inducted into the Scottish Sporting Hall of Fame and in 2010 a new pub in Birmingham was named 'The Arthur Robertson' in his honour.
Information compiled by Peter Lee.
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14 Thomas Hake
Plaque location - midway along the south side of Priestgate, a little to the east of the Museum, on the building, now residential, which used to be the Ask restaurant - location map
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Traditionally the home of the Hacke (as they seem to have started out) or Hake family from the first half of the sixteenth century, documentary evidence survives (despite the destruction of manorial records during the 'puritan fury' of 1643) to testify to the Hakes' connections with the property in succeeding centuries through to the early nineteenth.
Still bearing the name Yorkshire House, 28 and 30, Priestgate derive from two adjacent but separate late medieval houses. Remains of the two spiral stair turrets survive within. Much of the westernmost house was demolished for the building of an adjacent chapel. The chapel's 'Vanbrughian' spire survives to close the vista along Cross Street. At the core of what survives are the remains of a timber-framed structure, high jettied and gabled, of presumably around 1500. Alterations and additions have been carried out in every century since.
Typical of a rising merchant class in the mid-sixteenth century, the Hakes were able to position themselves so as to take advantage of the inevitable fall-out arising from the break-ups of the abbey estates at the dissolution in 1539. Some of the monastic lands (about a third) were acquired by new owners; many of these were local men (Fitzwilliams, Montagus and Wingfields who had often been servants of the abbey in its last years and became involved in the establishments of the new cathedral foundation. The remainder remained in the hands of Bishop and Dean and Chapter. The Hakes and their like, seemingly without any distinct political affiliations, could act as intermediaries in all manner of land and property transactions. Thomas Hake, one of the town's first Feoffees (trustees), is named in an agreement of 1561 for the leasing from the Dean and Chapter of properties in Marketstead, Hithegate and Priestgate.
Though the Hakes have been described as being od Dutch origin, their immediate forebears seem to have been of Fenland farming stock from south Lincolnshire, the Soke and adjacent Fenlands. The Priestgate property seems to have been purchased by Simon Hacke (or, as the Hake family monument in St Mary's, Whittlesey has it: 'Symon Hake of Deping') who had been a tenant of Thorney Abbey.
Simon's son and heir, Thomas (one of the town's first Feofees), became one of Peterborough's two MPs in 1586. The Parish Register of St John the Baptist records that on 2nd March 1589 (though the Whittlesey monument records the year of death as 1590) 'Thomas Hake gentilman was sumptuously brought with mourners into the parish church of Peterborough and from thence conveyed to Whittlesey and there buryed'. William Hake, Thomas's 'only sonne and heire' (indeed the only surviving child of eight) became Peterborough's MP in 1593.
In the century which followed the Hakes were said to have developed mercantile interests in Virginia, Jamaica and Tangiers. Certainly it is known that their Royalist sympathies saw them get into difficulties during the Civil War period. Some family members may have perished in the conflict, whilst others suffered the sort of fines and sequestration of property commonly meted out to recusants and other delinquents.
A sundial on a south-facing wall-end overlooking the garden then running down to the river's flood plain, but not now publically accessible ‐ testifies to the Hakes' Royalist sympathies. An elaborately pietistical inscription in Latin ‐ translated as 'O Blessed solitariness', etc', is now much eroded and very difficult to confirm in full, save that, at the foot, the triumphalist exhalation at the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 is expressed by the clear legend: VIVAL CAROLUS SECUNDUS 1663.
Information compiled by Henry Mansell Duckett.
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15 Angel Inn
Plaque location - on the wall of WH Smith, not on the Bridge Street frontage but rather the side of the building in Priestgate
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The Angel Inn, which stood on this site, was the property of Peterborough Abbey and may have served as a pilgrim hostel for the Abbey (now Cathedral). Later, as The Angel Hotel it was one of the major coaching inns in Peterborough along with other large hotels/inns such as the Bell and Oak on Cathedral Square and the Bull Hotel in Westgate.
