Thornton Abbey Gatehouse

Thornton Abbey gatehouse is the largest monastic gatehouse in England; an architectural symbol of the wealth and power of Thornton Abbey in the late middle ages. It was built in a combination of brick and stone between 1377 and 1389 and was the main entrance to the Thornton Abbey precinct.

Three floors were built above a central gate-passage. The first housed a great hall. The second and third contained a complex of passages and rooms. The gatehouse underneath is vaulted at the rear to two oak gates, probably original. The front of the gatehouse is richly ornamented but has lost most of its battlements on which originally stood statues of men-at-arms and artisans