Gate Piers at South End of Ralph Allen Drive

GATE PIERS AT SOUTH END OF RALPH ALLEN DRIVE, RALPH ALLEN DRIVE

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed building
List Entry Number:
1394607
Date first listed:
11-Aug-1972
Statutory Address:
GATE PIERS AT SOUTH END OF RALPH ALLEN DRIVE, RALPH ALLEN DRIVE
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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed building
List Entry Number:
1394607
Date first listed:
11-Aug-1972
Date of most recent amendment:
15-Oct-2010
Statutory Address 1:
GATE PIERS AT SOUTH END OF RALPH ALLEN DRIVE, RALPH ALLEN DRIVE

Location

Statutory Address:
GATE PIERS AT SOUTH END OF RALPH ALLEN DRIVE, RALPH ALLEN DRIVE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
Bath and North East Somerset (Unitary Authority)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
ST 76080 62671

Details

RALPH ALLEN DRIVE 656-1/67/1362 Gate piers at south end of Ralph Allen Drive 11/08/72

(Formerly Listed as: RALPH ALLEN DRIVE Lodge and Gate Posts)

GV II

Pair of large gatepiers. c1740, by John Wood the Elder. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar. A pair of large piers, set each side of the Drive where it joins North Road at the top of the hill, close to Top Lodge [q.v.]. The main rusticated piers approx 1.2m square and 4m high. Moulded bases mainly concealed by later road and pavement surfaces, and wide moulded capping with double blocking course carrying very large horizontally moulded urns. Inner faces of piers have hanging stiles to modelled console heads. One of three similar pairs of remaining gate piers to the Prior Park estate. These, now without gates, have been repositioned so as to straddle road exit: the east one is probably in its original position while west one has been moved: Ralph Allen Drive was formerly a private carriage drive and acquired by Bath City Council in 1921; the road was widened using unemployed labour and re-opened as a public thoroughfare in 1922. A wooden sign high up on the eastern pier still bears the words 'Private road'. This pier also bears the letters LWP, for Lyncombe and Widcombe Parish. The spectacularly large urns were intended to display the quality of Bath stone quarried nearby in Ralph Allen's quarries and its ability to be worked on a massive scale. SOURCES: Maurice Scott, 'Discovering Widcombe and Lyncombe, Bath' (2nd ed. 1993), 72; Gillian Clarke, `Prior Park. A Compleat Landscape¿ (Bath 1987), 40.

Listing NGR: ST7608062671

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
510007
Legacy System:
LBS

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Ordnance survey map of Gate Piers at South End of Ralph Allen Drive

Map

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End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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