Mail and stagecoaches for London, Louth, Leicester, Yarmouth etc. called here, mail coaches especially, as the inn also housed the Post Office for some time. Ironically, since Peterborough's main Post Office in Cowgate closed in 2016, it was relocated to WH Smith ‐ some things come full circle!
The Fitzwilliam family acquired the inn in 1731 and it was probably rebuilt around the end of the 18th century. The inn was used for public meetings and performances (including cock fighting) during the 19th century and served as the base for the Fitzwilliams' political candidates. Its spectacular main room was available to be booked for "concerts, balls, dinners, wedding breakfasts and public entertainments". During its life it served as the base for the city's voluntary fire department.
Several of its 19th century landlords were also farmers, renting land from Fitzwilliam Estates as well.
In the 1930s The Angel became the city's first AA/RAC three-star hotel and was well known as an important city centre meeting venue. Indeed Peterborough United Football Club officially came into being there on 17th May 1934 when "a crowded meeting at the Angel decided to go ahead with the formation of a professional club to fill a void left by the collapse of Peterborough and Fletton United some two years earlier".
The Peterborough Society, the original name for the Civic Society, was founded in 1952 at a launch meeting in the Writing Room of the Angel Hotel, its agreed aim to 'work for the preservation of the few remaining old buildings left in the City of Peterborough and the surrounding district'.
The Angel finally closed for business on 30 May 1971 and was subsequently demolished.
Information compiled by Toby Wood.
Ed. committee member Kem Mehmed has written an article for Nene Living about the history and work of the Society and this is reproduced on our website and can be read here. Kem has written other interesting articles for Nene Living and all are available to read on our website.
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16 Town Hall
Plaque location - on the back wall of the portico to the Town Hall's main entrance in Bridge Street
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The preparations for, and building of, the Town Hall between 1929 and 1933 brought about the moist drastic and irreversible transformation of the city's hitherto small town character; to an extent greater even than the arrival of the thumpingly heavy footprint of Queensgate half a century later. Peterborough's market town scale and grain were lost for ever.
The distance between building lines in Bridge Street was doubled ‐ the whole of the eastern side being demolished ‐ while the roadway itself, between kerbs, (which at its narrowest point in the former Narrow Street had been just twenty feet) was at least tripled in width. If the city lost much of its essential character due to this drastic re-alignment, it did in consequence at least gain a decent civic building at the northern end.
The new Town Hall was built to the designs of architect E. Berry Webber, who subsequently became something of a specialist in putting up grand civic buildings (from Portsmouth to then Southern Rhodesia), while the builder (initially at least) was the great Peterborough master-builder John Thompson and Sons.
Having successfully obtained its Charter of Incorporation in 1874 (see plaque No 02) the new City Corporation had to make content for the best part of sixty years with meeting upstairs in The Chamber over the Cross (i.e. Butter Cross) - which then became known as the Guildhall. This they managed with some visually inappropriate additions to its west, though not without having also toyed with several (happily, for us, abortive) attempts to rebuild and aggrandise that building. But in anticipation of an enlargement of city boundary in 1929, and an inevitable increase in the numbers of aldermen and councillors, an architectural competition was launched for a new Town Hall.
The winner, Ernest Berry Webber, who had trained with various distinguished architects, including Vincent Harris, had by 1930 won a number of competitions but built little of real significance. Peterborough Town Hall, together with the more ambitious Southampton Civic Centre complex ‐ also executed in Webber's characteristic 'Free Classical' or 'Wrenaissance' style ‐ were his first major commissions to get under way.
