Newport Arch Lincoln: A Pictorial History

Newport Arch, Lincoln: A Pictorial History

by Robert Charles Alexander

About the Book

Newport Arch, Lincoln: A Pictorial History

Newport Arch is Lincoln’s iconic Roman gate leading north out of the city. As well as being a scheduled monument and a Grade I listed building, it is reputedly the oldest arch in the United Kingdom still used by traffic spanning the major Roman road Ermine Street, which leads almost in a straight line to the Humber

Originally made of wood in the 1^st Century, it was enlarged and rebuilt in stone when the Roman town of Lindum Colonia became capital of the province of Flavia Caesariensis in the late 3^rd Century.

Newport Arch is no stranger to attempts at both subtle and dramatic re-modelling, including several schemes to remove it altogether.

Throughout the decades, it has undergone accident and near disaster; yet nearly two thousand years after it was first built, it remains standing.

This book presents, for the first time, a history of the arch in images, words, and embedded video files, documenting those changes across the many centuries.

Using sources from all over the world, the story of one of Britain’s most unique structures is laid out with detailed explanation and year-by-year imagery.

"This arch may be considered as one of the greatest curiosities, having stood nearly two thousand years, amidst all the calamities which Lincoln has from time to time undergone from foreign and civil wars, and other casualties of time. As a monument of antiquity, and of the brave warlike people by whom it was erected, it is justly considered one of the greatest objects of interest; and not a stranger visits Lincoln who has a taste for antiquities, but bestows his admiration upon this ancient relic: it is supposed to be the only arch of its kind now standing in England."

A handbill raising funds to preserve Newport Arch, Lincoln, July 1825

I too looked at the arch and thought it was time its collective written and visual history was brought together; so, I wrote this for myself, and for anybody else who, like me, has marvelled in wonder, trying to imagine how something could have survived, slightly weathered maybe, but almost intact, for two thousand years.

Fashions come and go. But the understanding and interpretation of the past is as much subject to change in fashion as the clothes worn by the worthy citizens of Lincoln throughout the ages. It is a great blessing that there has always been a precious few people with the insight and foresight to value the past, record it accurately and use their influence to conserve structures still considered to be of the utmost historical importance. Without them, it is unlikely Newport Arch would still exist. It would be instead confined to genteel engravings and well out of living memory. To those who had that foresight, we owe a huge debt.

Robert Charles Alexander, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, January 2022

Book Details

Publisher: DMP (February 5, 2022)

Pages: 200 pages

Illustrations: 240 (B&W and Colour)

Language: English

Type: History

ISBN-13: 978-1-7399493-0-3

DORA MEDIA PRODUCTIONS

Newport Arch, Lincoln: A Pictorial History

About the Book

Newport Arch, Lincoln: A Pictorial History

Book Details