It was built in the
time of Thomas de la Mare about 1365, on the site of a previously
existing gatehouse which had been destroyed by a violent gale a few
years earlier. It was not only a gateway, but a prison wherein offending
monks, and also laymen of the town, over which the Abbot had civic
jurisdiction, were imprisoned. The Gatehouse was stormed by rioters in
the time of Wat Tyler's rebellion, the monks in their terror giving wine
and beer to their assailants, but news arriving of Wat Tyler's death,
the rioters dispersed; the ringleaders were tried and condemned to
death, among them John Ball, who, with his seventeen condemned
companions, passed the time between their trial and execution in the
dungeons beneath the Gatehouse. In 1480 a printing press was set up in
this gatehouse; after the dissolution it was used as the borough gaol.
During the Napoleonic wars some French prisoners were confined within
the walls. In 1868 the Gatehouse was found too small for use as a gaol,
and a new prison was built near the Midland Station. The Gatehouse was
bought by the governors of the grammar school, and in 1870 the school
was removed from the Lady Chapel to the Gatehouse.
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