The architectural and technical press began to get interested in, and quite excited about, the scheme of such manifest ambition which, as one journal put it, with studied understatement, would be realised "at some sacrifice to quaintness and intimacy" in the town centre. On the whole though, the technical press at the time was fairly generous in its applause of Webber's designs, but couldn't resist advancing various suggestions as to how they might be improved. The chief concern seems to have been as to how the rather stretched appearance of the five hundred and forty foot long the facade might be an ameliorated. A facade of such length, opined the Architect's Journal, could be "no more a town hall facade than it is an entire street, and no more at town hall street than a shopping street." In short, how was the semi-commercial nature of the scheme to be reconciled with a desire to achieve civic dignity and a degree of grandeur? photos above/below right credit peterboroughimages.co.uk and photo above right shows demolition of Narrow Street.
In recognition perhaps of an inherent conflict in the initial brief, Webber advanced two possible optional extras. The first involved the suggested addition of a roof storey to the long flanking wings, with their ranges of shops. This did come about eventually, but only some fifty or so years later, and then to such an indifferent 'design and build' format as to afford aesthetic improvement to the balance of overall proportions.
Webber's second idea by way of amelioration was his suggestion that a shopping arcade could be added, in the form of colonnades built out over the pavement in front of the shops. This suggestion was hardly surprisingly, since Webber's inspiration for the whole composition had, to a large degree, been Wren's Royal Hospital, Chelsea, with its colonnaded wings. But to the 'moderns' at the time the term 'Wrenaissance' was a disparaging one, implying something both derivative and retrogressive.
The Architect's Journal was, at best, ambivalent about the colonnades, thinking it is perhaps an idea worth following up, but adding sceptically "... if he succeeds, the ghost of John Nash will follow him with sweet dreams of ghostly approbation (shades of Nash's ill-fated Regent Street colonnades) and he will be among the few men who have added a colonnade to a shopping front and kept it there for a longer period than was needed for the shopkeepers to find words in which to vent their anger at such an imposition."
The scheme went ahead, sans roof storey and colonnades. The foundation stone was laid in June 1929 and the Town Hall was officially opened with due civic pump and flummery in October 1933, following what the technical press referred to archly as "some incidental delays". This anodyne phrase glossed over the fact that the main contractor ‐ the great local firm of master-builders John Thompson and Sons, (see plaque No. 06) ‐ had been forced into voluntary liquidation mid-way through the contract. The precise nature of the problems encountered by such an experienced and respected firm as Thompsons remain difficult to discern fully. Perhaps their eagerness to secure such a prestigious local commission caused the firm to submit too low a tender, particularly with regard to suppositions and judgements made as to prospective foundation conditions.
At any event, as early as February 1930 the financial strain was beginning to show, with Thompsons paying less than the standard agreed trade union rates to some employees. In the following year Thompsons were indeed forced into voluntary liquidation and Messrs Henry Willcock and Co. completed the realisation of Webber's designs on the same terms and conditions.
The Town Hall's noble Corinthian columned portico, surmounted by a handsome lantern and cupola above its pediment, closes the vista looking east along the length of Priestgate. The facades are finished in a fine facing brick from Buckinghamshire ‐ red to the west, mostly grey to the east ‐ while the stone dressings throughout are of Clipsham limestone, save for the portico columns which are constructed from large drums of Hollington sandstone from Staffordshire.
(photo credit Julian Dowse geograph.org.uk wikimedia commons)
Berry Webber himself designed the various plaques representing Industry, Science, Civic Jurisprudence, etc. which adorn the Bridge Street facade. Within, the fine central entrance hall and double staircase is clad in marble, the columns executed in a contrasted blue scagliola, while the Council Chambers, lit by tall windows, has a highly original hand-painted ceiling, eclectic both in design and iconography, said to have been painted by three Italian students from the Royal College of Art.
Down to 1974 the Town Hall was shared between Peterborough City Council and the Soke of Peterborough County Council. Subsequently it has been used predominantly by Peterborough City Council; though that is soon to change.
This plaque was produced and installed by the Society with the generous financial assistance from Peterborough City Council.
Information compiled by Henry Mansell Duckett.
