Newport Arch

Newport Arch:

Newport Arch is the most famous of Lincoln's Roman monuments. It is the only surviving Roman gate in Britain open to traffic, acting as a gateway to the historic core of the city, as it has done for almost 2 millennia.

The North gate was built in the early 3rd century and spanned Ermine Street, the colonia's most important thoroughfare. This was also on the main London to York road.

In the 4th century, the colonia's defensive walls and gates were massively strengthened, in line with it's status as a new provincial capital and centre of Roman civilisation. At its grandest, the north gate consisted of a central carriageway with pedestrian arches to either side, topped by an upper storey and flanked by tall semicircular towers.

What is visible above ground today is only the upper section of the central arch from the inner wall of the gate. The outer wall was demolished in the late 1700's. The base of the western gate tower can be seen in the excavation, which also shows the Roman street level. In Roman times, the whole structure would have stood about 8 metres above ground.

The gate did not, as far as we know, face serious attack while under Roman control. However, it has survived numerous assaults since, from medieval knights in the 13th century to delivery lorries in the 20th. Because of recent vehicle damage, steel pins have been inserted to hold the masonry in place.

Newport Arch cottage wall:

The fragment of wall in the garden of Newport Cottage was part of the northern defences of the colonia, immediately to the east of the gate tower of Newport Arch. Only 1.25 metres is visible above the current ground level, but would originally have stood about 6 metres high.

This wall dates from the strengthening of the city's defences in the 4th century, carried out more likely as a means of enhancing the city's new capital status than to protect it from attack. Just along East Bight, you can see the remains of one of the towers along this northern length of the wall.