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Explore Beverley

North Bar guarded the approach to Beverley from the north from Molescroft, along what is now Molescroft Road. As one gets closer to the North Bar the road becomes New Walk and finally North Bar Without.

Going through the Bar, one enters North Bar Within, the address of St Mary's Church. As one passes through the Bar into North Bar Within, and begins to see the much older buildings, the West Front of St Mary's Church comes into view some two hundred yards south from the Bar. The gates of North Bar are still installed and until fairly recently, they used to be closed annually once a year. An army regiment that had the freedom of Beverley then approached, knocked on the doors and demanded to be allowed to enter the town. At some stage the gates could be guarded by the lowering of a portcullis, the slot for which is still clearly visible. Beverley had four main gates or bars to which, in the 15th Century, were added a number of smaller bars and turnstiles. North Bar is the only remaining one of those which formerly guarded the main entrances to the town. It was built in 1409 at what today would seem to be a very small cost. - see the explanation given on the small green plaque mounted on the wall just inside the Bar on its west wall. It has been stated that some 112,300 bricks were used in its construction at a cost of 3s 7d (approx. 18p) a thousand. A bricklayer was paid 6d per day and a labourer 4d per day. The decorative cornice above the entrance was formed by laying a course of bricks diagonally between two projecting courses of bricks. The other three bars, where brick gateways were built to allow the main roads to enter Beverley from the West, South-West and East were at Newbegin Bar, Keldgate (or South Bar), and Norwood Bar, respectively.