Monument Type(s):

• TOWN DEFENCES (13th century to 16th century - 1216 AD? to 1540 AD?)

Summary

Initially the town defences comprised a moat and a timber stockade built between 1216 and 1223. From 1220 the town received a number of murage grants and the stone defences date from this period. The walls had five main gates built between 1256 and 1264. By the the 1540s the walls were "all in ruin".

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA402 - 1978 visit to the excavation of the foundations of the new Library, Listley Street
• ESA403 - 1979 field observation by the Ordnance Survey
• ESA4882 - 2000 evaluation of land to rear of 62/63 High Street, Bridgnorth by SCCAS
• ESA4885 - 2000 evaluation of land adjacent to 43 Listley Street, Bridgnorth by SCCAS
• ESA4900 - 1998 evaluation in advance of proposed development of land off Northgate and Whitburn Street by SCCAS
• ESA4965 - 1998 WB on construction work in Moat Street, Bridgnorth by SCCAS
• ESA5464 - 1995 assessment of the route of the proposed Whitburn Street relief road, by SCCAS
• ESA6134 - 2007 Desk-based Assessment of Sainsbury's Supermarket site, The Smithfield, Bridgnorth by Worcestershire Archaeological Services (Ref: 3079)
• ESA6860 - 2012 WB at 63A High Street, Bridgnorth by L-P : Archaeology
• ESA6859 - 2012 trial trenching at 63A High Street, Bridgnorth by L-P : Archaeology
• ESA6570 - Pre 1989 Survey of Bridgnorth historic town development by T R Slater
• ESA8213 - 2016 DBA of land at Listley Street, Bridgnorth by CFA Archaeology (Ref: 17/01486/FUL)
• ESA8214 - 2016 Trial trench on land off Listley Street, Bridgnorth, Shropshire by CFA Archaeology (Ref: 17/01486/FUL)
• ESA8954 - 2019 WB on land adjacent to 45 Listley Street, Bridgnorth by Nigel Baker (Ref: 19/00390/DIS)

Description

In c1540 John Leland notes on Bridgnorth "it hath bene strongly waulled, but the waulls of it be now all in ruin. There be 4 gates in the waulles. There is a dyke for the waulles savynge where the Severne is nighe". <2>

The initial town defences were timber, licence for which were granted between 1216 and 1223. <3>

The walls are shown in a fragmentary state on a map of the C17?. It is clear from the map that the walls only survived west of the High St at that time. Possibly there were no defences on the steep eastern side. The relationship of the castle defences to those of the borough is obscure, the crucial junction lying at SO71599301 under the present Post Office, (built 1901). See <2>. <4>

Replacement in stone was probably a piecemeal process later in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Murage grants were made in C13 to C15. Gates 1256-56. <5>

During the construction of the New Market Buildings (PRN 17292) in the 19th century workmen had to dig down 33 feet before hitting solid rock. <7>

[ESA402:1978 Visit to] Length of wall west of Listley Gate (PRN 00376) . No evidence for wall structure seen when digging the foundations for the new library. Site foreman reported the existence of 3 cellars ( one at the east end of the site and two at the west). The foundations of the new building were laid on the cellar floors. <10>

The first defences may have been earthen and timber but from the early 13th century stone walls were built. A murage grant was given in 1220. <13>

Duplicated by the Central Marches Historic Towns Survey as PRN 05629.->

-> There were five medieval gates in the town walls (PRNs 00375, 00380, 00379, 00378, 00376). The defences included a ditch at least at the northern end of the town (see PRN 05605). It would seem that they [the workmen in Source <7>] had hit the ditch between the castle walls and the town walls. The ditch would have had a drawbridge with the castle gate (PRN 00422) to the S, and the town gate (PRN 00377) to the N. An interpretation of the defensive circuit is shown in Bond [<16>] but the actual circuit is not absolutely certain particularly on the eastern side. This component [viz PRN 05629] in this area has been drawn using the 65m contour which marks the height of the defences of the castle. The stretch of wall (PRN 00372) found during construction of the Post Office building is part of the castle defences and the line extrapolated from this and shown on the O.S. map is probably false, therefore. 19th Century plot boundaries suggest that the defences to the north carried on down towards the river but it is not clear how this relates to walls on the east edge of the promontary. <15>

Bond's interpretation referred to above. <16>

CMHTS Report:-
The first defences of the town were a moat and timber stockade built between 1216 and 1223. [<7>]. From 1220 the town received a number of murage grants [<13>] and the stone defences date from this period. The defences included a ditch except on the eastern edge of the town where the steep slopes down to the river made this unnecessary. The defences had five main gates built between 1256 and 1264: Northgate (PRN 00379), Whitburn gate (PRN 00380), Hungary/St Mary's Gate (PRN 00375), Listley Gate at the top of Railway Street (PRN 00376) and Cow Gate at the top of Cartway (PRN 00378). The town defences were separated from those of the castle by a deep moat in the area of the Victorian Market buildings. Barrier Gate (PRN 00377) stood on the north side of this moat and was joined to the north gate of the castle by a drawbridge.
A few fragments of the town walls survive and the line in some places is reflected in later property boundaries. The line of the defences has been postulated by a number of authors (Bond [<16>] and Slater [<17>, <18>]), but on the eastern side in particular the line of the circuit cannot exactly be located. . . . Murage grants continued to be given until the 15th century [<3>], but by the mid 16th century the town walls "are all in ruins".[<19>] <20>