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17 Lido
Plaque location - to the right of the main entrance to the Lido which is situated in Bishop's Road - location map
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Peterborough's open-air swimming pool, or Lido, was designed by a panel of local architects and opened in 1936. Its cost was £20,800, a large amount of money at the time and the design contains elements of art deco and 'hacienda-style' design and is regarded as one of the best surviving examples in England. It is still extremely popular and is used between May and September every year by over 20,000 people.
On 10 June 1940, the Lido was unlucky enough to experience a direct hit during the city's first air raid of the Second World War but was quickly back in operation. It was designated a Grade II listed building in 1992 and celebrated its 80th birthday in 2016. At its annual official opening for the summer season it is a tradition that the new mayor is the first to jump in, usually fully clothed!
Vivacity now manage the Lido and their website says that 'This fantastic outdoor swimming complex offers three heated outdoor swimming pools; a 50m heated main pool, a teaching pool for children and a paddling pool for toddlers. The three large sun-bathing terraces, a large grass lawn and play area for the kids make the Lido the perfect venue for a fun family day out. There is also an onsite cafe serving hot and cold food as well as ice-cream and refreshments.'
One of Peterborough's best-known and colourful characters, Walter Cornelius (1923-83), worked as a lifeguard at the Lido. A plaque and weathervane dedicated to him were erected there in 2016, the plaque containing further information about his life and eccentric feats for charity. Indeed, including our own, there are now three plaques in total at the Lido, the third being the splendid City of Peterborough plaque erected to mark the official opening by the mayor, Cllr A. H. Mellows on 28th May 1936. The plaque also includes names of all councillors who served on the Baths Committee.
Ed. the weather vane sits on top of the clock tower and depicts Walter's attempt to try and fly over the River Nene to which he nearly succeeded. Also note the four faces of the clock, one for each side of the tower all showing the current time.
This plaque was produced and installed by the Society with the generous financial assistance from Peterborough City Council.
Information compiled by Toby Wood.
To pick another plaque on this page click or click to see all blue plaques, or click for all plaques.
18 Town Bridge
Plaque location - on the north-eastern side of the town bridge, within a few metres of the pedestrian crossing - location map
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The first Town Bridge over the River Nene was built of wood by Abbot Godfrey of Crowland in 1307. Its successor, also largely of wood, necessitated frequent repairs and was recorded as unsafe in 1856. By then its condition, with frequent patching, was that of a 'poor old relic of bygone days' which 'submitted with many groans to the burden it had to bear'. Not surprisingly it had been a cause of concern both for travellers over it and for river navigation beneath.
After much negotiation between the authorities who shared responsibility for the bridge (Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire) and Peterborough's city fathers, a three-arch replacement was specified, thirty feet wide including footpaths either side at a cost of over ‹6000.
This graceful new iron bridge was designed by Sir John Fowler, the designer of the first railway bridge across the river Thames. It was cast by the renowned firm of Handyside & Co of Derby and constructed with almost equal amounts of wrought and cast iron. It was officially opened on 13 December 1872.
Photo courtesy peterboroughimages.co.uk (Nene Digital Wedding Photograhy)
Increasing levels of road traffic over the following 50 years meant that the City had to address two problems. The first was the narrowness of Narrow Bridge Street (only 14 feet between kerbs) which led eventually to the demolition of its east side and construction of the present Town Hall. The second was queueing at the Great Eastern railway level crossing on London Road south of the river bridge. Eventually, in 1929 the Ministry agreed to a new bridge (or viaduct) spanning both river and rail.
The result was the present reinforced concrete bridge whose route lies closer to the Customs House than that of the cast iron bridge whose remains can be detected alongside on the north bank. The present bridge was designed by architects Gotch and Saunders of Kettering and engineered by Major E M Stirling (who founded the Peterborough consulting engineering company Stirling Maynard & Partners). It was officially opened in 1934 by the Marquess of Exeter.
