The Canterbury Cathedral Gate is lined and adorned with many Coats of Arms -- Blasterz counted at least 34 sets, front and back.
We will do our best to account for them all, although we are soecifically waymarking the Coats of Arms of the Tudors, in the center of the gate, just over the entrance.
Where we can't identify then, we will still list them here. Some of the CoA are smooth and therefore unidentifiable from centuries of weather.
We have reachjed out to sevreal entities and will update this waymark as hey respond. (We have been told it may take some time.)
We are going to list the CoA we can identify from top to bottom, and from left to right.
On the top of the middle third of the gate, these lesser heraldic symbols are held by angels, from left to right, are as follows:
1. Too weather worn to determine
2. Too weather worn to determine
3. Appears to be a portcullis gate
4. A ladder
5. Too weather worn to determine
6. Too weather worn to determine
[statue of Jesus]
7. A floral wreath
8. A rounded cage
9. Too weather worn to determine
10. A figure in Elizabethan dress
11. Crossed tools or implements
12. Too weather worn to determine
Along the bottom third of the middle of the gate, the Tudor Dynastic Arms are displayed as follows, from left to right:
1. Unknown
2. Unknown
3. Unknown
4. Unknown
5. Unknown
6. Prince Arthur ("The King that Never Was")
7. Beaufort Portcullis (Also of Henry VII)
8. Arms of King Henry VII
9. House of Tudor (Henry VII)
10. Katherine of Aragon
11. Unknown
12. Unknown
13. Damaged
14. Illegible
15. Archbishop Juxon of Canterbury
On the facings of the gate, to the left and right:
1. A Tudor-era Archbishop of Canterbury
2. A Tudor-era Archbishop of Canterbury
Over the smaller gate:
An Archbishop of Canterbury
From the Canterbury Cathedral website:
"Introduction
This gate is the principal entrance to the cathedral, from whose dedication to Christ it takes its name, and forms the dramatic highlight of the Buttermarket over which it stands.
History
Cathedral records,indicate the gate was built between 1504 and 1521 with funds provided by Priors Goldstone and Goldwell. This is despite the inscription of 1507 on the stonework “Hoc Opus constructum est anno Domini millesimo Quingentesimo decimo septimo,” - a matter of ongoing dispute between historians. It was probably built in honour of Prince Arthur, Henry VIII's elder brother who married to Catherine of Aragon in 1501. He died the following year aged just 16, allowing Henry VIII to become King and marry Katherine himself in 1509. Imagine the consternation of the sculptors responsible for the heraldry trying to keep up with changing family dynamics! The original statue of Christ and the wooden gates were destroyed by the Puritan iconoclast Richard Culmer in 1643. The gates were restored by Archbishop Juxon in 1660 and still bear his arms. The original towers (Image 1) were torn down in 1803 (Image 2) by Jesse White, the surveyor to Cathedral, at the request of Alderman James Simmons. He wanted to see the Cathedral clock from his bank Simmons & Gipps, now the Lloyds Bank building on the High Street! The towers were replaced in 1937 during another restoration, this one funded by Dame Janet Stancomb-Wills (of the Wills tobacco family) and her sister. The statue of Christ was replaced in 1990 after a gap of 347 years.
What to see
The gate today constructed with a stone four centred arch and two stone faced brick stories above, surmounted by two octagonal towers , all decorated with blind perpendicular tracery (Image 3).
Arms of Tudor Dynasty including (centre) the royal arms supported by the Welsh Dragon and the white greyhound of Henry VII's father Edmund Tudor, (left) the Prince of Wales outside the Beaufort portcullis and (right) Spanish history in the arms of Catherine of Aragon (red and yellow of Aragon, castle of Castille, lions of Laon, eagles of Sicily and the pomegranate of Grenada) outside the Tudor rose (Image 4). . . ."
And from A Tour of Tudor England: (
visit link)
"Christ Church Gate, Canterbury
The splendid gateway which stands in the city’s Butter Market area provides access into the Cathedral grounds but is a wonderful display of early sixteenth century architecture in itself. The gate was completed in 1517 and is a celebration of the reign of Henry Tudor, the father of then-king Henry VIII.
Prominent on the façade of the gatehouse are the collection of coats of arms with preferential placement afforded to the arms of Henry VII, his son Prince Arthur and daughter-in-law Katherine of Aragon. Also present is the crowned Tudor Rose and Beaufort portcullis, two traditional emblems of the first Tudor king. Another large Tudor Rose adornment can be viewed inside the gatehouse on the ceiling, capturing the attention of all who walk through the passageway and into the cathedral grounds. . . ."