An archaeological evaluation was carried out in 2000 on a plot of land to the rear of 62/63 High Street, Bridgnorth. Desk-top research indicated that the line of the town wall, built in the 13th century, ran across the study area, but probably lay to the east of the proposed new houses. No features associated with the town wall were identified in the evaluation trenches, which lay to the west of its projected line. <21>

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken in advance of a new residential development on a plot of land on Listley Street, Bridgnorth in 2000. The line of medieval town defences were thought to run across the northeastern edge of the site. A single evaluation trench was excavated. No trace of the town defences were seen in the evaluation trench. The documentary sources suggest that the study area has always been open ground, just outside the line of the town defences, used in the post-medieval and perhaps the medieval period as a tenter yard, and from the 19th century onwards used as yards and gardens associated with the row of cottages on the southeast side of Listley Street. The very steep slope to the west of the study area would account for the absence of a ditch around the outside of the town wall in this section of the town defences. <22>

Desk-based assessment report. <23>

An evaluation was undertaken on land off Northgate and Whitburn Street, in connection with proposals for a new retail development and associated new road. The report includes an edited version of the historical summary compiled for the 1995 desk-based assessment for the line of the proposed Whitburn relief road [<23>] with additional comments. The evaluation consisted of four trial trenches, excavated by machine, and then cleaned back by hand. The medieval town defences were seen in both trenches A & B, consisting of a clay rampart, datable from pottery finds to the 13th century, with a ditch set between 3m-5m beyond. Evidence from trench B suggests the ditch was over 8m wide. The rampart shows signs of robbed out stone facing. In trench B a more massive sandstone town wall was built against the northwest outer face of the rampart, surviving to a height of 1.7m, and still visible in the car park surface. No direct dating evidence was found, although it must have been built before the mid 17th century, when rubbish was dumped over the top of the wall, sealing the ditch which had entirely silted up. The wall was partly damaged or collapsed before the 18th century, and in the 18th century a sandstone wall was built on the same alignment. In trench A the top of the rampart lies 0.24m below the present ground surface, and the top of the ditch 1.24m below ground level. In trench B the rampart lies 0.3m below the present ground surface, with the top of the sandstone wall at ground level, and the top of the ditch 1.78m below ground level. There is no reason to suppose that in the areas between these two excavated sections will be any less well preserved. Full scale excavation of the town defences was recommended if disturbance was unavoidable. <24>

Desk-based assessment with additional comments to Philpotts [<23>] and Hannaford [<24>]. <25>

A watching brief was carried out in 1998 on ground reduction associated with the construction of two cottages on a plot of land on Moat Street. Moat Street lies along the supposed course of the town ditch. The only significant archaeological feature seen during the watching brief was the northern or outer edge of the town ditch, which was seen to lie beneath Moat Street. Only the uppermost fills were exposed, and no dateable finds were recovered. The edge of the ditch had been built over in the late 18th or early 19th century, but the ditch is likely to have silted up or been deliberately infilled long before this. <26>

On the east and south side of the town, the 1:500 town map (1884) and 1:2500 OS editions (1883/4 & 1902), plots the "Site of the Town Wall" on an alternative alignment to that recorded by the CMHTS. This alternative allignment has been added to the GIS as a polyline. <27>

A programme of archaeological evaluation was carried out to the rear of 63A High Street in August 2012 on the eastern side of the town. Research indicated that the projected line of the town defences crossed the east end of the site and one trench was positioned to investigate this feature. A second trench was located in the western part of the site to investigate the potential for general archaeological deposits. The eastern trench identified undisturbed Medieval layers overlying natural sand deposits. It was unclear from the trench section whether the layers were fills of the defensive ditch or hillwash following the natural topography of the site. One post Medieval pit was recorded in the western trench. Further work was suggested to investigate the potential ditch in the eastern area of the site, as this area would be impacted by the development. <28>

An archaeological watching brief and investigative trench was carried out on land at the rear of 63A High Street, Bridgnorth, following on from previous evaluation (<28>). The watching brief revealed the deposits in plan and confirmed that the ditch, previously suggested as representing the town ditch, was, actually, post Medieval. The Medieval deposits consisted of hillwash from the top (west) of the site, adjacent to Hightown. They contained domestic refuse including pottery dating to the 13th century which was discarded from the rear of the plots fronting onto High Street.This was overlain by later hillwash containing pottery dating to the late 17th century. A ditch of similar date was recorded running along the eastern boundary of the site. No evidence for a Medieval defensive ditch was found. <29>

A trial trench was excavated on land off Listley Street, Bridgnorth, in 2016 to evaluate whether the line of the town defences ran through this site, as had been postulated in a desk-based assessment (<30>). A single trench was excavated across the development area. The trench failed to reveal any remains associated with the town or Civil War defences. It is postulated that the terraced slope to the south of Listley Street may have formed a defence in its own right in this part of Bridgnorth. <31>

A watching brief was carried out on the groundworks for the construction of two dwellings on the south side of Listley Street, Bridgnorth. The site lies on or adjacent to the the line of the town wall, and had been investigated by trial trenching in 2016 (<31>). This recorded a section of walling underlying the brick boundary wall of the site, which had previously been interpreted by Watkins-Pitchford as part of the town wall (<3>). This wall however, did date to the 18th century and appeared to incorporate material derived from the medieval town wall. Unfortunately, no evidence was recorded to suggest whether the town wall stood on precisely the same line, or somewhere adjacent. <32>

Sources

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