Cripplegate

Cripplegate

One of the City Gates in the north wall of the City leading into Fore Street. In Cripplegate Ward.

Earliest mention: "Cripelesgate." "Ciryclegate." "Cirpilegate" in "De Institutis Lundonie," Laws of Ethelred, c. 978–1016 (Thorpe, I. 301). "Crepelesgate" in charter of Wm. I. 1068 (Reg. St. Martin's le Grand, Westm. Abbey MSS.).

There are one or two transcripts of this charter in the Register, in Anglo-Saxon and in Latin, in one it is described as "posterulam que dicitur Crepelesgate"; as though it were one of the smaller gates or posterns.

Stow says it is mentioned in a history of the King of the East Angles by Abbo Floriacensis and by Burchard, who say it was so called of cripples begging there. It has not been possible to verify the reference, out of the histories of King Edmond, consulted for the purpose, but in the Liber St. Bartilmew in British Museum, MS. Cott. Vesp. B. ix. f. 15, a MS. of the 12th century, the gate is described as "porta civitatis que lingua anglorum 'crepelesgate' latine vero porta contractorum vocatur."

Later forms of name: "Crepelegate" (Hen. II.) (Anc. Deeds, A. 2011). "Cruppelgate," 1272–3 (Ct. H.W. I. 14). "Crepelgate," 3 Ed. I. (Rot. Hund. I. 403).

Stow says it was rebuilt 1244 and again in 1491 (S. 34 and III), and in 1336–7 pieces of wood from the Guildhall were made use of for its repair (Cal. L. Bk. E. p. 120) and (Cal. L. Bk. F. p. 15).

The Custody of Cripplegate was committed to Chepe, Crepelgate and Bassieshaw Wards (Cal. L. Bk. D. p. 212).

Repaired 1663 (Strype, ed. 1720, I. i. 18). Taken down 1760–1 (Miller, p. 21).

The materials of the gate were sold before the Committee of Lands to Mr. Blagden, a carpenter in Coleman Street for £91 in July, 1760, and the purchaser was to begin to pull it down on the 1st September following, and to clear away the materials within two months (N. and Q. 5th S. IX. 19, and Denton, p. 84).

A fragment of the old gate remained for some time in the yard of the White Horse Inn (ib. p. 81).

The derivation before mentioned "from cripples begging there," is quite discredited by Mr. Denton in his Records of St. Giles, Cripplegate. He says it is an impossible derivation, on the ground, first, that though it must have taken a considerable time for the habit of begging at the postern here to have been so common as to originate the name Cripplegate, yet we do not find that the gate ever had any other name; and, secondly, that we do not read that cripples begged here more than at other gates. Neither of these reasons are conclusive against the name, as in the first place, it is more probable that in those days a name would gradually attach itself to a gate in consequence of some distinguishing circumstance than that the gate should be formally christened at the time of its erection; and, in the second place, we cannot expect to "read" of every circumstance connected with the early life of the City. For example, we do not read of anything which gave rise to such names as "Algate," "Walbrook," "Matfelon," but we do not therefore infer that their names have no meaning. It must not be forgotten that St. Giles is always regarded as the patron saint of cripples and beggars, and that they might well choose Cripplegate for that reason, as being near to the Church of St. Giles. Mr. Denton suggests that, as Cripplegate led to the Barbican, there must have been a road thither which ran between two walls, and that such a road would be called in the language of fortification "a covered way"; and that the name for this in Anglo-Saxon would be "crepel" = "burrow" and "geat" = "gate" or "way." Mr. Loftie (in N. and Q. 8th S. XII. 161) boldly says that Cripplegate in A.S. means "a covered way"; this covered way led to the Barbican, but he does not give his authority for either of these statements. Bosworth and Toller give "crepel" and "crypele" in the sense of "burrow," but not in the modern sense of "cripple," while the N.E.D. gives only one early instance of the use of the word "cripple." Halliwell gives "cripple-gap" in the sense of a hole in the wall for sheep to pass through, and the N.E.D. gives an instance of "Cripple" used in the same sense in 1648.

Colonel Prideaux further points out (N. and Q. 9th S. I. 2) that the "cripples" theory would require the genitive plural in A.S., which would give some such form as "crypelra-geat," while the covered way theory would give "crypel-geat," and that both these forms are inconsistent with that in which the word is first found, viz."Cripelesgate," which occurs in the Institutes of Ethelred (Thorpe's Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, p. 127), and in the Charter of William the Conqueror, quoted above. He therefore falls back on the supposition that the name is derived from a person of the name of "Cripel." He does not, however, say where he has met with the name, which is not in Searle's "Onomasticon Anglo Saxonicum." It must also be borne in mind that the Institutes are printed from late 12th-century and 13th-century texts, and that one MS. has "Cirwilegate," which, though obviously corrupt, points to an original without the "s".

It is of interest to note that there was a postern in the wall of Shrewsbury, formerly named "Crepulgate," and Colonel Prideaux says it was connected with the Severn by a narrow passage or "lode" (A.S. "laed") called "Crepul-lode."

Mr. Kingsford suggests (in his ed. Stow, II. 275) that "cripple" connected with O.E. "crepel," "a burrow," would mean the "sunk" or "covered" or perhaps the "narrow (cramped)" gate.

It seems most probable that the name was "Crepelesgate," from the A.S. "crepel" = “burrow," or "crypele" = "a den," a "burrow," of which the genitive form is "crypeles," and that the name denoted a "narrow, underground passage or covered way," to which access was obtained through this gate.

Cripplegate, one of the City gates towards the north. It stood about 1030 feet west of Moorgate.

The next is the postern of Cripplegate, so called long before the Conquest. ... A place, saith mine author (Abbo Floriacensis), so called of cripples begging there. ... More I read that Alfune built the parish church of St. Giles, nigh a gate of the City, called Porta Contractorum, or Cripplegate, about the year 1099.—Stow, p. 13.

Ben Jonson, in Every Man Out of his Humour, points to another traditional origin of the name—that the founder was a cripple. "As lame as Vulcan, or the founder of Cripplegate." Both of these etymologies are equally absurd, but a good one was proposed by the Rev. W. Denton in his Records of St. Giles's, Cripplegate (1883):—

Cripplegate was a postern-gate leading to the Barbican while this watch-tower in advance of the City walls was fortified. The road between the postern and the burgh-kenning ran necessarily between two low walls—most likely of earth—which formed what in fortification would be described as a covered way. The name in Anglo-Saxon would be crepel, cryfele, or crypele, a den or passage under ground, a burrow (meatus subterraneus), and geat, a gate, street, or way (O. Sax. gat, a hole; German gasse, a thoroughfare, narrow road). This is confirmed by the occurrence of the name in Domesday, where in the Wiltshire portion we read, " To Wansdyke, thence forth by the dyke to Crypelgeat." This place, a correspondent tells me, is now called Rainscomb, and "is in a hollow or combe surrounded by hills" (see Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici, vol. v. p. 2l), a hollow way, or what, if artificial, would be known as a covered way.

From Heywood we may gather that the postern-gate creaked on its hinges: "It must ope with far less noise than Cripplegate, or your plot's dashed."¹ The dwelling-house over the gate was granted in 1375 to Jonn Wallington, common crier.—Riley's Memorials, p. 387. Cripplegate was sold, July 1760, before the Committee of Lands, to Mr. Blagden, carpenter, of Coleman Street, for £91, "the purchaser to begin to pull it down on the first day of September, and to clear away all the rubbish, etc., in two months from that day."

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¹ Heywood's Woman Killed with Kindness, 1607 (Shakespeare Society ed. p. 142).</section