(As a footnote the architect John Alfred Gotch had been responsible in 1894 for another very different structure in Peterborough - The Gables in Thorpe Road. Built as a house for the businessman JH Beeby, its later use was as a maternity hospital and is currently being converted back for residential use. Gotch's mastery of Jacobean and Elizabethan detailing in his buildings gave him a national reputation and was a major factor in The Gables being added to the list of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest in 2010. Photo (© complied) taken circa 2006 when in use as a maternity hospital and gives a flavour of its architectural splendour.)
This plaque was produced and installed by the Society with the generous financial assistance from Peterborough City Council.
Information compiled by Peter Lee.
To pick another plaque on this page click or click to see all blue plaques, or click for all plaques.
19 The Customs House
Plaque location - above the main door of the Customs House which is at the north end of the town bridge - location map
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Today the building known as "The Customs House" stands rather alone and isolated from its original surroundings. Before Embankment Road was built in the 1930's it lay on the south side of an enclosed yard, with a frontage to Bridge Street. Photo left © complied.
On the 1721 map of Peterborough a building is shown roughly on the site of the Customs House, but at right angles to the river instead, so clearly the current building was not then in existence. Nor is it to be seen on the !South West Prospect of P'boro" published in 1731, and so therefore the present building clearly post-dates 1731.
The Customs House was probably built in the mid-18th century, and could be connected with the improvement of the river. By 1713 the river Nene was navigable from the Port of Wisbech up to Alwalton; by 1737 it was possible to reach Thrapston. Trade on the river was in building materials and agricultural produce, and the men who traded in these goods were termed 'general merchants'. Such as Simpson & Mewburn, who occupied the Customs House site in 1816 when it were described as "house, counting-house, granary, yard, etc". These "general merchants" continued to be the occupiers down to c1874.
Exactly what the 'Customs House' was being used for between c1874 and c1900 is unclear. A document of 1888 indicates that it was occupied by a boat builder, Richard Skelton. In 1903 another boat builder (and hirer of pleasure boats), a Mr Holland, is the occupier. He is followed c1908 by John Hammond who, with his family, continued to live there into the 1930's.
The "Embankment Scheme" (bus station, swimming pool, public gardens) necessitated putting a road behind the 'Customs House'. Only then, once demolition has taken place, is the building recognised as particularly important, because it becomes a much more visible and picturesque landmark.
When it is noticed at all before 1934 it is simply called the "old lighthouse" or "toll house". In none of our research have we identified any connection with the Customs Service. Peterborough is not known to have been a port, so only Excise Officers were stationed here, and their offices were elsewhere in the City.
The 'Customs House' was acquired by the Fitzwilliam family in 1811 and remained in their ownership until sold to the City Council in 1949 (the Sea Cadet Unit having been the occupiers since 1942). Photo right © complied.
This plaque was produced and installed by the Society with the generous financial assistance from Peterborough City Council.
Information compiled by Richard Hillier.
To pick another plaque on this page click or click to see all blue plaques, or click for all plaques.
20 Abbot's Gaol & Kings's Lodgings
Plaque location - on the modern (1930s) finely cut stone facade facing into Cathedral Square between the Great Gate to the Cathedral Precincts and NatWest Bank - location map
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The wall to which the plaque is affixed marks the limit of the former monastic precinct in relation to the square, standing at the western end of a range of buildings running east towards the Cathedral's west front. This range contained, at its western end, the Abbot's Gaol and, probably in fairly close conjunction, the King's Lodging. It suffered much partial reconstruction in the eighteenth century and first half of the nineteenth, but nevertheless retains much mediaeval work, notably the Abbot's Gate mid-way along its length.
Moreover this east-west range would, in the monastic times, have connected with the ranges of buildings running south from it, most of the whole complex functioning in one way or another as parts of the Abbot's 'curia' (in effect offices) ranged around a working inner Great Courtyard accessed from the outer courtyard Galley or, properly, Galiliee Court via the Abbot's Gate.
Construction of the modern wall upon which the plaque is placed was necessitated by the demolition of Georgian buildings whose facades fronted onto what was Narrow Street, on its original alignment, in order to create the present Town Hall ‐ see plaque No. 16. The demolished buildings had formed, in effect, one side of the short lane approaching the Great Gate.
