Recreating the town of Scarborough, Yorkshire: Post 7: Lost Medieval Structures

This post briefly outlines assets created (or used) to represent structures we know were in town, but for which we have little/no information. These represent little more than best guesses.

a. Kings Highway (Newborough Bar)

We know that, in 1264, the new town was protected by a substantial moat (Please remember, if you are seeking historical truth rather than my interpretation of it, please check out the Scarborough Archeological and Historical Society which has some discovery based theories about the shape of walls and moats).  We have also included a rough stone and timber wall to protect stock pastured overnight in the new town from wolves. In later years, this was replaced by a substantial stone wall.

Outside this gate we have placed a timber yard. Immediately inside the gate is the church of St Thomas. 



To the south of the gate, near the terminus of the moat, was the hospital of St Nicholas which was used as a leper hospice. We have represented this as a series of interconnected single-fork structures visible from the sea. 


North-east of the gate, is the Dominican Friary (Dominican Monks wore white robes with a black scapular). Having arrived in 1252, the main stone building (for which we have no evidence) would have became a complex of buildings until disbanded by Henry VIII.  We have placed a scriptorium inside this complex - again, without any historical justification.









The exterior structure of the friary was created in UE5, together with the various churches, having regard to contemporaneous buildings. A great number of different forms were built before settling on the modest form placed on set.












b. Auborough Gate (Castle Road)
While the gates are based on an 1817 drawing, the line of the substantial wall around the west and south of the old town is speculative, as is the wooden bridge across the moat.


Immediately inside the gate are a series of kilns, most constructed into the hillside (we have based the hill structures on similar colonial period brick works near the town of Blainey, NSW). The image below shows a tentative standing kiln we will used to produce distinctive Scarborough stone ware. To the left of this image will be a 'covered walk-way' - a lengthy stretch used to produce heavy ropes for defence and shipping.


c. West Sandgate and the Damyot Stream

Two gates provided exits from the old town to the south. The more central of these two gates provided access to the new town and the Kings Highway to York over the Damyot Stream. Inside this gate is supposed to be a square with some retail trade.


We have provided a culvert for the Damyot Stream to run past this point, together with a wooden bridge.

Inside the walls, we have established stables and Richard Miller's waterwheel mill, together with pools above and below the mill for town use. I have the exceptional good fortune of living within walking distance of a working watermill, constructed to serve a remote timber mill operation. There are few things more peaceful than the sound of one in operation.


A little further upstream is the church of St Sepulcher. To the right of this image is an apple orchard belonging to Richard Miller that will be gifted to the Franciscan Friary in 1267.



d. East Sandgate and the Port

The 45 day Scarborough Fair was held between the East and West Sandgates (although stock sales may have been held in enclosures protected by the New town walls. Outside the East Sandgate are the port, ship buildings, iron forges and a levelled area for the fair. Inside the gate are the town court and, possibly, a second retail square. Fish sales were not permitted inside the town.



e. Keep battlements and royal structures

The walls and towers have been placed, as best we can guess, for 1264. We have provided slate roofs for the towers (excepting the large beacon tower).







f. Other Earth works

The town would be quite different in the absence of substantial earthworks establishing major terracing walls which may date back to the expansion of the old town in Henry II's (1154-1189) reign. 



At the foot of Castle Hill is a substantial moat (which may have also had a wooden wall).


The outer wall also had a substantial moat, which intersected with the Damyot. 



Index of posts in the series "Recreating the town of Scarborough, Yorkshire, 1264"

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