The Gate Inn was located on the west side of Low Road about thirty yards from the junction with Rylah Hill.  It was most probably a cottage with a thatched roof and may have been semi detached. The Tythe Map of 1849/50 indicates there were two properties by the side of the "road", with a third cottage very close to it but at right angles to the road.

1800. W. Mottershaw was the licensee.

1818.

Monday, 6 April.  Auction by Mr. Shacklock at The Gate public house in Palterton.  The household furniture, brewing vessels etc., the property of Mr W. Mottershaw. Contents of sale: One dozen and half of chairs, four long forms, three round tables, one large oval table, ten good convenient sized barrels, two mash tubs, one gathering tub, one cooler, one good feather bed, two pair of bedsteads, four iron candlesticks, two brass candlesticks, half a dozen knives and forks, four spitoons, a quantity of pots in lots, water kit and tondish, one gallon piggin, four good plated cups, four pewter pints, two ditto half pints, two pewter quarts and two plated half pint measures, a quantity of glasses, pot measures and jugs, cast metal brewing pan, seventy gallons with underworks nearly new, hop sieve, brigs and numerous other effects.  Sale to commence at twelve o'clock. The sale this year indicates Mottershaw was still the licensee but was clearly selling up. The sale shows he has now finished as licensee.  This may not have been the closure of The Gate public house.

1819.	W. Mottershaw was stated to be the only licensee in the village in the Licensed Victuallers records, but this is the last mention of licensed victuallers in the village.

1846.	John Johnson was a licensee.  Could he be at The Gate Inn?  He is not on the 1851 census.  John Spray was the occupier on the Tythe Map. John Edmund Beeley was licensee of the Carpenters Arms so John Spray could have transferred to The Gate Inn sometime between 1842/1846.

1849.	The Tythe Map states John Spray, Owner and occupier of Public House, Shop, Buildings, Yard and Garden.

The site number on this map is 159 and locates the public house, to what is known to locals as Low Road.  This building stood until the middle of the twentieth century and was thatched.

In the adjoining property lived William Spray (no. 158 on the Tithe Map).  He owned and occupied a House, Shop, Buildings, Yard and Garden - 22 perches.

Both John and William Spray were wheelwrights, according to the census, hence both have a shop - a 'workshop'.  John seems to have had his fingers in two pies and ran a public house.  Most certainly this was The Gate Inn.

John Spray had been a publican in Palterton village since 1831.  According to the Trade Directories, he was the licensee of the Carpenters Arms from 1831 to 1842.

1851.	The census reveals there is a William Spray but the house next door is uninhabited - John Spray is not in Palterton village - the 'Gate' is shut!

The Gate Inn

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Created 2 December 2001
Last updated: 1 February 2004