The finely detailed and meticulous masonry of the new facade was executed to the designs of Carõe and Passmore on behalf of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, precursors of the Church Commissioners. (The arms displayed on the rainwater hopperhead may well be theirs.) The distinguished architect W.D. (Carõe (pupil of J.L. Pearson) had long carried out significant work for the Commissioners, including their headquarters building on Millbank, London.
The modern wall conceals a later twelfth century undercroft, stone vaulted in two main square bays, the slightly chamfered arches and ribs supported by short circular piers and responds. Here was the Abbot's Gaol. Ancillary spaces of indeterminate shape and original function adjoin. Immediately to the north of the vaulted bays, against the Great Gate itself, is a confined space with a blocked window. This has long been popularly known as the 'condemned cell'. Its stout door (the bolt or bar for which remains in situ) could until recently be seen in Peterborough Museum. Where is it now?
By the later middle ages the Abbot of Peterborough wielded enormous power. The privileges enjoyed by the Abbey (which set the Soke apart from the rest of Northamptonshire) ensured that, in practice, the Abbot controlled many aspects of ordinary royal government as a kind of franchise held from the King. Thus his sources of power were twofold. First as landlord ‐ the abbey effectively owned the 'service town' &8208; dealing with a whole range of matters of concern to the town, from the renewal of leases and sub-leases to resolving an assortment of grievances of one sort or another. Second as holder of outsourced governmental powers, including the right to police crime, to hold courts, maintain a prison and hold markets, there was ample basis for constant interaction with royal power and its nominees.
At the Dissolution of the monastery the Dean and Chapter became lords of the manor, their power in this respect being initially as great as the Abbot's had been. Although their control slackened and weakened over time, the last tattered vestiges of their power can still, astonishingly, be detected almost into the twentieth century. The Abbot's Gaol had though ceased to be used as the town prison in 1842, when Donthorn's Neo-Norman new Sessions Court House (Ed. see our plaque erected 1986) and prison (the latter demolished 1962) was built on Thorpe Road to replace both the Dean and Chapter's gaol by the Great Gate and the Lord Paramount's gaol next to the Bishops Palace.(Lord Burghley how to become Lord Paramount of Peterborough from Elizabeth I to whom the bishops had surrendered rights of jurisdiction. The title is still enjoyed, in theory, by the Marquis of Exeter though all surviving remnants of power vanished in 1965.)
If we can be reasonably certain as to the location of the Abbot's Gaol as well as to the manner of its operation, the same cannot quite be said about the King's Lodging.
The outer gates of monasteries were often associated with the dispensing of both justice and charity. (The great gatehouse of St Albans also contained a prison, while Ely Porta had within both a prison and courtroom.) Peterborough is a case in point. On the north side of the gate, alongside the chapel of St Thomas Becket (see plaque No. 01) was the hospital (in the sense of almshouse of St Thomas the Martyr. Recent (though as yet, at the time of writing, unpublished) archaeology has suggested that the hospital may have been sited directly west of the chapel, that is, in effect, within the square, rather than against its north side.
Debate continues as to the probable location of the King's Lodging at different times throughout the Middle Ages. Cases can be made for it having been located above the gaol, immediately to its east, immediately to its south (that is in a range inadequately recorded during demolitions preparatory to the building of bank and Town Hall), or further east in a now lost hall adjoining the Abbot's Gate. Moreover, though the documentary evidence testifying to the visits of many monarchs over the centuries exists, it is more likely that the King's Lodging, per se, was used by the King's Officials in attendance for 'outsourced' administration of justice etc. rather than by the monarch. He is perhaps more likely to have been entertained in the Hostry or Guest Hall (in themselves both seemingly somewhat 'movable feasts' at Peterborough over the centuries) or indeed within the Abbot's Lodging.
Information compiled by Henry Mansell Duckett.
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