The buildings of Wycombe: The Rupert Gate

Looking like a miniature castle with several towers topped off with battlements and a large central gate flanked on either side by smaller doors the Grade II listed Rupert Gate and lodge is a most impressive structure.

This building has quite a fascinating history to it.

You may be amazed to know that it was originally built as an entrance to the Wycombe Abbey or Loakes Manor as it was known years ago, indeed the building was not originally built on the Marlow Hill at all.

At the end of the 19th Century the Queen Victoria Road that we know today did not exist indeed that stretch of land was actually the drive to Wycombe Abbey and the land where the Abbey Way roundabouts are was all part of the grounds.

The drive to the Abbey ran all the way up to the High Street and on the spot where the Library Gardens are today stood the Rupert Gate.

It was designed in the early 19th Century by James Wyatt as a main gate house to the Abbey and most impressive it was too.

Can you imagine visiting the Abbey and passing through the Rupert Gate then down a long driveway before reaching the main house?

At the end of the 19th Century the town of Wycombe was expanding and a new town centre was planned to be centred around the area at the Eastern end of the High Street.

The land for Queen Victoria Road and the bridge crossing the Wye (by the current police station) was presented to the town by Charles Robert first Earl Carrington in 1901.

To make way for the construction of Queen Victoria Road the Rupert Gate was taken down in 1901 and moved to its current location on the Marlow Hill.

The task of moving the structure was carried out by the well known firm of Wycombe builders associated with Hull, Loosley and Pearce whom I featured on a recent blog.

Today we see the gate standing in the middle of nowhere half way up the hill but back then it was positioned at the entrance to Daws Hill farm which was also owned by the Carringtons.

I have included a link to the Sharing Wycombe's Old Photographs (SWOP) site showing the Rupert Gate in situ at the end of the High Street.

Look at the old picture then look at the gates as we seem today. It looks to me as if the entire structure has been reversed.

Could the old picture on the SWOP site have been scanned in back to front or were the gates deliberately reversed to make the structure look more impressive to those coming up the hill?

Wouldn't it look magnificent if the gates and lodge were still in situ at the end of the High Street? They would certainly add an air of grandeur to the town centre.

What do you think?

SWOP: The Rupert Gate at the end of Wycombe High Street: http://apps.buckscc.gov.uk/projects/swop/swop.asp?page=singleRecordFromSimpleSearch&id=11705

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