Monument Type(s):

• TOWER (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)
• TOWN WALL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)

Summary

The site of a medieval tower and town wall.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA1992 - 1960 field observation by the Ordnance Survey
• ESA6737 - 2012 Excavation on land off Smithfield Road, Shrewsbury (Premier Inn Site) by SLR Consulting
• ESA7590 - 2015 Conservation management survey of the town walls, Shrewsbury, by SCAS

Description

Built 1220-1252 as part of the protection of the river frontage between St George's Bridge [PRN 01471] and predecessor of the Welsh Bridge) and the castle. Described as a double tower. <1a>

Very little seems to be known of this tower. Blakeway's notes on the defences in the Meadow Place/Smithfield Road area say only that 'the line of the wall followed the banks of the Severn about a third part along the Raven Meadow [south from Garewald's tower], where, when Speed's map was made, it terminated abruptly in two square towers, forming, I presume, a barbican, or outer bulwark to the Castle, and leaving, as far as appears from the map, the meadow quite open to the river. But just at the termination of the old foundations, the swelling of the turf indicates a wall turning up the hill to the Castle Street' [<2>]. This accurately describes what was drawn by Speed, though the accuracy of the latter may be doubted, and it seems likely that, as shown on the Burghley Map of c.1575, there was a tower at the end of the Meadow Place wall (Garewald's, PRN 01446], and another (Gilbert's) at the termination of the short riverside wall [PRN 62527]. The identity of the earthwork seen by Blakeway running south-east from this monument, which coincides with a field boundary on Hitchcock's map of 1832, remains a mystery: it may have been a floodplain dyke rather than a defensive feature. The source of the name 'Gilbert's Tower' has not been established but presumably features in the Bailiff's Accounts (?). Nothing is known of the structure of this monument, and its mapped location is an estimate based on Speed and the 1st edition O.S. The length of wall terminating at this tower seems, however, to have been designed to control movement over Garewald's Ford [PRN 62525], similar in function to the New Work [PRN 01459] further downstream, so this tower may possibly belong to the same late 13th-century campaign as the New Work. <3>

Archaeological investigations were undertaken in January 2012 on a site on Smithfield Road, Shrewsbury ahead of the construction of the Premier Inn hotel. This site lay to the immediate east of the probable site of the tower. A NE-SW linear feature was picked up in GPR survey undertaken to locate services [results not available], reported on in the present report. Trenches 2 and 4 were targeted over this anomaly.->

-> These trenches demonstrated that the site formed part of the floodplain, probably used as meadowland during medieval and post-medieval times, until the 19th century when a concerted effort to raise the level by 2m culminated in construction of Smithfield Cattle Market. Archaeological evidence consisted of tiplines from episodes of dumping, comprising clay, sand and gravel with pebbles, brick fragments, lime mortar, ash, clinker and slate. No evidence for a wall or for Gilbert's Tower (PRN 01457) was recorded, although the location of the tower and the extent of the wall remains largely conjectural. <4>

A conservation management plan was prepared in 2015 for the entire circuit of town walls surrounding Shrewsbury (excluding around Shrewsbury Castle at the NE corner). This provides a general historic overview of the development of the town defences, together with detailed analysis and management recommendations for individual sections (in gazetteer form in volume 2). This tower is identified as 2c. <5>

<00> Shropshire County Council SMR, Site and Monuments Record (SMR) cards, SMR Card for PRN SA 01457 (Card index). SSA20722.

<01a> Davies R E, 1909/ 1912, Town Walls of Shrewsbury, p183 (Article in serial). SSA5571.

<01> Ordnance Survey, 1960, Ordnance Survey Record Card SJ41SE47.15 (Card index). SSA5586.

<02> Blakeway J B, 1905, The Topographical History of Shrewsbury, p256-257 (Article in serial). SSA10571.

<03> Baker Nigel J, UAD Analysis, 18/06/1997 (SMR comment). SSA20432.

<04> Hayes L, 2012, Premier Inn Shrewsbury: archaeological excavation report (Excavation report). SSA24083.

<05> Hannaford Hugh R, 2015, Shrewsbury Town Walls: a conservation management plan (2 volumes), Gazetteer 2c (Management report). SSA28223.

Sources

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.