York Historic Environment Record

Carriage and pedestrian gates, screen walls, railings and terminal piers forming main gate to Rowntree Park. Early C18; installed at the Terry Avenue entrance in 1954. Screen walls are of brick in stretcher bond with flat stone coping; gates and railings of cast and wrought-iron; terminal piers of Portland stone. Concave curve on plan. Double carriage gates and flanking footgates incorporate scrolled panels and mid rails of arabesques and rinceaux; supporting panel piers and cresting utilise the same motifs.

On each side, low screen walls carry square section railings with pointed finials, ramped up to gates. Rectangular terminal piers, approximately 3.0 metres high, with moulded bases and caps, are surmounted by damaged figures of standing cherubs, now headless.

HISTORICAL NOTE: gates were acquired from an uncertain source and set up at the entrance to Rowntree Park as a Second World War memorial. The Park itself is a First World War memorial.

(An Inventory of the Historical Monuments of the City of York: RCHME: South-west of the Ouse: HMSO: 1972: 58).

Listing NGR: SE6045950621

Derived from English Heritage LB download dated: 22/08/2005

Memorial Gates, Rowntree's Park (60465063), were brought, it is said, from 'Ritchland Park, near Windsor, Berks.', in 1954–5, by Messrs. Rowntree & Co. Ltd. They were set up at the main entrance to Rowntree's Park on its river frontage, as a memorial to the War of 1939–45. They are said to date from 1715 and to have been made by Jean Tijou; they were restored by W. Dowson of Kirbymoorside and erected under the supervision of the York City Engineer. It seems probable that 'Ritchland' is a mistake for Ritchings Park, near Iver, Bucks., where in 1960 only garden features of the former mansion survived (N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England—Buckinghamshire (1960), 177).

The wrought iron gates (Plate 45) are set between square piers of Portland stone bearing stone cherubs and buttressed by oblong projections surmounted by volutes. There are curving sections of railing on each side set on brick dwarf walls coped with stone, leading inwards to the main gates which stand between two smaller gates for pedestrians. The ironwork is painted black with gilt enrichments. There are no features of identification such as monograms or heraldry.

An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in City of York, Volume 3, South west. Originally published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1972. Monument 36.

NMR Information
Gates, screens and piers to the entrance on the east side of Rowntree Park. The gates were probably constructed in circa 1715 for Ritchings Park. They were moved to Rowntree Patk in 1954-55. The gates are of wrought iron with elaborately scrolled overthrow and a pair of subsidiary side gates. Inward curving railings are present at either side of dwarf walls. The stone piers bear stone cherubs.

Full description
(SE 60465062 - sited from HHR map)

1. TERRY AVENUE 5343

Memorial gates, screens and piers at east side of Rowntree's Park fronting road

SE 65 SW 2/279 II*

2. Probably 1715 and the work of Jean Tijou. A fine pair of wrought iron gates with elaborately scrolled overthrow and a pair of subsidiary side gates, all with open-work standards surmounted by
scrollwork. Inward curving railings at either side on brick dwarf walls, terminating at either side with a square stone pier bearing stone cherubs and with buttresses topped with volutes.
(RCHM Vol III, Monument 36).

Sources
1 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest 350 1112 City of York, 24-JUN-1983
2 List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest 1112-1 City of York, 14-MAR-1997
3 Register of parks and gardens of special historic interest in England Published 1984-7, with later amendments English Heritage Part 32 North Yorkshire
4 An inventory of the historical monuments in the City of York. Volume III: south-west of the Ouse
2 copies. 1972 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England 58

613515 Architectural Survey Investigation by RCHME/EH Architectural Survey

BF060319 ROWNTREE PARK MEMORIAL GATES File of material relating to a site or building. This material has not yet been fully catalogued. Copyright, date, and quantity information for this record may be incomplete or inaccurate.

RCHME, 1972, RCHME City of York Volume III South-west of the Ouse (Monograph). SYO64.

NMR, 2019, NMR data (Digital archive). SYO2214.